Zambia, Three Reasons Why-

Zambia still evokes to many people the age old African tropes of timelessness, poverty and tribalism.  It is a country that sounds distinctively African but its whereabouts is still largely unknown to many. Indeed, despite hosting the world’s largest tourism assembly, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO), last year Zambia is still a difficult country to place on the map. This hasn’t been helped by its position as a landlocked nation in sub-Saharan Africa surrounded by its news-loud neighbours Zimbabwe and the Congo.  However, the UNWTO event has gone a long way to remedy Zambia’s silent rise as an attractive tourist destination. This strong sign of intent marked by the UNTWO assembly is not lacking in substance. From the minute you land in Lusaka, the nation’s rapidly modernising capital, everything seems to aspire to undermine the stereotypical understanding of sub-Saharan Africa and engages the visitor to embark on a journey of awe, culture and adventure to find Zambia’s heart.

Awe

One moment from Zambia, specifically Livingston, which will stick with you for a lifetime is not the terrifying  bungee jump, nor the extreme grade 5 + white water rafting or even the incredible safari trips – it was merely walking in the Victoria Falls national park. The lush tropical setting of the park and its inhabitants of cheeky sandwich-stealing monkeys and the nervous excitement of knowing something spectacular is around the corner adds up to an atmosphere that gives you a feeling of kinship with the great explorer Dr Livingston. Despite being surrounded by array of camera wielding tourists, the national park still holds an aspect of rawness. Crossing the Indiana Jones styled bridge to the cliff stack that sits right in front of the falls, dressed only in boots, shorts and a hat is nothing short of amazing. There is something primal and Eden-like to dance, wet-through, on a cliff edge, surrounded by a perpetual rainbow whilst facing the world’s greatest waterfall.           

(Source: Southern African Places -website)

Culture

Taking the time to witness one of Zambia’s major cultural festivals highlights how the country has been able to balance its increasing popularity whilst keeping its essence. The pomp and glory and unashamedly fanciful approach of the royal Kuomboka ceremony for example share’s a certain parallel with Queen Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee over-the-top boat procession. Rarely seen by visitors, this ceremony celebrates the flooding of the Zambezi River with a procession led by the king of the Lozi people whose simple act of moving to his high water residence has become an annual and ancient traditional event dating as far back as 300 years ago. Amidst the royal barges, the milieu of native outfits and a crescendo of musical instruments the sudden appearance of the Lozi King dressed as a Victorian ambassador not only brings home the slight madness we all love in royal ceremonies but is evidence of how the historical development of the ceremony has not been tampered with.

Adventure

Canoeing will never be the same again if you do it on the Zambezi, or indeed on any river that flows through Zambia. The placid lakes and rivers of the UK will seem bland in comparison once you’ve canoed alongside elephants, hippos and giraffes. Canoe expeditions are  also the answer if you want to see exotic animals and avoid the ethical minefield that are safari’s or indeed, escape the risk of paying money to see something that might not decide to show. Despite a slightly chequered history, canoe safaris in Zambia are now heavily regulated and have extensive safety regulations.  So for those who are feeling brave you can expect a canoe expedition that showcases Zambia’s, epic wildlife, beautiful birdlife, idyllic rural villages, fairy-tale sunsets and camp-outs in the raw wilderness. Not to be missed.

  

I’m a Traveller, not a Tourist!

Three people, sat around a campfire, in the wild, next to the crocodile infested Zambezi River are part of canoe expedition ran by an adventure company- Who is the tourist?  One’s on holiday for two weeks, the other is a travelling volunteer and the other is on a year-long round the world trip. That all three are involved in an activity designed for tourists, and all are, not on packaged holiday trips, makes this question more difficult than expected. Add to the mix that one of the three is offended to be labelled a tourist and you also have the makings of a common backpacker debate that’s been had in youth hostels across the world.

Central to this debate is the question of what makes a travelling individual, or a backpacker, different to some other type of tourist. Is it simply that backpackers are seen to embrace serendipity and are ‘travelling’ for longer periods of time that is the crucial difference?  Or rather, has the nature and scope of tourism just changed? And if so, is there a charge of ‘travel snob’ for those who claim to be ‘travellers and not tourists’? I’m inclined to agree with this charge. If not only for the fact that there are now masses of backpackers following the circuits advised by the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides, who bounce between the recommended youth-hostels and party in the designated and seemingly ‘foreigner only’ nightclubs. And it’s not just Australia, the obvious backpacker destination, which has embraced backpackers as tourists. Take all those cafe’s along Australia’s East Coast which serves up the ‘backpacker cuisine’ of fruit shakes, banana pancakes and the all-time Western favourites like burgers, salads and pasta dishes - they are now found the world over. From the rooftops in towns across South East Asia and on the beachfronts throughout Latin America, the backpacker fare is remarkably consistent.

Furthermore, the mode of transport used by backpackers is no longer characterised by the dilapidated forms of transport - ancient wheezing trains, clapped out local ‘chicken buses’, river ferries, pickup trucks or local equivalents such as bemos (Indonesia) or tuk tuks (Thailand) - that backpackers often pride themselves on. Instead, the backpacker is steadily relying more and more on the local tourist industry. Organised trips to popular local spots and arranged cheap transport to the next backpacker destination are now becoming the rule, and not the exception.  Often these methods are quicker and allow lone travellers to meet fellow backpackers, but it does break the traveller’s ethos of meeting locals and experiencing ‘real’ life experiences which, supposedly, makes the difference between the traveller and the tourist.

Indeed, a ‘backpacker’ may be better described as a tourist on a budget, who is always adjusting between serendipity and planning depending on his or her mood, health, and bank-balance. In this light, the current phenomenon of backpacking is perhaps best viewed in the broader context of tourism and the economic and political developments brought about by globalisation. Gone now, is the job for life type of career. And here instead are the temporary / part-time jobs that enable one to save (or sponge-off parents) and travel.  So what was once a marginal and unusual activity undertaken by hippies and adventurous dropouts is now an accepted form of tourism. That the backpacker is now an activity perhaps more akin to mass tourism than to a form of ‘genuine travel’ suggests that those travelling on a budget are not quite ‘the brave and intrepid explorer who is seeking the ‘natural’ native’ they wish to paint themselves as. This is not to say that backpacking is not a worthwhile and adventurous endeavour, but recognition that backpacking now forms a large part contemporary tourism and to pretend otherwise is not only archaic, but a little bit snobbish too.