Crossing the Zambezi River on the Kazungula Ferry

July 20, 2010

A few years ago I crossed the Zambezi River above Victoria Falls between Zambia and Botswana. My trip was via a private boat and lasted all of about 10 minutes. The other option is the Kazungula Ferry.

Tour dafrique 2008 090 Crossing the Zambezi River on the Kazungula Ferry

Kazungula Ferry

The ferry operates between Kazungula, Zambia and Kasane, Botswana. It’s all of 400 meters across the Zambezi River. The ferry plays an important role as part of Africa’s  north-south transportation corridor. Now look again at the picture and notice the ONE truck on the ferry. Therein lies the problem. The wait time for a truck going in either direction is ONE WEEK. No reservations are taken. Truckers know they just have to show up, get in line, kill time, play cards and socialize for the week.

There is an alternative road through Zimbabwe. It’s much faster but unfortunately it’s not a particularly safe road;  huge numbers of truckers elect to wait out the week for the Kazungula ferry. A bridge across the Zambezi River was announced in 2007. Yesterday’s Globe and Mail spoke of the lack of trade between African countries and the need for improvements to aid the flow of goods, particularly between Cairo and Capetown. Certainly a bridge providing timely and safe travel between Zambia and Botswana would go a long way to making that happen.

Tour dafrique 2008 091 Crossing the Zambezi River on the Kazungula Ferry

Zimbabwe (on the left of wires) - Botswana (on the right of wires) Border

Leigh McAdam

www.hikebiketravel.com

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Posted by Hike Bike Travel | Filed Under Africa, Miscellaneous travel tips 

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2 Responses to “Crossing the Zambezi River on the Kazungula Ferry”

  1. Tweets that mention Crossing the Zambezi River on the Kazungula Ferry | HikeBikeTravel, My title -- Topsy.com on July 20th, 2010 10:13 am

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Alice Joyce, Leigh. Leigh said: HikeBikeTravel: Crossing the Zambezi River on the Kazungula Ferry http://bit.ly/aMyR0U [...]
  2. african safari on August 3rd, 2010 8:50 pm

    Its so sad specially for the small vehicles like scooters and cars since they hav e to wait for a very long time here.
    The transportation facility is indeed very poor here.
    Know more of africa:
    african safari
    african safari´s last [type] ..Helicopter Adventure in New Zealand

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