Sue & Hartley Heaton

Return to Zambia - September 2003

This is an account of our return, after 25 years, to where we were brought up - Zambia. Apart from a very brief return in 1998 this was the first time we had set foot on Zambian soil since we climbed aboard an aircraft at Lusaka International Airport on the 4th May 1978.

For a number of years we had been promising ourselves a return to Lusaka but somehow had never managed to make it as there always seemed to be somewhere else in the world to visit.

As a result of finding the Northern Rhodesia / Zambian website The Great North Road our interest in Zambia was boosted and then it was announced that there would be a reunion in Zambia. We decided there and then that we were going to attend.

And so it came round that on the at about midday on the 26th September 2003 we set foot on Zambian soil again.

The article plots our time in Zambia from the reunion in Livingstone through to our stay in Lusaka. The story, wherever appropriate, is supported by photographs but we have added a vast number of photos in the Photo Album.

We hope that you enjoy the experience of reading this article as much as we enjoyed the return to the wonderful country - Zambia.

Livingstone

We arrived at Livingstone airport after a short flight from Johannesburg having arrived there from the UK the previous day. Once we cleared Immigration, which was a no problem at all, we were greeted by a representative of the hotel waiting to whisk us off to the Zambezi Sun. We had a short wait while clearance was given to another couple from our flight, we then boarded the minibus for the 15/20 minute trip to the hotel.

Zambezi River Sun Hotel

On arriving at the 3 star Zambezi Sun we were informed that there no rooms for us so we had been upgraded to the 5 star Royal Livingstone hotel next door. We didn't object one little bit.

While we waited for transport to take us over to the Royal Livingstone we were served with a welcome drink, non alcoholic of course! It was here that I was reminded for the first time of the pleasantness of the Zambian people.

The Zambezi Sun Hotel has been built on the site of the old Intercontinental Hotel. I understand that the original hotel was demolished and the new hotel built in it's place.

In the centre of the hotel between the entrance and the rooms is a superb swimming pool with the bar and band stand on the opposite side to the reception buildings.

While we were there the hotel was playing host to the 'World's Strongest Man' and World's Strongest Women' competitions.

Although we didn't get the opportunity to view the rooms at the Zambezi Sun, certainly from the reception and pool areas it looked to be an excellent place to stay.

Royal Livingstone Hotel

After a short wait the minibus turned up to take us to the Royal Livingstone. Walking into the reception area we were asked to accompany the receptionist to the lounge area where the registration was done in comfort, while sipping on a tall glass of iced tea. The start of the 5 start treatment.

Having registered we were taken to the front hotel where we were introduce to out butler and the driver of one of the elongated golf carts that were there to transport us between our rooms and reception. Question? what do you do with a butler? can anyone suggest what their function would be?

For those who knew Livingstone from the past and had visited the Falls the Royal Livingstone has been built up river from the falls around about the position of where the Falls Restaurant used to be. The hotel is made up of the main reception area, including dining room, lounge, bar etc, and a number of separate buildings each containing about 8 rooms. The reception is set back from the river and is about central in the complex with the rooms also set back on both sides.

It seems to me that great care was taken when building the hotel so that as many of the trees that are growing along the river were disturbed as little as possible. Between the rooms and the electric fence, that separates the residents from the river, is a lush lawn, one of the broad leaf African grasses that seem to survive even under the trees. A walk towards the river, from the reception, will take you past the swimming pool and on to the deck that partially protrudes over the river where you can sit, have a drink and watch the Zambezi as it flows past on its way to the falls. Whilst trying to take it all in on the Friday evening two elephants wandered down to the waters edge and waded out into the middle of the channel. Sitting gazing at the scene, the mighty Zambezi, Hippos in the foreground, Elephants in the distance all with a backdrop of the spray from the falls, I was in heaven. The Saturday afternoon saw us sitting in the same place, sipping Margaritas enjoying life.

On Friday afternoon, at about 4pm, we were collected by the courtesy couch and taken to the jetty where the African Queen was tied up awaiting out embarkation for a cruise up the Zambezi which was to be followed by dinner. This was the start of the 'Livingstone Lark' and we were joined by about 40 people from all over the world with one thing in common, our love for a country where we had all lived at some time in our life and for many getting back for the first time. I am now going to admit that I do not know where we went on the cruise. Being with people with like ideas meant that a great deal of talking took place and with the beer flowing freely the actual cruise went by in a flash. Before long the sun had set and we were tied up at the jetty, the cruise was over.

In preparation for the evening we were shepherded up stairs to the bar where we spent the time while the tables on the lower deck were laid ready for the evening meal. After the meal the band started playing and the dancing began. This was one of those nights when everything was so perfect that the time just flew past and before we knew it the clock had struck one am and it was time to make our way home. Our thanks go to Kevin who made sure that we got back to our hotel.

Saturday was spent sight seeing. This started with a walk from the Royal Livingstone to the Zambezi Sun and then on to the Falls. As expected the Falls did not have a great deal of water flowing over them, being right at the end of the dry season the Zambezi was just about at it's lowest. We did the walk over the Knife Edge Bridge and along the edge of the falls as far as the paths go.

Most of the rest of the day was spent lazing around the Zambezi Sun Hotel watching the 'World Strongest Women' competition.

We then went back to the Royal Livingstone and sat out on the deck, that overlooks the river, and had a couple of margaritas while the sun slowly settled into the west. Before we knew it we were having to go and get ready for the evening braai at the Maramba River Lodge.

Maramba River Lodge

We organised a couple of taxis to take us to the Maramba Lodge, arriving there about 5:30 in the evening. Heather had obviously been working hard all day as the braai area was set up with tables and chairs and of course the necessary braais. This was another one of those disappearing nights, it hardly seemed like we had arrived when it was time to go home. (I am beginning to think that the beer may have something to do with the disappearing nights)

Heather had hired the same band that had played on the African Queen the previous evening. Throughout the evening we were entertained with them playing a selection of reggae and rock ranging from Bob Marley to Dire Straits. The beer flowed freely and the food provided was phenomenal.

Trying to write this a number weeks later has made me realise that perhaps I did have a few as I don't remember the whole of the evening. Sufficient to say that it was truly enjoyable. Compared to the previous night it was rather subdued, not sure if this was as a result of the boat trip, too much to drink the night before, or more likely due to us knowing that it was our last evening together before we all went our separate ways.

The next morning it was off to the airport heading for Lusaka.

The trip to Lusaka was entertaining in itself. We did the flight in a 12 seater, single engine Cessna Caravan. It was a great flight, all be it just over an hour at 13,500 feet above the Zambian Bush. The flight allowed a great view of the city of Lusaka as we flew parallel to the Kafue road and then across the city and up the Great East Road to the International Airport. We were looking at the video of the approach, that Sue took, and have found that we could identify a number of landmarks as we went over them.

Lusaka

Our arrival at the Lusaka International Airport brought back memories of the 4th May 1978 when we waved farewell to the airport and Lusaka. My observations relate to changes to Lusaka that we noticed since we left.

In general terms the airport has not changed or that is to say that I could not spot any differences. We taxied up to the terminal and disembarked going through to the baggage hall to collect out cases. One of the quickest I have ever done, I think that the baggage beat us into the hall.

On walking onto the main building there was the car hire company rep with my name on a sheet of paper waiting to take us to the transport for the week. We filled in all the necessary forms and within 15 minutes had the car loaded ready to head on towards Lusaka.

The front of the airport has hardly changed and I don't think the road between the airport and the Great East Road has changed since it was first built.

This brought us to the Great East Road (GER) itself, here the changes were enormous. At the intersection of the airport road and GER there is now a roundabout. We were to discover that there were also roundabouts at a number of other major junctions along the GER. The first thing is that the road in now a dual carriageway which goes all the way into Lusaka and crosses the railway line over a bridge that is very much like those that are on Church Road and Independence Avenue. It was a tentative drive into Lusaka and to be honest was one of the only times that I was unsure of where we where at all times. This was because when we left there were large 'gaps' of open ground that have now been taken up with buildings. I still had pictures in my head of the undulations and curves in the road that identified your position, these are no longer the same so I was not always able to readily work out our position.

The road all the way from the Airport to Lusaka is in excellent condition, absolutely smooth and pleasure to drive on. This applies in general to all the roads around Lusaka. We came across two exceptions to this, one being the road past where my folks used to live and the other being the Great North Road just north of Lusaka. Having said this the Great North Road was in the process of being rebuilt into a dual carriageway all the way out to the Independence Stadium. By the time I got round to writing this it has probably been completed.

Once we got to the bottom of Addis Abba Drive (Cecil Rhodes Drive), although there are major changes to the buildings on either side of the road, I felt more at home and was able to identify our position more accurately.

Our first trip into Lusaka only took us as far as the North End roundabout from where we headed out to our hotel for the week, Protea Lusaka Safari Lodge.

We did a number of trips into Lusaka and whilst there has been a great deal of development the general layout of the city remained the same. Only once were we unsure of our position and this was going into Roma from the Great East Road. This we felt had changed considerably.

The most noticeable change overall are the high walls around most residences that give a feeling of claustrophobia but as I think I have said elsewhere the growth in the trees also serve to give you a feeling of being closed in.

We did not stop in the town centre, not because we felt in any way not able to do so, just because we had no reason to do so. My first impressions of Lusaka was that it was mucky and needed a good general clean. Having looked at the video we took while driving around I don't think it is as bad as I first thought. Yes there is a lot of litter lying along the sides of the roads, yes the sides of the road are bare of grass, yes the taxis do not give a good impression of driving standards or road safety, yes the government schools are a mess, yes the clubs we frequented have gone down hill but overall we were surprised, pleasantly surprised at the general state of the Capital City.

Would we go back to Lusaka to live? I am not one to say 'never' but in this case I think I have to.

Would we go back to Lusaka on a visit? Without doubt we will be back there in the not too distant future.

Lusaka Safari Lodge

The Lusaka Safari Lodge is situated about 35 kilometres north of Lusaka and then 10 kilometres into the bush. It occupies a 12 square kilometre ex dairy farm that has been changed into a private game farm. For those who may have known the farms in the area it was previously called Mutendere Farm.

The 10k drive into the bush was all along dirt road and I found something that I didn't know I had missed since leaving Africa. Being involved in rallying when I lived in Lusaka, we spent a lot of time tearing around on dirt roads around the country and getting back onto this type of road was great fun; brought back many memories.

The entrance to the hotel is a left turn off the main dirt road. You are checked through a set of gates, but the hotel is nowhere to be seen, it is still 4 kilometres away. This was the start of a slow game drive through the 'Hotel Grounds' where the Zebra, Puku, Waterbuck and Hartebeest were roaming around in an area of burnt grassland. In the grounds there are also Eland, Sable, Impala, Bushbuck and a number of other Zambian species.

One thing that was very noticeable was that the trees have been cut down outside privately owned lands and presumably converted into charcoal. Driving to the hotel the right hand side of the main dirt road was just open ground whilst the left hand side, which was fenced off and obviously privately owned, was a flourishing woodland. The land on the right was what can only be described as scrub land as most of the trees had been removed. On a couple of occasions as we drove past people were there removing the few remaining trees. This seemed to be the case where ever we travelled, privately owned land protected against tree clearance, elsewhere hardly any trees of significance left standing.

We drove into the hotel itself to be confronted with a number of large thatched buildings that turned out to be the reception, dining room, bar and a the conference rooms. Standing in one of the flower beds was a Kudu, happily browsing on the shrubbery. Checking in was a delight, once again I was reminded of how polite the Zambian people are, and in no time at all we were off to our room.

The rooms are individual chalets which have a bathroom off the corridor just inside the entrance. At the end of the corridor is a large room that is split between a bedroom and lounge, the lounge being at a slightly lower level.

We discovered that there were a great number of different animals that came onto the lawn to graze and a few spent most of their time in and around the chalets. With a first class kitchen I would not hesitate in recommending this hotel to anyone who is visiting Lusaka.

Lusaka Schools

While in Lusaka we took the opportunity to visit the various schools that we attended or had some association with. Feelings were very mixed with memories brought back of a life that has gone before. I have to say that I was saddened by the state of the government schools. They all appeared to be in a state of disrepair, if I remember correctly, I felt that they probably hadn't seen a lick of paint since I was last there 35 to 40 years ago.

Northmead

I will start with Northmead as this was my junior school that I went to when it first opened in 1958. The school originally started in a couple of classrooms at the back of the Boys School when the Boys School was where the Boma was built on Church Road just out of town. I am not sure what number pupil I was but it was in the first half dozen.

The school was moved to it's present position not long after and it grew to a have I think about 300 pupils. Today there are in the region of 2000.

We drove down the road to the school and the first thing that struck me was, like everywhere, the 8 foot wall that surrounded the school. The 'in' and 'out' driveways were still there but once inside the grounds things had changed. The sports grounds are now at the back of the school rather than to the side, the large wild fig tree that was over to the left is no longer there, however, a couple of very large trees now stand at the edge of the driveway. The open area between the classrooms and the offices, where the school photos in the photo gallery were taken, has been closed in and is now the staff room.

I stopped the car to take a couple of photos and was approached by a lady who asked what we were up to. She turned out to be the Deputy Head and after explaining that I was an ex pupil we were given the red carpet treatment.

Looking around there has been a lot of development since I left, extra classrooms have been built, but in general terms the layout is the same. It is just the condition that was difficult to come to grips with; it was a mess.

We were taken to meet the Head Master who was fairly open about the lack of funds for the upkeep of the school. I expect that this applies to all the government schools.

Kabulonga Schools (Gilbert and Jean Rennie)

While I had no great love for my senior school I did want to visit it to see what had happened to it over the years. Like Northmead it is a mess. After seeing the school I had in mind that there was hardly a window with a pane of glass intact but having reviewed the photos and the video this is not actually the case, there is some glass in some of the windows.

We drove into both the boys and girls schools but I only photographed the Boys School. Mind you, even now you would only have been able to tell the difference by the sex of the pupils. We drove around to the back of the boys school and along to the metalwork room. The major noticeable change was that gaps between the hall and the labs and at the other side of the double story building have been walled off. Other than this there are no major changes.

It seems that the swimming pool that was built between the two schools no longer exists.