Zambia (the land of rivers) is about the size of Texas with approximately 12 million people. It was a British colony previously known as North Rhodesia that gained its independence in 1964. It is a landlocked country shaped like a butterfly with two large land masses (the wings) positioned north / south pinched in the middle. It has lots of neighbors with Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique on the south, Malawi and Tanzania on the east / north and the Congo DRC and Angola on the west. The currency is the Kwacha (ZMK) and the exchange rate was 3300zmk to the dollar making purchasing decisions an exercise in higher math. Although the dollar, pound, Euro and SA rand are readily accepted. The official language is English and the main industry in Zambia is mining copper and cobalt with tourism now the second most important industry due to Victoria Falls and several large nature reserves with diverse wildlife populations.

The country is heavily forested and is most well know as the location of the spectacular Victoria Falls and the city of Livingstone in the far south. Remember the old movie line “Dr Livingstone I presume” when an American reporter named Stanley came upon the British missionary Dr. David Livingstone in the mid 1800s while trekking across Africa.
Our visit to Zambia took us to Mfuwe in the central part of the country, home to South Luangwa National Park. The view from the plane was mainly green wooded areas with low mountains and winding rivers or dry river beds. Next we visited the Lower Zambezi National Park in the Zambezi River Valley along the mighty Zambezi River which borders Zimbabwe before heading to Victoria Falls.


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