EAST AFRICA
A long journey through Africa will leave an indelible mark on you. In 2016, Toast Coetzer spent three months exploring Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda and the DRC. This is what he learnt.
Toast Coetzer shares the lessons he learnt on his travels in Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda and the DRC.
1 The real deal starts north of the Zambezi
As South Africans, we see Africa from a unique angle. If you consider south to be the “bottom” of Africa, then we’re sitting down here looking up at the rest of the continent. It’s also easy to forget about the rest of Africa, especially when we get caught up in our own news headlines or the daily hustle to keep the wolf from the door. To get to the business end of Africa, you need to cross rivers. Leaving South Africa you’ll cross the Orange, the Limpopo or maybe the bonedry Molopo. Next goal: the Zambezi. Once you cross the Zambezi, you’ve fallen off the SABC weather map. You’ll need a new bird book as Roberts only covers southern Africa. In the last quarter of 2016, I made this journey north. I’d crossed the Zambezi before, but it always stops me in my tracks. Nowhere in South Africa do we have a river that comes close to it. It’s not a river you can wade or swim through (Crocs! Hippos!) and you can’t drive through in your bakkie. You’ll have to cross at a bridge, or maybe use a pont. Take a moment to consider the magnitude of this river. The water travels about 2 500 km from its source in a lonely corner of Zambia all the way to the Indian Ocean, via a massive, steamy delta. Along the way, it drifts over the floodplains of Barotseland and thunders over the lip of Victoria Falls. Cross the Zambezi and the head shift begins. North of here is the real deal.