Lake Bangweulu

"Crocodile warning beaches are the best beaches......Because no one is in the water."
-Dan Graf, Zambia 2008

Following Kasama we head west to Lake Bangweulu with a short overnight in Mansa. We took a minor road to the west towards Mansa. A minor road in Zambia is unpaved, but we are assured that it is still better than any roads in Congo. A third rate road in Zambia appears to be a wide foot path. We spend seven hours on dirt roads, with the dry season we are all covered in a layer of dust. The Land Cruisers also take a beating and doors and latches begin to freeze up from the dust. We stop for the night in Mansa and get a shower and some Italian food, Zambian style.

Most things in Zambia don't work or are intermittent therefore you just print a menu with every possibility. There was an extensive menu at the restaurant but with every order the waitress told us that they were out of this, and out of that (as I recall they were out of chicken......... 1/2 the menu). Most of us settle on pizza, Jeremy orders Cordon Blue and it arrives as chicken fried steak.

We wake and after a quick resupply and a frustrating 30min at the internet cafe‚ we leave town. By 10am we are at Samfya and Lake Bangweulu. The lake takes up most of the north western portion of upper Zambia. It is a large lake with an associated wetland that is huge, probably many times the size of the lake. This is the home of the illusive Shoebill Stork, but at this time of year we will not see any, they are deep in the wetland. This is also very close to where David Livingstone died while looking for the headwaters of the Nile River.

The water in the lake is clear and very soft, mussel shells are decalcified when the organisms die. Some dead shells we find are only the periostracum (outer protein coat) and little shell is left, the exact opposite of what happens back home. We ask a few locals about crocodiles in the lake and they tell us that this time of year they go south, but most guide books warn that the place is crawling with crocodiles. Luckily we don't see any. Along with the help of some locals we find nine Mutela hargari, and Lake Bangweulu is the type locality for this species. Finding live individuals was one of the goals of the trip so all consider this a success. We have enough for molecular work and for soft tissue anatomy. We also find more Coelatura spp. here and we collect enough for the population genetics work.

We are finished by about 3pm and have enough time to set up camp on the beach and process samples without using headlamps (a first for the trip).