Kazungula District is vast and parts are only accessible by train. Luckily the old Zambezi Sawmill Railway line is still there but if not maintained soonest the days are really numbered.
110km in almost 24h. This is record breaking. Several times the train had to stop because the old metal sleepers are broken and the maintenance crew had to hammer the track back in place. The good news is we made it and delivered beehives to Bombwe and Makunka.
First stop was Makunka to offload more than 300 beehives at night. But what a shock. The train stopped very briefly for some disembarking passengers and started off. We had to follow the train, stop it and after almost 30min. it was back in Makunka. Offloading went well and around 23:30hrs I jumped on to the train on an open wagon heading towards Bombwe. I knew that the train is slow but seeing people walking faster than the train moves was kind of strange. 10km in 3 1/2hrs. This is just jaw dropping. Lots of passengers doing the roundtrip from Livingstone to Mulobezi on a regular basis. Almost 4 days on the train if it is go come.
The people in Bombwe were very welcoming, helping with off loading and mending the beehives as some of them had moved and had a hard landing inside the boxcar. Luckily nothing broken and with a few nails everything was quickly reassembled and loaded on scotchcarts to reach their final destinations.
Distributing the beehives in Kazungula District is part of a project to scale up climate resilience. Hopefully it will be adopted well and honey produced in Southern Province will reach the Supermarket shelves soon. The first honey harvest is expected in June.
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