Hiking Zambian Riverlands

Likumbi had told us about this hiking adventure company she facilitated a business development loan for as part of a previous role she held. They were running a hiking trip starting in Lusaka for the weekend that we were there, so we decided to book into it. We booked it and then didn't really do our full research on it.

So, when we found out the previous day that we would have to catch a bus with a 7am sharp departure we had to groan a bit. When we woke up in the morning, we knew we had to eat, but it was a bit late. So, I cooked some of the porridge we still had left over from our camping adventures, stuck two spoons in the pot, grabbed the pot and called a taxi to bring us to the bus stop

We hadn't really any idea of what was awaiting us, but have to admit we were surprised to find a 24 seater bus fully packed with people. The hikes we tend to do are usually done in a more intimate setting. But the group seemed nice enough, and we went off on a 2h bus trip to a river bend with nice surrounding hills and wetlands. Along the way, everyone on the bus was very surprised that the bus didn't get stuck, as the road was in such a way that I definitely would've felt more comfortable in a 4x4 vehicle.

Once we arrived, the owner of the hiking company gave the safety briefing and introduced the team, consisting of many local people from nearby villages. Right after were off to start the trek, Anne I had decided that we would either walk in the very front or the very back of the pack, as the remainder of the group was just being loud and noisy. They had come for a little bit of exercise, while we were definitely more interested in the nature aspect of the hike.

We grabbed either the founder or one of the local guides for stretches of the hike to grill them with questions about the local villages and the nature surrounding us. This was a very enlightening experience, as we learned a little about nature and lots about local life.

The hike itself was classified as very easy, however, the guides had not anticipated that it had been raining a lot, and the usually calm streams had turned into raging streams that needed to be crossed. There were also crossings that's hadn't been there before, or rather had not needed to be crossed. So the entire group had to go through the ritual of taking off shoes, wading knee deep through the streams, waiting a bit until the feet are drier, put on the shoes, and off again to continue the journey. I believe there were supposed to be four easy crossings, and we ended the hike with seven crossings. Due to the heavy rains there was a lot of sediment in the streams which meant that visibility was zero. We couldn't even see our feet when we had water to our shins 🙄

The hike was indeed very easy for the two of us and didn't present any challenge. We did end up having a race against the time towards the end, because some big thunderstorms were moving in. We must've been leading the group at a good pace, because we finished the hike 90min before schedule 😅 Once back at the starting camp, the guides applied some storytelling to explain a bit about local myths and customs to the group, and we pulled the founder aside and gave some hopefully feedback that should be easy enough to implement. For example, Anne and I started picking up plastic from the path, but after just five minutes of walking the bag we had was completely full to the brim with trash. This definitely impacted our experience, and we made some suggestions on how to involve the community in keeping the tracks (and environment in general) clean.

Then it was back into the bus for the 2h ride back. The entire trip back it was raining quite heavily, and I was glad the bus didn't get stuck on the first part of the trip as we were exiting the wetlands and heading back to the main road. The bus dropped us off somewhere in the middle of a traffic jam, we took a taxi home on a tangential road. For dinner, we met with Likumbi at a nearby restaurant.

Fun fact: We had been putting on a lot of sun screen, specifically our arms and necks and backs. Twice throughout the hike. The sun was blasting down for the majority of the day. As soon as we got back home we noticed that both of us were suffering from very very bad sunburns 😔 Maybe the sun screen was too old? Good thing that Anne had a bit of Aloe Vera left!Leer más