Or so Garry
Rutherford’s advertising hoardings would have us believe – but we all know
about advertising don’t we!
Having been here a couple of weeks now, we thought we would
tell you a little about Ndola, our new home.
Ndola is the third largest city in Zambia but still not that
big. To our mind it is probably about the size of a UK suburban town such as
Aylesbury or perhaps Watford. Situated in the Copperbelt province in the North
of Zambia it is home to a fair amount of industry. Obviously mining is (or was
rather) a large industry but that seems to be decreasing in the Ndola area and
has moved further north to Kitwe and Solwezi. Another industry that excels in
the area is brewing as Ndola reputedly has some of the cleanest water in Zambia.
The town and its environs have a wide mix of peoples from the
very rich to some of the poorest in Africa. Some areas such as Hillrise have
wide tarmac streets with large houses behind security fences where as others in
the townships have rough roads and loads of small, concrete block houses with
corrugated roofs housing many of the poor. Around the outside of the sprawl is
often farmland or bush, which is now looking very brown and dusty.
This area really has two seasons, the cooler dry season and
the much warmer and humid wet season. The dry season starts around end April
early May and extends to about November and very little if any rain will fall.
The temperatures cool down a bit with the day time still very warm for us
“Brits” at about 26C at the moment and wall to wall sunshine. The nights are
very different though and frost is not unknown. As soon as the sun goes down
around 6-15pm it get very chilly if not cold and the mornings are very cool.
The sun rises again around 6-15 and the temp starts warming up from around
9.00am. The “winter” doesn’t last long though as by August the temperatures at
night will be warming up and by October the day temperatures are also into the
mid 30s and climbing. By November the air is humid and hot and this sets off
Thunderstorms and heralds the beginning of the Wet season where the heaviest
rains tend to be early and late in the season with the middle part slightly
drier. Rain doesn’t mean like UK rain of non stop drizzle, here it means
torrential downpours for perhaps an hour or two or occasionally longer.
From now until the rains come the ground gets more and more
parched, dry, and very dusty. Lots of the trees drop their leaves and not so
many plants are in flower but at the moment many areas are still green and in
full flower.
Ndola has all the amenities of a UK town much to many
peoples surprise. There is an 18 hole golf club that looks identical to any
established UK one, The car park is set out with named spaces for President,
Secretary, Captain, Past Captain etc. The immaculately manicured fairways and
verdant greens are in big contrast to the areas outside the course which are
just turning to a baked brown desert.
Golf Club Parking |
Ndola Golf Club |
Also in the town are Tennis and Bowls clubs, Squash Club and
even a Boat Club.
In the sprawling town centre are many small shops owned by
locals as well as a market and many many people just selling goods of all sorts
at the side of the road.
Bustling town centre |
Keeping the dust away? |
Street Sellers |
Dried fish and flies anyone? |
Fresh Poultry |
Doric Columns |
It is Ideal Yes |
Just outside are 2 brand new “Western” shopping malls
that are identical to those in UK. A big carpark, many fast food outlets, a bar
or two, a large supermarket that instead of the name Tesco or Sainsburys they
are Pick n Pay or ShopRite. (and yes all is available including Marmite and
Cadburys Chocolate) . Also in the Malls are fashion and sports shops so no
different to anything back home.
New Mall |
Western Shops |
You need security for everything here |
Also in the furthest Mall from where we are
staying is a really fantastic Ice Cream Parlour called Gigabonta and needless
to say we are working our way through the flavours list but it may take some as
they keep adding new ones.
Driving around is fun, many roads have a smooth tarmac
surface although you must always be on your guard for potholes (Used to them
coming from Bucks).
Nearly all the main roads in this area seem to have a forest
of huge advertising hoardings all owned by a certain Ndola Golf Club Captain
called Garry Rutherford. (Yes we met him on a visit to the club when he came
over to introduce himself and as one of his signs says “aint I a Dude”.)
This is NOT Garry |
Other roads whether tarmac or not are mainly full of huge
holes and really rough so driving needs lots of care.
Ndola also has a railway station on the original Capetown to
Cairo railway built by Cecil Rhodes back in 19th century.
The Old Train |
We did try
to go and look at it but due to some amazing Zambian beaurocracy we failed.
Please note this is a station and still has trains twice a week to Lusaka so
you would have thought that they expected people. What follows is a shortened
version of events
We turn up at the station where outside is an old steam
train from the olden days. We walk to the old colonial station building and
look. A uniformed lady says “What are we doing here” and we reply looking at
your lovely old station. “Who gave you permission?” again we reply no one, do
we need permission just to visit the station? “Yes you do so you should not be
here”.
I then ask to see the man in charge, the Station Master to
which she points to a door.
We then go and know and go in where we again say it is a
beautiful old building and can we look at it.
“Go to Human Resources”
We ask where that is and are shown outside back to original
lady at desk again where she takes us to another door and we ask again
“You are not allowed to take photos” we are promptly told to
which I replied OK we don’t want to see your lovely old station (wasn’t that
nice anyway) and we left.
I am sure we will meet much more of this in Africa on our
travels and apart from a few “petty officials” we have found that everyone is
very friendly and love to chat to you.
Oh well and onto another situation that we just learn to
live with…..
8 comments:
Sounds like lots of fun. Shame about the old railway -very strange.
Glad you are settling in.
Glad you are settling in.
Glad you are settling in.
Glad you are settling in.
Glad you are settling in.
Glad you are settling in.
Having trouble with this. I am not big sister I am sarah fowle.
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