On the Old Hunter's Road

On the banks of the Linyanti
Image Credit: Tom Varley
Written by Peter Roberts for the Zambezi Traveller
At the turn of the last century Victoria Falls had only just appeared on the tourist map. Only known to the wider world since 1855, when David Livingstone made their existence popular knowledge, to reach the Victoria Falls required an expedition of many weeks, if not months, travelling overland by ox-cart along rough tracks through thick bush inhabited by wild and dangerous animals. Explorers, hunters and traders all made tracks towards the Falls, and before long a wagon road ran from the south. The Old Hunters’ Road, as it became known, now forms the border between Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Read full article in March issue of the Zambezi Traveller or online on the Zambezi Traveller website (external link, openins in new window).
Read more about the history of the Victoira Falls online here: To The Victoria Falls (external link, openins in new window).

Livingstone's Legacy

Today is the 200th anniversary of David Livingstone's birth, in Blantyre, Scotland.

This year the Zambian town which still bears his name celebrates the missionary turned explorer's life and achievements with a series of special events.

Read more here.

For some interesting perspectives on Livingstone's life see the following links.

Dr Livingstone and the cult of Victorian celebrity
Daily Telegraph, 20 March 2013

Today marks the bicentenary of the birth of Dr Livingstone, the missionary-explorer worshipped as a near-saint. In reality he was a cruel parent and husband and, though he achieved much, owed his saintly reputation to the media.

Read more: The Daily Telegraph.

The African chief converted to Christianity by Dr Livingstone
BBC News, 19 Mar 2013

...200 years since the birth of David Livingstone, perhaps the most famous of the missionaries to visit Africa in the 19th Century. But as author and Church historian Stephen Tomkins explains, the story of an African chief he converted is every bit as incredible as Livingstone's.

Read more: BBC News.

In the footsteps of Livingstone
The Daily Telegraph, 13 Mar 2013

As Dr Livingstone's bicentenary approaches, the explorer John Blashford-Snell considers the enduring legacy of the Scotsman and his travels.

Read more: The Daily Telegraph.

Dr Livingstone 'lied in famous account of slave market massacre'
The Daily Telegraph, 02 Nov 2011

Dr David Livingstone may have lied about his famous account of a slave market massacre, a new study into a faded 140-year-old diary has suggested.

Read more: The Daily Telegraph.

Dr David Livingstone
To The Victoria Falls

A Scottish medical missionary and explorer would be the first to make two important discoveries regarding the Zambizi river. Dr David Livingstone was the first to realise that the upper section of the river became the Zambezi known from the east coast, and the first to see the magnificent Victoria Falls, naming them after his British Queen and making them known to the world.

Read more: To The Victoria Falls.

David Livingstone and the ‘discovery’ of the Victoria Falls

2013 marks the 200th anniversary of David Livingstone's birth. Last year, on the 157th anniversary of his 'discovery' of the Victoria Falls, we looked at Livingstone and his legacy in relation his most famous discovery for the Victoria Falls Guide (all articles researched and written by Peter Roberts).
David Livingstone and the ‘discovery’ of the Victoria Falls
For more detailed backgrund on David Livingstone and his Zambezi travels see To The Victoria Falls.
Photo Credit: David Livingstone (To The Victoria Falls)

Livingstone's Lechwe

When David Livingstone reached Linyanti on the banks of the Chobe in 1851, he not only found the upper reaches of the Zambezi, but also large numbers of a species of spiral-horned antelope specially adapted to the seasonally flooded marshlands, the lechwe (Kobus leche). Livingstone had been the first to describe this species to science when he became the first European to reach Lake Ngami in 1849, and he later discovered another subspecies when he travelled upstream and into Kafue Flats.
Read more: The Zambezi Traveller: Livingstone's Lechwe
Photo Credit: Zambezi Traveller