Zambia and Botswana

My original plan to leave East Africa had me flying to India from Dar es Salaam, on to Europe and then back to Canada. But a leisurely hour or two online in an internet cafe in Iringa led me to discover it was cheaper to fly to India from Gaborone, Botswana. Nearly $200 cheaper as a matter of fact. Ethiopian Airlines had recently added Gaborone to an already large list of African cities served, and were offering a promotional fare, so I decided I’d fly from there instead. Granted it would cost more than the $200 I was saving to get to Gaborone from Tanzania – hotels, meals, transportation – but it was about as good an excuse as any to visit Botswana, and I’d see Zambia along the way.

As it turned out, I liked Zambia more than Botswana. It’s an interesting, ‘in between” sort of place, not really East Africa and not exactly southern Africa. It’s extremely ethnically diverse with 73 recognized, distinct tribes and a whole bunch of lesser, unrecognized ones; and it’s very beautiful. Tourism at the game parks and natural attractions is a big dollar earner for Zambia, though they’ve adopted the all-expenses-paid fly-in-fly-out tourism strategy targeted at the well-heeled crowd, making it nearly impossible for budget travelers using public transportation to see anything out in the bush. In fact neither Botswana nor Zambia is well set-up for independent travelers and private car ownership appears to be fairly high, so it’s a bit of work getting from place to place. I stuck to a more or less straight trajectory north to south through towns and cities in both countries and traveled by bus.

Kabwe market, Zambia.

To get there I took the TAZARA train from Mbeya (Tanzania) to Kapiri Mposhi (Zambia), the terminus of the passenger route. TAZARA stands for Tanzania-Zambia railway; the train carriages are all Chinese-made, and the Chinese “helped” Tanzania and Zambia improve the old line so they could operate a passenger service (read: China did the whole thing). The train was slow, and we were seven and a half hours late arriving, which by all accounts was a lot better than it often is, Despite that, and despite the dozens of stops we made in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason it was a comfortable journey. I shared my compartment with two Japanese travelers, Yuki (female) and Yuki (male). We drank beer and chatted and watched the countryside slowly unfold from the window.

TAZARA train, Tanzania to Zambia, getting ready to pull out.

At one of the many stops along the way; kids in Zambia.

Dining car, TAZARA train.

I knew almost nothing about Zambia before I arrived, so I had some catching up to do. Luckily the level of English competence is extremely high making it easy and enjoyable speaking with locals. They are very friendly and approachable and mostly everyone was happy to chat. I enjoyed spending time in the towns and small cities. There was nothing special to see or do, but it gave me a chance to observe regular African people going about their daily lives.

Kabwe, Zambia.

Zambia is quite developed, miles ahead of Uganda and Tanzania (Botswana proved to be even more developed – by far). There are chain restaurants including Nandos and Subway, and chain supermarkets like Shoprite and SPAR. The roads are tidy and cars park in actual parking spaces. There are street lights and well-lit shopfronts and sidewalks.

Well-stocked supermarket in Choma, Zambia.

Main drag, Choma, Zambia.

I took a fairly direct route south through Zambia. I stayed nights in Kabwe, Lusaka, Choma and Livingstone before crossing the river into Botswana. There were a few white faces in Livingstone as it’s the Zambian entry point to Victoria Falls, but otherwise I didn’t notice any western travelers at all in any of the places I stayed. Apart from the capital Lusaka, which is massive, sprawling, crowded and fairly unpleasant, all the towns I visited and passed through were small and quiet. People were curious and friendly, and I spent most days going on long walks in and out of towns. I ate a Subway sandwich!

I’d definitely go back to Zambia. It’s not as adventurous or thrilling as some of the other African countries, but it’s very calm somehow, and picturesque and unassuming with lovely people and pleasant African towns.

Dr. Orisha ready to help Zambians with business, stolen money, and their manhood.

Botswana and Zambia share a border only 750 meters across, separated by the Zambezi River. Two rickety (and noisy) flatbed ferries cross back and forth throughout the day lugging vehicles and pedestrians the ten short minutes to the other side.

Local meal in Zambia: stewed beef, greens, cabbage and “pap”, steamed cornmeal porridge (it’s good and filling!)

Botswana is both wonderful and disappointing. On the one hand it’s very well developed, surprisingly so. I’ve not been to South Africa, but everyone tells me the two countries are developed to a comparable standard. There’s an excellent transportation infrastructure, countless private vehicles and large truck traffic, highways, shopping malls, smart office towers and well-stocked shops.

Familiar sights in a mall in Francistown, Botswana.

On the other hand it’s, well, boring. There’s not much going on in the towns and cities, and they don’t offer a lot of local African colour – particularly when coming from such charming and vibrant places as Ghana, Ivory Coast, Uganda and Tanzania. It’s also expensive – not up to Vancouver standards, but far more pricey than any of the other countries I’d been in Africa and comparable to North American and some European standards. It was tough finding any sort of place to stay under $50, and food wasn’t cheap either.

Francistown, Botswana.

Despite all that I did find Botswana very interesting, if not exciting. It’s one of the few success stories in Africa. The country has reinvented itself from an extremely poor, extremely traditional, conservative country to a truly middle-income nation that’s largely democratic, safe, and prosperous. Diamonds are mostly due the credit; Botswana is a world leader in the mining of diamonds contributing around 40% of the government’s total revenue, almost single-handedly transforming the country.

I really liked Francistown in the north, my first stop, with its pleasant green residential neighborhoods and quiet, cozy downtown streets; but the other smaller places I visited – Serowe, Molepolole and Mochudi – were as dull as dishwater despite their lyrical names.

Green vista from the hills near Francistown.

I think one of the reasons is population: it’s a relatively sparsely populated country, and the towns have an almost abandoned feel to them. Their fairly high state of development also plays into it: in other African countries while people are out scrambling to make a living, setting up market stalls and eating street food, the good people of Botswana stay home of an evening and watch the television and eat home-cooked meals with ingredients from the supermarket. It’s good for them (I suppose), but not for the traveler passing through. I found the evenings pretty dull other than a fun night in a bar in Francistown where I was joined by two middle-aged office ladies and we talked about 19th century American explorers Lewis & Clark! They were surprisingly knowledgeable.

Francistown.

I’ve met people who’ve spent time in Botswana in the deserts and game reserves, and by all accounts it’s a fantastic place full of wild beauty and ageless landscapes. It’s essentially impossible getting to any of those places on public transport though, so I didn’t see any of it even though I saw occasional elephants and other wild game on the highways as I passed by. Normally a dust-dry country, everything was beautifully green and soft due to robust seasonal rains, though it was stinking hot. Mild breezes in the evening helped, but the days were scorching.

Town market, Serowe, Botswana (42 degrees that day).

Gaborone easily wins the award for most boring and featureless capital city in the world. Or at least of any of the ones I’ve seen. Botswana has concentrated nearly all its commercial, financial, entertainment and residential activities to the capital but without any sort of rhyme or reason, and with a total lack of charm. Much of Gaborone is new, with countless malls and office districts scattered across an enormous area. The city is organized into “sectors” and “plots” and “extensions” and “blocks” giving the place a bureaucratic feel. The little hotel I stayed at, for instance, was located at “Number 1704, Extension 7, Plot 27280, Block 3”; not exactly simple plugging that into your favorite map app.

The people of Gaborone were very friendly though, and quite chatty. English competency is extremely high so communication was never a problem at all. It’s probably a reliable, safe and convenient place to live if you need to live somewhere in Africa, but compared with Abidjan or Kigali or Dar es Salaam it’s definitely snoozeville (fans of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series may find some additional interest in local landmarks, though curiously no one I asked had ever heard of the books).

Business and government district of Gaborone – much of the city looks like this.

There were no restaurants, bars, cafes or shops within several kilometers of my lodgings in Gaborone, so I spent evenings on the hotel’s little patio drinking beer and eating peanuts I’d bought from an enormous grocery store in a mall a handful of blocks down an arrow-straight hot highway.

Gaborone mall.

I doubt I’ll return to Botswana as a destination in its own right, but I could see myself passing through one day, driving across the Kalahari in my own vehicle and camping in the desert.

Merchants chatting inside covered market, Mochudi, Botswana.

I finally left Africa, flying from Gaborone’s clean but tiny international airport to Mumbai after a stop in Addis Ababa’s dreary airport. A new one is under construction but was sadly incomplete during my short stay, and I whiled the time away walking around the cramped terminal watching people come and go.

Afternoon road, Molepolole, Botswana.

So that’s it –  Ghana, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana done and dusted. All in all it was an excellent trip. I didn’t see Senegal, Sierra Leone or Guinea, as I’d planned, so I’ll have to return. I’m already stealing tentative glances at my maps.

A part of my heart definitely beats for Africa. I love the colour and landscape, and the way a lot of places there feel old and calm. The cities are impossibly messy and chaotic, the countryside bucolic and often achingly beautiful. People carry on despite their challenges, raising their children, working, talking to neighbours and friends, just like everywhere else; but there’s a rhythm in Africa that I like, a pattern to the way people live that agrees with me somehow. It’s hard to put a finger on it, and after two fairly longish trips I’m still not completely sure what it is that appeals so much to me, and what makes it so attractive and irresistible. Although now that I think about it, that just might be the very thing that I find so alluring after all…

Thank you for following my blog!

–  Vancouver, September 12, 2017