Brushes & Beaches: Life of an Oil Painter in Mauritius: Zambia November 2010

Zambia November 2010

My job takes me all over the world and this November I was in Zambia rockhounding. Africa is such an exciting place to visit. In the past I used to travel to Africa Central all the time but it has been a while since I was there last.

I had to go and inspect the production at the mine and this was why I went up.

I do not know if you know but Silver Hills Gems still has a share in some quartz mines in Zambia. Some of the mines I discovered myself through prospecting up in Zambia but not all of them turned out to be feasable mines.

This time I was pressed for time and I only had two days to finish what I went to do.

I took a flight from OR Tambo to Ndola International airport and hired a vehicle through Europecar. The inspection cart of the car rental company said. Many small scratches around the car. This will give you an indication of the driving skills of the average Zambian driver. My first stretch took me through Ndola to the Kitwe road. I was not sure if I was on the right road and asked at the nearest filling station. When I rolled down my window the guy said "sorry no fuel" I was glad that I did not need fuel. They confirmed that I was on the right road.

It is a very scenic drive to Kitwe. The road follows the contour of the land. It is a kind of a highway. Why I say kind of is because the road is double lane but has a myriad of side roads entering at any time. And there is a stack of heavy vehicles on this road. This is the main artery from the Congo to Botswana and Zimbabwe. So any and all is carried by truck. A lot of the truck drivers are driving without shirts due to the heat. It is an experience just sitting next to the road and hearing the roar of these big machines as the pass by.

There are 2 road blocks between Ndola and Kitwe, these are manned by the Police. They flag you down and then ask you where you are going. Sometimes they want to see your paperwork. I remeber the one time when I received a fine because I did not have a T on the back of the trailer. I stopped at the first garage and bought some reflective tape and made the biggest T that you will see on any trailer.

You realize that you are entering Kitwe when the buildings get more dense. But what strucks you immediately is the lack of paint on any building. Everything looks run down. The vehicles are dented. SO by the way, the car I was driving had hardly any shocks. It was rocking like a ship. I took it dead slow. The roads are shot. The further you get out of town the worst it gets. In one road that we travelled there were a tar road once. But the tar road is now riddled with potholes. And not just any potholes. It was raining the past few days and this complicated driving. I was crawling along. Large trucks was passing ignoring the potholes. That is driving African style.

In Kitwe I took a room at the Shelbourne lodge. The room cost me around $100 per night. I was sheer luxury. The bed was comfortable and the cushions was good. There were ample hot water and even DSTV in the room. The Guest house was a conferted old house with high ceilings and slasto floors with a stoep in front. The owner loves plants and the place was a veritable nursery or shall I say paradise. If you are willing to pay you will find these gems all over Africa. The contrast to this is the mosquito invested YMCA I stayed in the last time. Here music keeps you awake all night while you are sweating in the dirty bed with the hard cushion and no hot water.

We left for the mine the next day and traveled around 200 km on passable roads. The roads gets smaller and smaller and eventually it is just a 2 track road into the bush. There are cash crops even in the remotest areas. They plant beans and maize.

At the mine there is a huge open pit with 10 workers who are mining with pick and shovel. To mine specimens is slow work and you can not rush it. I love the bush but time did not allow me to stay there long

I discovered rutile specimens in the same area. I am just waiting for 300 specimens to come. These have not yet been seen in the market.

At the miners house I sorted through the specimens. Africa is hot. Gerdus

The problem with specimen hunting these days is that the miners browse the internet and think that the prices they see there is the prices they should get.

But if you do not travel you will not get any stones. We remain leaders in our area because we are willing to travel into Africa.

We needed some tools for the mine and this took us back to town. In most towns in Zambia you will get a freemarket system where anybody can sell anything at any price. The market at Kitwe is such a market. I attach some pictures. Paper is not available everywhere and we had to buy a bale of paper to wrap our crystals.

You can find litterally everything in such a market. I imagine stands selling missiles and others selling dried animal medicine. I noticed that evrybody is busy. There are very few beggars. Money changes hands all the time. Nothing gets thrown away. Everything gets recycled again in such a market. We had to dwaddle through muddy backallies. It rained the whole night before and this released all the interesting smells of such a market. At every step you get a different smell. Everybody greets you along the way and expect you to greet back.