Rural Zambia: that magical place where dreams come true; While those dreams imply going to the rural area of Zambia.
If you are reading this, you may be considering a trip to Great Green Beyond, but maybe he doubted his wings and fly because he is plagued with questions such as “What am I going to eat outside?” And “Where am I going to sleep?” And “in what kind of world would we live if trees could speak?”
That last question is beyond the scope of this blog post, but if you need that question answered quickly, then you can send me an email so we can solve it together. However, the first two questions will be answered in the following paragraphs with such care and attention to detail that I will move on and assume that I will win the Pulitzer Award for this.
Food in the rural area of Zambia
Zambia Rural is many things, but a gastronomic supernovas cornucopia, without a doubt, is not. If your adventure is like mine, then you will eat NSHIMA for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
NSHima is cooked cornmeal to the consistency of thick potato puree. The taste can be better compared to smooth white rice. Fortunately for all those who have been, currently, and will eventually be in the rural area of Zambia, NSHima almost always served with chicken, fish and/or vegetables (usually vegetables and leafy tomatoes, but I have also served it with OKRA). And it is generally served with some type of tomato sauce. You also eat it with your hands, unless the locals laugh for you, then move on and eat it with cutlery (I am talking about experience).
He will be able to find it in each city and town throughout the rural area of Zambia, and if he is lucky, then he can be invited to eat it with some locals.
Another type of food that you will often find are fritters, which are fried balls of flour, sugar and yeast. You will see them selling next to the road in each city and town where you are going through. They are almost always sold by large transparent plastic buckets, and only cost between one and three kwacha (a kwacha has 37 cents in USD at the time of writing). I found that the fritters are quite versatile in relation to NSHIMA, since I have eaten them as snacks, snacks, garrisons and desserts.
I have also seen vendors selling tomatoes, land nuts and butternut pumpkin on the side of the road. But if you promise to eat only those three things during your trip, then you risk starving because I only encountered this type of suppliers two or three times during my time by bicycle by Zambia.
If you are fed up with NSHIMA and BUÑUELOS, then your only reliable option for anything different can be found in the hotel restaurants. But sticking only to the hotel restaurants while traveling through the rural area of Zambia is the capital, boring and little adventurous, and I think that most people traveling through the Rural Zambia do so seeking adventure. But who devils am I to judge? However, I must warn you that the hotel restaurants are not safe from the locals who laugh at you when you eat your nshima with a spoon.
However, if your beef is with unprocessed foods in general, then you should be able to find processed cookies in almost all the small stores of convenience in almost all the cities and towns you find. At least that has been my experience.
Finally, it would be negligent if he did not mention that you can, in theory, hunt and look for your food. I say “in theory” because I have never heard of any modern traveler to do this, nor have I tried to do this myself, but if you know what you are doing, then I do not see any reason why this was not possible.
Accommodation in the rural area of Zambia
Now, unlike food, their options really open when it comes to accommodation. If you want to stay in hotels and camps, and that is totally well if you do, then Google Maps will tell you everything you need to know. And if you travel in a 4 × 4, then you will never be more than a few hours from a hotel/camp that appears on Google Maps. But if you are looking for adventurous accommodation, then the rural zambia is its proverbial oyster.
Starting with the most basic and easily available option: the soil. The best thing about the ground is that it is everywhere. People and animals of all forms and sizes have been using the ground to sleep for more than thirty years, at least. Do not let the marketing departments of several mattresses of mattresses deceive you; You can absolutely go to bed wherever you stand and sleep if you are so inclined. However, if you decide to go to this route, you urge you to use the discretion, since falling asleep in places like half of a busy road is poorly advised if your goal is to sleep peacefully.
But seriously, if you have a tent, then you can sleep almost anywhere in the rural area of Zambia. Almost all the lands of the Rural Zambia are carried out under the usual tenure of the Earth (along with approximately 90% of the rest of Africa), which means that the land legally belongs to the communities that live there, not particular or private companies, and is subject to the unwritten customs and practices of those communities.
What that means for aspiring dormitories is that almost none of the land is fenced, that It allows you to get out of the road and throw your store wherever you want, which was what I did when I rode Zambia.
I never had any problem when I camped in remote areas. However, because there was (and I suppose they are still) so many cursed people who live on the main roads, I just asked the locals if I could sleep here in my store to spend the night. They almost always said yes (they rejected me only once, and it was for a charismatic preacher who seemed to lead some kind of pregnant women of sad appearance in their church).
I slept in mosques, churches, schools and on one occasion, next to the place of the chief of the village. I have heard that camping outside the police stations is another safe bet, but I have only done it in Egypt. Another advantage of this type of accommodation is that it is totally free! And you will probably make some friends along the way. An inconvenience is that there may be no showers, but if you are lucky, the locals could lend you a cube and a well to wash yourself.
However, if you lack a tent and the will to sleep on the ground without one, then there is still hope! Almost all the cities for Aturde had at least one or two guest houses, which were like African motels picturesque. For the equivalent of $ 5 (I don’t think he paid more than that), he will get a bed with a mosquito network, some type of toilet and a place to shower. The best way I have found to find guest houses in each city is to ask the locals that walk. If you know a better way, let it know.
Talk to the locals
With all that said, the best advice I can give with respect to finding food and accommodation in the rural area of Zambia is Talk to as many locals as you can. Sleeping in a tent outside the place of the head of the people may not be the best option of accommodation in terms of quality, but it could be one of the best to be memorable.
But the only way in which you will have these incredible experiences of food and accommodation is to find a way of talking with the locals in the many villages that you will find in the rural area of Zambia. The greatest repentance of the handful of travelers that I met that they were traveling by car was that they really didn’t talk to anyone outside the hotels and camps in which they were staying. Out of perhaps two villages, the rural Zambianos were, without a doubt, the most friendly people with whom I had the pleasure of interacting worldwide.
They will help you find food and accommodation if you ask them, and they will surely do it without asking for money in return (unlike certain African countries, despite being one of the poorest countries in the world).
If you are seriously traveling through the rural area of Zambia, but you are worried about finding food and accommodation on the road, then I recommend that you make the jump and the confidence that the kind people of the real warm heart of Africa will ensure that you do not go hungry or homeless (Malawi currently has the title of “warm of Africa”, but that they will have had hundreds of people shouting “mzungu, give me my money, among other things, among other things, among other things, among other things. He has made a cursed title.
Remember, where there are people, there are food and accommodation that ask them to eat and Dorman, respectively. And there are many people in Zambia.
- * Without the right context, it is easy to imagine that I steal money from hundreds of Malawianos and I only heard “Mzungu, give me my money!” While I was fleeing. I can assure you that this was not the case; This is how people who are not one of those parts greet.
