weekend in solwezi

this past weekend in’utu and i decided to explore a bit more of zambia. we hoped on a 9 hour bus to northwestern zambia, to a town called solwezi, to visit our friend joe who works up there. the town is in zambia’s copper belt (a prosperous area with a lot of big mines) and is near the democratic republic of congo border. in consulting the trusty bradt guide, we were in fact told to basically avoid solwezi. the only redeeming quality apparently being the shoprite (a grocery store chain) that has in fact burnt down (a surprisingly common occurrence in zambia… usually greedy insurance scams are assumed to be the cause). despite this poor review, we set off on friday for what we were claiming to be our ‘rural african’ experience (despite in’utu growing up in lusaka, she is constantly trying to make claims of her rural experiences).

 

after waking up before five to make it to the bus station on time we arrived in solwezi just after three, making good time actually. we were forced to endure terrible nigerian movies for most of the way, only getting a brief break for a few episodes of prison break. needless to say, we were ready to get away from all the screaming and drama that usually are the main themes in nigerian films (they also generally tend to be over three hours long…). once in solwezi, we went by the market to pick up something for dinner. we decided to be brave and buy dried kapenta (a small fish, kind of like sardines i guess) and make it for dinner with some veggies and rice. it turned out quite well, although the mosi (zambian beer) probably made everything more palatable.

 

on saturday we woke up and went for a hike to the national monument in solwezi. the monument-stone carvings dating the oldest in southern africa- is near a beautiful and freezing cold stream which we spent some time lounging around on rocks. solwezi was very hot, although i did manage to mostly avoid a sunburn. we hung around for awhile, getting quite sleepy and generally feeling rested. so rested in fact, that the hike back out seemed a bit long… until a random taxi pulled out from nowhere and offered us a free ride back into town. we took it and went straight for ice cream… possibly my suggestion. the evening was topped off with drinks at the fancy hotel and a ridiculously overpriced carrot cake. being annoyed, we went back to joe’s house and made amazing pumpkin bread and played the guitar (well not me obviously) until we were tired and very full.

 

my plan to leave lusaka every couple of weeks continues. in a couple of weeks we are planning a canoe safari on the lower zambezi river… hopefully by the time i leave zambia i will be able to claim that i have experienced many of the towns/festivals/pubs/restaurants/natural wonders that it has to offer.