Trip to Feira and Luangwa

From Great North Road

Trip to Feira and Luangwa

Luangwa Bridge, Great East Road - 2001.

This is just the bridge over the Luangwa River along the Great East Road. I don't have the full history of it yet, but it was another bridge donated to this country by the Trustees of the Beit family and came from some river in the UK. It suffered some structural damage (overloaded trucks travelling from Malawi during the civil war in Mozambique) which was repaired a few years ago and there is a long story about the bees that had made their home on it - I need to get to the Roads Department to look through their file . And as you can see, the river is very empty but give it a month or two and it will be in full flood.

Hippos, Luangwa River - 2001.

Just some hippos - there are hundreds and hundreds of them - far more than you see further up the river. But I missed a lovely one - a hippo out of the water on a sandbank but the river was very rough and the sun in the wrong place and no time to focus properly before it slid back into the water. But next time.

Hammerkop.

Hammerkop - no explanation required.

A "Sausage Tree" - kigelia africana).

Sausage tree - no explanation required

Katondwe Mission near Feira (Luangwa) - 2001.

Katondwe mission - this is a mission church on the way to Feira - built in 1917 and still in use. Plenty of stories attached to it and a Polish priest (he is definitely not related to Elias - I confirmed this with him) who has been there since 1952 and interested in telling everyone his stories. I will be going up there in the next few months to spend some time with him.

Lower Zambezi Valley from the Great East Road - 2001.

A view of the valley from the Great East Road - not all of our trees have been cut down.

Mpata Gorge, lower Zambezi, rock formations 2001.

Rock formations - These are in the Mpata Gorge and are usually underwater (or mostly under water) but you can see how the water has eroded them over the last few million years years. The geology in this area is fascinating

Contributed by Heather Chalcraft.

November 2001

Some photos - new and old:

Feira.

Feira.

Feira.

Some photos that I took on the way down to Feira. I wasn't going to go all the way down to Feira (or Luangwa as it is now called) but the priest at Katondwe told me about some old graves down there, so I did eventually go all the way down.

Feira Graves.

There are about ten graves down there, which were completely overgrown so I employed two guys to slash the grass. Only two of them have headstones - one dating back to 1907 and the other to 1917. I am contacting the National Heritage Conservation Commission to have it designated as a heritage site and will go down there sometime and get the headstones repaired and perhaps get a fence put around them.

Great East Road.

Great East Road.

Leguaan.

Two pictures taken along the Great East Road and one of a leguaan (how the hell do you spell it). It was a baby and gapped it up the tree when we approached. There was also a fully grown one, but it disappeared too quickly for me to take a photo.

The Luangwa River

Luangwa River.

This is more or less the same photo as the one that was posted on the board in November.

Luangwa River.

Upriver, taken from the bridge

Luangwa River.

Downriver, taken from the bridge

Luangwa River.

Luangwa River.

The same place in the river, photo left taken now and right taken in November last year. The Luangwa River is a soil-carrying river hence the difference in the colour of the water. There are also many logs and bits of trees floating down the river. When I got up there, they told me that the river had really only come up that day - usually it comes up earlier, but we haven't had as much rain as usual this year.

Luangwa bridge.

Luangwa bridge.

Luangwa bridge 10 June 1968 and Luangwa bridge 17th September 1968 - these two photos are from Zambia Information Services. I told you some time ago that the Luangwa Bridge was also called 'Beit Bridge' because it was given to Zambia by the Beit Trust. I wasn't aware that the bridge had collapsed in 1968 and was rebuilt.

A bug.

A bug that somehow landed up on my lap.

Flying ant.

Flying ant

Union Jack.

This photo came from Zambia Information Services, but unfortunately has no information about when or where it was taken, but I scanned it for the Union Jack that was flying.

mini-bus.

On the way back from Feira yesterday, I came across this mini-bus and thought I would show you that the Union Jack still flies here sometimes.

Rufunsa River.

Rufunsa River.

The Rufunsa River where it crosses the road down to Feira.

Contributed by Heather Chalcraft

February 2002