THE GREAT NORTH ROAD

This road will take on a journey of nonstop adventure. Starting with Kasanka National Park and see the eorlds largest ammal migration, Walk the majestic hill of Mutinondo, stop and see numerous stunning waterfalls, snorkel or fish at Lake Tanganyika and learn about the history of the area.

Kasama - nearby Chishimba Falls and Mwela Rocks which has over 700 historical rock art sites.

Mbala -  home to the Moto-Moto museum and Lake Chila

​Moto Moto Museum tells of the history of the Bemba people of Zambia as well as Father Joseph Dupont, a missionary who came to Zambia in 1895. It also contains many relics of World War I and information about Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck, the General who led the East African forces during that war. Have lunch at Lake Chila Lodge and do visit the pioneer / polish cemetery. 

The History of Moto Moto Museum dates back to the 1950s when a French Canadian Catholic Priest Jean Jacques Corbeil of the White Fathers began collecting cultural artifacts in the Northern part of Northern Rhodesia (Now Zambia).

Father Corbeil came to Zambia as a missionary under the White Fathers in 1943. Other than missionary work, Father Corbeil was interested in African Culture and Environment. Over the years he collected cultural and Natural Artifacts among the villages of Northern Zambia and later figurines along the Zambia Congo Boarder on the Copperbelt. He was particularly interested in items of music, medicine, initiation and witchcraft. He also made a reasonable collection of snakes.The artifacts, collected for study and posterity by Father Cornbeil, were stored in the Mulilansolo Mission until 1964, when they were moved to Serenje, Zambia until 1969, then to Isoka.

Lake Tanganyika - Mpulungu: Niamkolo Church is the oldest stone Church in Zambia and was built between 1893 and 1896 by the London Missionary Society and is a National Monument.

Isanga bay lodge or Kalambo falls lodge will collect you by boat or a good walk for the fit will get you to Kalambo Falls one of the world highest falls. Waterfalls: Sanzye and Kalambo Falls.

Chambeshi Bridge -  on the banks of the Chambeshi River is the Von Lettow -Vorbeck Monument where the last shots of World War I were fired on 13 November 1918, two days after the Armistice in Europe.

Kapishya Hotsprings - The naturally sulphur free geothermal springs have Crystal clear water. They reach the surface from thermal vents 7km below, giving the spring a perfect temperature of around 40 degrees Celsius. A small wall gives the pool shape, enabling enough water for a comfortable and safe swim.

WW1

The forgotten story - Zambia played a part in the First World War and that it actually finished not at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month 1918 in Europe but at Abercorn, now Mbala, at the 12th hour on the 25th day of the 11th month 1918” .

After signing the armistice of World War I on November 11, 1918, it took three days for German forces in East Africa to learn of the end of the war. On November 14th, German General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was delivered a telegraph informing him of the end of hostilities, and was ordered by British forces to march north to the town of Abercorn to formally surrender his forces.

Following the surrender, the German forces were directed to throw their weapons into the nearby Lake Chila, and then returned to German East Africa. German weapons remain to this day at the bottom of the lake. Examples of some of the weaponry recovered from the lake can be seen in the nearby Moto Moto Museum.

A memorial in Abercorn, modern-day Mbala, marks the rough location where the German forces laid down their arms.

The small monument, situated on a small grassy circle in the middle of a roundabout in the center of town, features two plaques commemorating the historic event.

SHIWA NGANDU ESTATE AND SHIWA HOUSE

Relive a little piece of history

An incredible story set deep in the heart of Central Northern Zambia. Here lies an English mansion was built by an English gentleman called Sir Stewart Gore-Brown in the 1920s. Its an amazing story of difficulty,  tragedy and finally a happy ending. This magnificent house is called Shiwa House on Shiwa Ngandu farm and is halfway between Mpika and Kasama.

The Beginnning - Shiwa Ng'andu was the inspiration of Sir Stewart Gore-Browne. Born in England in 1883, he first came to Africa in 1902, at the end of the Boer War, and later returned in 1911 as a member of the Anglo-Belgian Congo Boundary Commission. On his way back to England, in 1914, one of his carriers guided him north towards Tanzania, passing beside Shiwa Ng'andu, the 'Lake of the Royal Crocodiles'. He intended to settle in Northern Rhodesia, so he negotiated with the local chief to buy the land around the lake – and then, after World War I, he returned to establish himself by the lake. He borrowed money from his beloved Aunt Ethel and began to build Shiwa.

Gore-Browne did not like the the colonial attitude towards the African people and was determined to establish a haven which grew into a vast enterprise with schools and a hospital run with benevolent paternalism. By 1925, Shiwa Ng'andu was employing 1,800 local people.

Gore-Browne passed on skills to them, and together they built neat workers' cottages with tile roofs, as well as bridges and workshops and finally a magnificent manor house, set atop a hill overlooking the lake. Anything that could not be made locally was transported on the heads and backs of porters, along the difficult route from the nearest town, Ndola. At that time it took three weeks to reach Shiwa from Ndola: 70 miles on foot or horseback to the Luapula River, followed by a boat through the Bangweulu wetlands, and a further ten-day walk from the Chambeshi River to Shiwa.

The heavy English-style furniture was made out of local wood; the large gilt-framed portraits and paintings, silver ornaments, and an entire library of books came from England. Everything came together to create an English country mansion in the heart of Africa – a testament to the determination with which Gore-Browne pursued his vision.

In 1927, when he was 44, Gore-Browne met and married Lorna Goldman, the 18-year-old daughter of his first love, Lorna Bosworth-Smith. She came to Shiwa, threw herself into her husband's projects, and the estate and its inhabitants prospered. Gore-Browne built a distillery for the essential oils that he hoped to make into a profitable local industry. He had several failures, trying roses, geraniums, eucalyptus, peppermint and lemon grass with no success. Eventually, he succeeded with citrus fruit, which flourished and brought a good income into the estate until a virus killed off the fruit trees. This hit the estate hard, forcing Gore-Browne to turn to less profitable agriculture.

Sadly the stresses of the estate and Gore-Browne's constant travelling took a toll on his marriage; resulting in separation from Lorna, who had found it difficult spending such a great deal of time alone at Shiwa with their two daughters, Lorna and Angela. Lady Lorna returned to live in London in 1945. She came back to Shiwa once, in 1958, and then never again. She died in England aged 93.

By this time, Gore-Browne had become a rare, political figure in Northern Rhodesia: an aristocratic Englishman, with excellent connections in London, who commanded respect both in the colonial administration and from the African people. He had been elected to Northern Rhodesia's Legislative Council as early as 1935, and was the first member of it to argue that real concessions were needed to African demands for more autonomy. He was impatient with the rule of the Colonial Office and resented the loss of huge amounts of revenue through taxation paid to Britain, and 'royalties' paid to the British South Africa Company.

He was knighted by George VI and became mentor to Zambia's first president, Kenneth Kaunda, who, in 1966, appointed him the first ever Grand Officer of the Companion of the Order of Freedom, the highest honour ever bestowed on a white man in Zambia. He died, age 84 in 1967, and today remains the only white man in Africa to have been given a full state funeral. He is buried on holy hill overlooking the lake at Shiwa – an honour only bestowed on the Bemba chiefs. In the words of Keneth Kaunda, 'He was born an Englishman and died a Zambian.

On his death, the estate at Shiwa passed to his daughter Lorna and her husband, John Harvey. After their untimely death in Lusaka it passed onto their four children Penny, Charlie, Mark and David but proved difficult to maintain. In 2000 Charlie Harvey, Sir Stewart Gore-Browne's grandson, bought the estate from his siblings and now runs it with his wife, Jo. Mark runs Kapishya Hotsprings nearby.

Shiwa today

The manor house

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Above the front door is a small carving of a black rhino's head: a reminder that Gore-Browne had earned the local nickname of Chipembele, black rhino. At the centre of the manor is the square tiled Tuscan courtyard, surrounded by arches, overlooking windows and a red tiled roof. Climbing one of the cold, stone-slab staircases brings you into an English manor house, lined with old paintings and its wooden floors covered with old rugs.

Much of the old heavy wooden furniture remains here, including the sturdy chests; together with muskets and all manner of memorabilia, including pictures of old relatives and regiments. Two frames with certificates face each other. One is from King George VI, granting 'our trusty and well-beloved Stewart Gore-Browne, esq' the degree, title, honour and dignity of Knight Bachelor. Opposite, President Kaunda appoints 'my trusted, well-beloved Sir Stewart Gore-Browne' as a Grand Officer of the Companion of the Order of Freedom, second division – it is dated 1966.

The library is the manor's heart, with three huge walls of books, floor-to-ceiling, which tell of Gore-Browne's interests – Frouede's History of England in at least a dozen volumes, Policy and Arms by Colonel Repington and The Genesis of War by the Right Honourable H H Asquith. His wife was very keen on poetry: there is a classic collection of works by Byron, Shelley, Coleridge, Eliot and others. Gore-Browne left behind a wealth of diaries and personal papers, and much work is in progress cataloguing and archiving these. Central to the room is a grand fireplace, surmounted by the Latin inscription: Ille terrarum mihi super omnes anculus ridet – This corner of the earth, above all others, smiles on me.

It's now possible to stay in the manor house and immerse yourself in a little history.

Shiwa estate

The working estate today includes a farm, a well stocked game-ranch, a lake, stables and all the support necessary for almost total self-sufficiency – directly employing up to about 200 people at any one time. It covers just over 100km2 of land, and encompasses the domestic livestock, including about 1,200 cattle, 900 sheep, 20 pigs and 12 goats for milk (imported from the USA). Three years after the move, the game farm has expanded to about 1,500 large animals, and these are being added to all the time to improve the bloodlines of the existing herds, and increase the numbers. Shiwa's stables have about 17 horses, of which only 11 are regularly used for riding.

There are a few crops grown, but these are used largely to feed the people on the farm and the livestock. The farm's staff are encouraged to have their own plots on which most grow vegetables and maize.

Aside from the agriculture, the estate's hospital has been brought back to life, thanks in part to grants from the British and German embassies – whilst smaller grants have enabled it to complete a very good maternity ward.