Woolly says – Jo and I had crept out of the Cape Town hostel in the very early hours, a short twenty minute drive later and we were checking in for our onward flight to Zambia. With all of the travel problems that we have faced so far on the journey it was a pleasant surprise that both of our flights arrived and departed on time.
Exiting the plane, we followed the short immigration queue and within ten minutes were being welcomed into Zambia.
Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa. Originally inhabited by Khoisan people, the region was affected by the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. Following European explorers in the 18th century, the British colonised the region into the British protectorates of Barotziland, North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia towards the end of the 19th century. These were merged in 1911 to form Northern Rhodesia. For most of the colonial period, Zambia was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company. It never ceases to amaze me how far the Brits have got in the world.
On 24th October 1964, Zambia became independent of the United Kingdom and prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. Zambia contains abundant natural resources, including minerals, wildlife, forestry, freshwater and arable land.
We arrived at our hostel and were shown to a lovely bunk room with little areas for each person, even better Jo and I had the whole room to ourselves. We sat as the sun went down looking at our plans for the next day.
After a wonderful night’s sleep, we headed onto the streets of Livingstone. Livingstone is a city in Zambia, until 1935 it served as the capital of Northern Rhodesia. Lying 10 km (6 miles) to the north of the Zambezi River, it is a tourism attraction centre for Victoria Falls. Named after David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer and missionary who was the first European to explore the area.
The road was busy with ramshackle vehicles going about their business, the footpaths mainly dust, we were surprised at the number of trees but very grateful for the shade they offered. The town has one major street and a few roads leading off it so even Jo couldn’t get lost as we made our way towards our first stop.
Pausing every now and then to take everything in we passed many churches and a rather battered looking display of animals. Finally reaching the railway line we took the right turn and wandered along an even dustier road, everyone we passed smiled and wished us a good morning, it was lovely to see so many friendly faces.
For many years, Livingstone town was the Railway Capital of a vast region and much of its wealth came from the railways. The railway museum is dedicated to that past and covers its history from the days when the bridge crossed the gorge to the building of the great TanZam railway in the late 1970s, it had steam trains so both of us were happy.
Having paid over our $15 dollars we headed inside. A small room gave us the history of how the railway had started from the Zambezi sawmills which needed the trains to enable them to access wood from further afield, formed in 1916 and grew rapidly during the mill’s life span. Some faded pictures of the locomotives that they used completed the information.
Outside was the original waiting room with a first class carriage parked outside of it, we climbed onboard and admired the carriages and sleeping bunks, far comfier looking than any of the sleeper trains we had taken round India.
Climbing back down the steps I led my human to the first of the loco’s housed under a metal canopy, its front was on the floor in front of it so that we could admire the inside of the huge beast.
Wandering further one we admired the other trains that now lived on the site from a lovely black one, cheerful yellow one, two blue ones and some immense diesel looking ones.
Another carriage stood in disrepair with a large crane on train wheels parked next to it, what looked like a much newer water tower still looked ready to be used. With all of the trains admired we headed into another exhibition.
The Gateway Jewish Museum in Livingstone was opened in 2013. The museum tells the story of the Jews who settled in and around Livingstone, as well as in other major Zambian towns, and reflects on the part they played in the economic, cultural and political development of Northern Rhodesia/Zambia.
There was an immense amount of information to read but it was much cooler than outside as the temperatures were ascending rapidly.
As we took in as much as we could and looked closely at the torah on display we were amazed at how much the Jewish community had contributed to the Zambian nation. Many had been honoured by Queen Elizabeth II for their contributing to the country.
We seemed to have covered everything the combined museums had to offer so headed back down the dusty road hoping to find a taxi.
It was in the 30’s and stupidly neither mammoth nor myself had brought hats with us. A short slightly rip off taxi ride later we alighted at our next port of call.
The Livingstone Museum is the largest and the oldest museum in Zambia, established in 1934 as the David Livingstone Memorial Museum. In 1948, Captain A.W. Whittington offered to sell the two specimens of a fossilized human femur (“Rhodesian man”) to the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum, but the museum could not afford to make the purchase. A new Spanish colonial style building was built to house the artefacts in 1951.
We paid for our tickets which was less than £2.00 GBP and headed into the cool environment inside. Sadly, photographs weren’t allowed but the exhibits if a bit dated in look offered a wealth of information starting with how the first traces of humans had been discovered in Kabwe, Zambia along with the skulls and a lot of bones. No mammoths though. The route led us through the stone age, iron age up to the current point of history including displays about slavery and oppression in the country and those surrounding it.
Having paused for a cold drink break in the small café we entered the section that focussed on Dr David Livingstone and his exploration of Africa and the finding of various lakes and rivers. Lots of photographs of the man and his travelling companions as well as his famous hat and coat, I stood looking at the thick lined jacket he had worn to explore and wondered how he had managed to wear that in the heat as I was struggling with just a bandana!
With the museum done we stepped back into the blazing sunshine and took a few minutes to admire some of the statues and monuments outside including a plane, AF-506 de Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk T.10, a plane used to train the Zambian Air Force.
We set off to see more of the town itself, passing the only skyscraper, a nine story building and the tallest in Livingstone we wandered along trying to keep in the shade as much as possible.
A couple of older buildings lined the road, but most were fairly modern and there was a huge amount of betting shops and lottery outlets.
We arrived at a small market area filled with colourful clothes, jewellery and all sorts of crafted items, the shopkeepers started to swarm round us offering their wares as Jo smiled and politely refused everything thrust in her face.
We’d arrived at the end of the town so having crossed over the busy main street we walked back towards our hostel with the thought of a cold shower for the human and a cold drink for me. Although small I liked the dusty town and its towns folk but wasn’t so keen on the heat.
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