I spent a few days last week in Mpulungu waiting for the ferry. I met two danish girls in town and went by boat with them to see a school that they were helping to build. Its an idylic little place down by the lake. In the morning I hiked for about 6hrs up to some amazing waterfalls and then headed back to town. As we were walking through some very remote villages all the children kept shouting ‘Mazungu, Mazungu’ which means ‘white man’. My guide told me that I was the first European they had ever seen!
On Friday I boarded MV Liemba for the three night trip to Kigoma in Tanzania. It’s an incredible trip. The boat is an old German war ship that was built in 1914. It was sunk twice during the war, refloated and now works as a passenger ferry connecting Tanzania with Zambia. I met an American and two Canadians on the boat and when we arrived in Kigoma we took another boat to a place called Gombe Stream. It’s where Jane Goodall spent about 40yrs studying Chimpanzees. We had an eye opening and awe inspiring day tracking some of the Chimps and we were lucky enough to be able to spend an hour watching a mother and her baby ‘fish’ for termites. Although they evolved seperately to us, we share 98% of our genes and are VERY similar. I found it hard to get over the fact that they are wild. They really do seem alike. It was amazing to see 🙂
Pics below