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 Back
on the highway, the power transmission line stanchions stretched to the
horizon in both direction, like frozen soldiers of the industrial era, carrying
electricity to distant homes, farms and factories. These
power
lines that stretch beyond the length of the Caprivi Strip, come from Kariba Dam on the Zambezi ,
600 km to the northeast, and head to the cities of Namibia 1200 km to the
southwest. At Kariba, Zambia and Zimbabwe share the
river, lake and dam. We were told that Namibia buys their power from
the Zambia side of the dam.
 It was good to see that there was also local power
distribution (right). In other places is not unusual to see transmission
lines going overhead and the villages below being off the grid and unserved.
Between Kongola and Duvundu are about 210 kilometers of
not very much besides savannah. At about the midpoint, 110 kilometers from Duvundu is
Chetto, with enough of a concentration of building to pass for a town in
these parts and get its name on some maps. Rather than ride
back-to-back 100-plus kilometers day with not much more to offer than the
very occasional wild animal, we opted to hitch-hike.
Once again there is a gate where vehicles must stop for
inspection so it is not to hard to engage the drivers. Within minutes
of our arrival, an empty bright red tourist bus, with a luggage trail,
pulled up. Perfect! It was deadheading back to Cape Town after
having left its last group of clients in Zambia. To our amazement the
driver was agreeable and said he would take us through the Caprivi Strip.
We popped the bikes in the trailer and clambered onto the bus. I had
the impression that the driver was willing to take us as far as we wanted to go -- he
seemed to welcome the company on what was going to be a couple more long
days of relatively uninteresting driving for him. The bus was complete
with airline-style seats, air-conditioning, reading lights, an electric
cooler to keep drinks cold, tinted windows and a sound system. We
called it the "party bus," though we hardly partied and were ready to get
back on the bikes after a couple hours. We were all so excited about
it that no one took a picture, but it was real.
  We
disembarked from the party-bus just past the buffalo fence at the west end
of the game park. The first thing we noticed was "MakVeto Bicycle Sales and Repairs."
This certainly warranted closer inspection -- a bike shop in the middle of
nowhere. The simplified story as
it came out is something like this: The container full of used bikes came from
the chain of bicycle shops in California called "Mike's Bikes."
 The container also included a pretty full set of tools and some spare parts
to
 jump start the business.
So far so good. But the location is ten
kilometers out of Duvundu because that is where they could get free land. If
location is important this seems like a bit of a draw back. To support
the donation of the container, a
Namibian bicycle project called the Bicycle Empowerment Network Namibia
(BEN-Namibia) was providing the mechanic and small business training. It sounds like there is
still a need, and a desire, for some more training, both on the crews' bike
mechanic skills and to help with business management. We were told that more
training has been promised, but it is
not
 clear when the trainer will be returning. They are waiting for
the opportunity to take advantage of the rest of the training -- doing some
repairs on their inventory that they don't currently know how to do. There are a
few other misconnects with the project -- probably the most noticeable is their inability to move
the road bike, that came in the container, out of their inventory. They have sold
about 200 mountain bikes, an average
of about one bike per day, since November, but scarcely a road bike has been
sold.
They are hoping to find a bike project or bike shop in a larger city that has a
market for road bike and trade them for mountain bikes or something more
suited for their rural clientele and roads. Recently they received a box of
yellow helmets.
  Out
of the game park, and closer to water -- the Okavango River -- agriculture
returned to the land-use mix. In fact, on many maps the area of Duvundu is labeled Bagani, which is the name of a big agricultural research station
in the area. Because of a heavy rainy season in Angola a few months
back the Okavango River is now swollen with water.
  Our
actual destination was Popa Falls, 8 kilometers south of Duvundu. It
is a good thing that we weren't planning on camping and didn't have high
expectations for Popa Falls. The camp ground was flooded (left) and
Popa Falls was washed out under the high water (right), but they still had a
nice sound to them.
In spite of, or because of, the high water it was a
beautiful area
to walk around and admire the natural vignettes.
 In
what the literary people would call foreshadowing there were hippopotamus
foot prints (right) to be found in the muddy soil at the river's edge, where
hippos come on land at night to graze. We never saw the hippos but we
could hear their cacophony of grunting and snorting most of the night as
they ambled about.
Having thought that I had mastered Thimbukushu 200 kilometers to the
east, I come to learn that the greetings are a little bit different at the
western end of the Caprivi Strip than they were to the east: The morning greeting is "moro." The
afternoon greeting is "metaha." And thank you is "natumera."
Once again I was ready to make friends on the road side. |
Addendum:
At Kongola junction there are several craft shops - location,
location, location. At least one of them is a cooperative.
The poster in the shop demonstrates the ten
characteristics of a good basket.
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