“A nation that destroys it’s soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” Franklin D. Roosevelt This is the sight that met me on my way home on 6 October, a sight which has met me for nearly forty years.     And […]

For a number of years now I have found it difficult to find soda water in our local supermarkets.   Coming from the Second Republic, when we were used to shortages of flavourings, bottles, bottle lids, labels,  I could not understand why we were seeing shortages today; gone were the days of foreign exchange shortages […]

In the August issue of The Lowdown we published an article about the fear that many Zambians, justifiably, have that the introduction of GMO plant varieties will contaminate our local maize varieties resulting in a negative impact on food production and food security in Zambia. This not impossible scenario would enslave our farmers, and thus […]

Keeping lions amused is a problem that few people have to worry about. But for the staff at Munda Wanga the importance of stimulation for animals held in captivity is an important part of the work they do. A lot of the animals are there because they were injured, sick, victims of the illegal pet […]

Chongololo’s have always held a fascination for me. Whether this is as a result of my brother and sister (older) ‘traumatising’ me by putting them down the back of my shirt when I was a young child or whether it is the way their legs move so effortlessly and in such a co-ordinated way as […]

Blood Lily (Scadoxus multiflorus)   As we move into December and January, the bloom of the Blood Lily or Common Fireball will be seen in the Zambian bush.   The Blood Lily is an evergreen rhizomatous perennial, producing up to nine leaves per season whose tubular leaf bases form a pseudostem, a false stem formed […]

Tow 365 offers a variety of services which, as the name suggests, are available 365 days a year. But it is not only towing in cases of vehicles breakdowns or accidents which leave your car disabled. They also come to your assistance in changing flat tyres, if you run out of fuel by delivering five […]

  The most common fern is the sword fern (nephrolepis).  It spreads so easily that it can become a nuisance, but it is easily uprooted.  Sword ferns are well worth growing but make sure that old fronds are cut off at ground level from time to time.  The new fronds that replace them will be […]

Eastern Fusion Now trending in Rhodes Park is the sheltered garden venue of ‘Eastern Fusion’. This Indian restaurant is run by the former proprietors of ‘Utsav Indian Restaurant’ in Livingstone. With so many new restaurants opening up in Lusaka, Eastern Fusion needed to distance itself from the usual while centering round the all important core […]

Christmas Shopping   I was up at 4 am, into a motor car before 5 and away from Kalulushi to get to Ndola airport by 6 just in time to check in for the Zambia Airways flight at 7 down to Lusaka. The 748 heaved off the ground with me in it (always a bit […]

Regularly I receive fan mail, mostly from female readers. I don’t know why that is; perhaps it is because I write about subjects close to their heart. For example, my most recent story was a gripping love story and the one before that was about the pursuit of happiness.  May be that explains it. Now, […]

As we go to print David’s KTM 450RR is sitting either in Parc Ferme in Le Havre, France about to be loaded on the ship to head to Lima Peru, but I jump ahead in our excitement to get to Le Dakar. Since our Navigation Tour of Namibia in September David has been training with […]

About three years ago, when my second child was nine months old, I went to New Zealand on holiday.  One of the first things that captured my attention was not, as one might imagine, the disproportionate number of sheep to humans, but the abundance of baby-changing facilities.  They have what are termed ‘family rooms’ where, […]