Kasane to Livingstone, September 2022

In the north-east of Botswana, a few kilometres from Kasane, is Kazungula. Kazungula is technically the name of the town on the Zambian side of the border but it is used eponymously for the small collection of houses, shops and petrol station on the Botswana side also.

There is a confluence of many strata in this small little border area. This is where the mighty Chobe and Zambezi rivers meet. This is where four different countries meet. It is also  a major crossing for hundreds of different cultures and languages from both Africa and the rest of the world.

The Zambezi river, having undulated from the highlands of the Congo, Zambia and Angola tectonically continues on its progress to the Indian Ocean. The Chobe river, in a way, begins in the Angolan highlands as the Kwando (Cuando) river. The river then drops through the Caprivi strip to become named the Linyanti after the Linyanti Marshes. The Linyanti connects to Lake Liambezi and feeds the Chobe River in high water years. These two historic river systems, The Chobe and the Zambezi, combine under a hundred kilometres before the crashing waters and spray of the falls of Mosi oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) also known as the Victoria Falls.

This area is where four countries meet. Up until the year 2000, it was largely uncertain due to shifting river banks and ambiguous colonial era imposed map drawing whether this area is a quad-border or not. Eventually, it was agreed that Botswana and Zambia should share a border of about only one hundred and fifty metres leaving Zimbabwe and Namibia’s Caprivi Strip separated from each other by the same small distance. This is however still tenuous based on recent (2022-23) discourse by the current president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa. Botswana and Zambia assert that they designed the new border bridge to go through Namibia rather than Zimbabwe foreseeing this exact issue prior to construction.

There are also plans to introduce a railway line which will effectively connect much of Southern Africa in a much more comprehensive way via Mosetse on the Francistown line to Livingstone in Zambia. This will allow for transport of goods and people from as far away as DRC all the way to the port of Durban in South Africa.

The African Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) assisted Zambia and Botswana in the financing of the Kazungula Bridge project. The project included a new one-stop border post on the northern bank of the Zambezi river after crossing the bridge from Botswana.

The new Kazungula border post is indeed one-stop with all services provided mostly in one building. There was even a coffee shop. The Covid station health check was outside and well before the main block and is quick and easy to traverse.

We enter the one stop section and find the Botswana desks on the left hand side and the Zambia desks on the right. We approach a significant variety of officialdom over the next hour or so and wait patiently outside with our vehicle for a police check and clearance half way through. Everybody is very nice. You need to be mindful of the “greasers” who are indeed greasy and really are not needed at any border crossing if you have nothing to hide and a good degree of patience and time. Always a good idea to know the official prices also as attempts to charge higher were noted at this border (the only one of the trip so far).

We purchase insurance from the insurance sales team next door to the building. These same insurance sales people seem to double as “greasers” and can easily be mistaken for official border personnel if you don’t have your wits about you.

Our hilux, roof tent, etc pass all checks and we’re through the border within two to three hours.

Our first trip through Zambia will unfortunately have to be brief and simple. We are looking to do some travel through East Africa, further up north, before the short rains arrive in October. We are already in September. We will explore as much as possible on route to gather info for a future trip and spend a good amount of time in the Luangwa Valley in the eastern part of Zambia.

We could have gone up the western part of Zambia along the Zambezi River and then through Kafue National Park but that is for the future.

The short drive down to Livingstone is peaceful where we pick up a few supplies from a supermarket and then head back down the road to a value for money campsite called Zambezi Palm Camp that sits on the banks of the mighty Zambezi River.

We spend the evening and the next two nights on the river looking out on the Zambezi National Park in Zimbabwe on the other side of the water border. One night we are serenaded loudly by a Zimbabwean lion which is thrilling, yet quite nice to know there is the huge Zambezi between us and the lion. The other night we are less enticingly serenaded by a large family party that somewhat overshadows the Zambezi.

After a short sojourn on the river, and a few car maintenance tasks in Livingstone, we get back on the road, headed in the general direction of the Luangwa Valley.