NDOLA - "Where it all happens!?"

 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.

 

Fishing by a lake

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

 

Signs everywhere

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 19^th 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…..