Blogs from Zambia, Africa - page 5

The first harvest of the year is celebrated by the Ngorni people in Eastern Zambia with the festival of Nc'wala. During the colonial period, Nc'wala was prohibited as it was seen as too warlike, but was soon revived after Zambia's independence. The Ngorni people, who descend from the ancient Zulu culture, gather at Mtenguleni village. A sacramental meal is offered to the chief, god and ancestors. There is poetry, drumming, theatre and war dances. The chief tastes the fruits whilst women sing his, gods and the ancestors praises. The chief blesses the fruit and then drinks the blood of a black bull that is speared. The chief then makes his way over a 60 miles back to his palace in a slow motorcade (in the past it would be a walk over a couple of days). ... read more

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Geo: -15.1305, 25.7849 Early Sunday morning was chilly in the still dark of 5AM. I thought about getting up, but it felt almost cold outside of the blankets. So I stayed in the warm bed under the snug duvet for another hour until it became impossible to lie there any longer. During the night I had heard a crashing through the bushes immediately beside my cabin, followed by a large splash into the river --only a few feet away; a hippo had brushed right by! Even though I am usually an avid night-walker in the woods, and routinely use a red cover for my flashlight so as not to disturb wildlife or anyone's night vision, no one at OAT had mentioned bringing along a red cover for our flashlights. So, with only a relatively powerful small ... read more

Geo: -15.1305, 25.7849 Today was a day of travel, using many different modes of transportation. Starting in our now very familiar jeeps, we rode to the dirt airstrip, a single line of dirt road in the middle of the grassy bush, to await our planes --a 12 seater and a 4 seater-- to fly us to Kasane. The first pilot had to circle the airstrip twice because a large parade of elephants was crossing. This is Africa! We wait for elephants to cross the road. Ten of our group plus most of the luggage all crammed into this larger plane; I was sorely disappointed not to fly in the smaller airplane. But it was a lovely flight, 7500 - 8000 feet in altitude for most of the way. It's an hour's flight to Kasane from the ... read more

Hello All! I have now been staying in Livingstone for a week, and tomorrow I will be flying to Johannesburg for the start of my 3rd and final leg of my journey, in South Africa. It's been a brief stop in Zambia but it's brought some of the best highlights of my trip. I arrived at Livingstone Backpackers hostel late Tuesday afternoon and instantly ran into a German backpacker who I had met in Lusaka for one night. He told me that he and a group of 3 Dutch girls, a German-Swiss, and an Irishman were heading straight to Victoria Falls for the evening to see the Lunar Rainbow. Every month, when the Full Moon appears, the moonlight is bright enough to light up the falls and cause a rainbow to appear over the spray. I ... read more