- Kabompo Ferry
The Kabompo Ferry is a
vehicle pontoon ferry with a 25-tonne capacity on theKabompo River dividing the Western and North-Western Provinces of Zambia. It is a manually-poweredcable ferry , propelled by pulling on the steel cables which anchor it to each bank of the 100 m wide river. The workers stand on the ferry and use wooden clubs to grasp the cable — each club has a groove cut in it which attaches to the cable and by moving the club like a paddle, half a dozen men can pull the pontoon across the river, which is a majortributary of the upperZambezi River . This system is used on other pontoon ferries in Zambia such as theKafue Ferry north of Chirundu and theChambeshi Ferry atMbesuma .The Kabompo Ferry is on the main north-south gravel road in western Zambia, from
Lukulu , Kaoma andMongu in Western Province toKabompo , Zambezi town andMwinilunga in North-Western Province. If the ferry is not operating the only alternative to reach the other bank is a detour of about 900 km viaKasempa in the east.References
* [http://www.saiab.ru.ac.za/ichthos/74.pdf Denis Tweddle: "Surveys of the Upper Zambezi River system"] in "Ichthos", Newsletter of the Friends of the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Issue Number 74, June 2004.]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.