Lusaka to Kigoma: Off the Beaten Path

There is a certain type of independent traveller for whom getting off the beaten path can be a bit of an obsession. While I can certainly sympathize with avoiding other tourists, and seeing things that most people miss out on, I wouldn't say that I was an proponent of this type of travel as an end in itself. Sure you could go to Iowa to avoid all tourists, but you would still be in Iowa. I prefer choosing a place I really like then doing my best to avoid the crowd once I get there. However, on the rare occasions where you can get to somewhere great, AND be the only one there, well, that can be something really special.



Our itinerary to date has been somewhat loose, actually, we've sort of been making it up as we go along. So when we got back to Lusaka from Livingstone, we had to make a decision, east to Malawi or west to Lake Tanganyika. Each route had their pros and cons, but we eventually decided on the "the one less travelled" and headed west. The first leg involved a 14 hour overnight bus from Lusaka to the small port town of Mpulungu (Colleen's favourite African place name to date) on the shores of lake Tanganyika. Our first hint that we were getting off the beaten path was the bus ride itself. Not only were we were the only non-Africans making the trip, the villages and towns we were passed along the way didn't exactly have a riviera feel to them.



Sunset in Mpulungu

The next leg of the journey would involve a 2 day boat ride all the way up lake Tanganyika to Kigoma on the MV Liemba. We had timed our arrival such that we would only have to spend one night in Mpulungu before boarding the boat and heading north. Perfect plan except for the Congolese refugees. It turns out that the UN is in the precess of closing several refugees camps in Zambia and repatriating the refugees back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).. In order to assist in the effort, they commandeered the Liemba. Our overnight stop turned into a 9 day waiting game. Mpulungu was not exactly the kind of place you want to spend a week either. Only one paved road, no internet, dusty, hot as hell, and when we asked the Charity, manager at the lodge we were staying at, if she could recommend any restaurants in town, she said that we should avoid them all due to frequent cholera outbreaks, and that the town also had, in her words, "too much malaria". Cholera outbreaks, too much malaria, and refugees interrupting your travel plans are usually a pretty good sign that you are off the beaten path.

Mpulungu market

All you can do at that point is to make the best of it, and we did. Not having a restaurant to rely on, we cooked for ourselves, which in turn forced us to shop at the local market each day which was quite fun. Being a fishing town fresh fish was always available, we would actually buy it off the fishermen at the shores of the lake. Charity even showed me how to clean the fish myself. While there is no danger of me turning into a world class fish cleaner, the end results were quite tasty. There wasn't any real tourist infrastructure about (another sign of being off the beaten path), but we tried to fill our days with whatever local attractions we could find. We hired a couple of fishermen to boat us across the harbour to a small island for a swim, we hired a car to take us to Kalumbo falls (2nd highest in Africa), and even had a chance to do some snorkeling which was a real highlight for me (lake Tanganyika is full of cichlid fish which are as colourful and beautiful as any I've seen in the Caribbean). Also, as the days went by a few more travellers filtered into town and we had a couple of really nice nights sharing meals, beers and conversation. The funniest moment of the week was when we asked one of the newcomers why he had chosen Mpulungu as a destination, he replied " I like to get off the beaten path" then he thought about it a bit, then added "actually I may have gone a bit far this time." All in all a pleasant stay, but when the boat was ready to go, so were we.

 

The MV Liemba is an old (pre WW I) german warship. Germany used to be the colonial power in East Africa, and the Liemba, formerly the Graff Von Gotzen, was used to patrol the lake. After the war, it was converted to a cargo / passenger vessel that is now basically the only link that villages along the eastern shores of lake Tanganyika have to the outside world. A two day ride on a 100 year old WW I warship - count me in. As if that wasn't enough to hook me, one of my favourite movies of all time is the African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, and the Liemba looks exactly like the ship they were trying to blow up in the movie.

Loading the Liemba

What a journey. There are 19 stops between Mpulungu and Kigoma, and only Mpulungu, Kigoma, and Kasanga had ports. At every other stop, the villagers had to boat out to meet us and load and unload at sea. Quite a spectacle. Imagine four or five wooden boats some with motors, some with only oar power, loaded to the point of overflowing with people, livestock and cargo, racing as fast as they can to catch the Liemba before it stops so they can be the first to unload. The Liemba has two small doors (one each side) about a meter above the water line where the local boats would load and unload. We would watch from the upper deck as the local boats would jostle for position, tie up to the Liemba then unload their cargo. Men and women in their sunday best, children and babies, giant bags of maize and dried fish, chickens, beer, apples, bicycles, a living room set, cooking oil - you name it, all were manhandled through the tiny doors, while some of the heavier loads were hoisted on board by the Liemba's crane. All the while everyone seemed to be shouting at each other and there seemed to be a panicked rush to everything. Absolute pandemonium, I've never seen anything quite like it. The night stops were even more impressive, all of the above, but lit by the moon and the Liemba's dim floodlights.

The Liemba's main deck

We took on so much that by the end of the journey, the decks were overflowing with cargo (mainly dried fish whose smell, after two days at sea, pretty much permeated everything) and passengers trying to get fresh air (most passengers are berthed below the main deck, a pretty grim area that was even worse after a couple of days). We booked first class, so we had a cabin on the main deck and always had a private place to go, but we had to gingerly step over sleeping bodies to get to the bathroom at night. We did have the upper deck mostly to ourselves though, and we would make sure we got together with a few of the other passengers for a sundowner or two consisting of crackling wine (cheap South African version of sparkling wine) and cane and tonic (basically sugarcane moonshine and tonic water - Colleen coined the 'cane and tonic' bit in an effort to keep it classy).

 

So we had a pretty amazing couple of weeks. A taste of African Village life in Mpulungu and a once in a lifetime adventure on Lake Tanganyika. We were way, way off the beaten path, but, thankfully, we were never got anywhere near Iowa.

Anyway, we are in Burundi now (no kidding, we re really in Burundi, but more on that in the next blog), and will leave tomorrow morning for Kigali and our rendez-vous with the mountain gorillas.

Michael

Novotel Hotel

Bujumbura, Burundi