In 2016, former NHS Chief Technology Officer Ian was diagnosed with a idiopathic spinal cord herniation, spinal cord adhesions and Brown-Séquard’s syndrome. Five years later he met his wife to be Ruth who was from Zambia and in 2023 they booked their honeymoon over to meet her family. Join Ian as he shares his experience of his wife’s home-country.
Since I met Ruth back in 2021, I have wanted to go to Zambia, to meet her family in person and see where she grew up. So, when we got married in 2023, we planned to go for our honeymoon. We wanted to visit three main areas of Zambia – the capital, Lusaka, the Copperbelt where Ruth grew up, and finally Livingstone to see the Victoria Falls.
Flight arrangements
There are no direct flights to Zambia anymore so I wanted to split the journey into two roughly equal flights and also find an airline I could trust to handle my chair. Emirates came out the best option and were very helpful booking seats according to my needs and offering airport assistance. All very efficient.
Accessibility in Zambia
It’s fair to say Zambia is not the most accessible country. This is not for the want of trying – the people made every effort to help me get about in my chair. My Meyra Optimus 2 didn’t manoeuvre well indoors, and the hotels and restaurants weren’t in general geared up for chairs of any sort.
Getting between our three destinations in Zambia meant either taking internal flights or some long drives. My chats with the airlines had suggested that my chair could be a problem on internal flights, so we decided to drive. (Subsequent discussions in person with Zambia Airways informed me they would’ve taken my DE08L. Something to consider when we go back.) As I couldn’t find any way of hiring a wheelchair accessible car we ended up borrowing a Toyota Vellfire from a family member, and I took a pair of ramps to load/unload the chair.
On many roads in Zambia sections of highway are impassable and so the traffic has created its own long diversions by going on to the dirt at the side of the road. The juddering from being on dirt roads exacerbated my pain and I was relying on more pain relief than I would have liked.
Lusaka
For our first week we stayed at the Lusaka Legacy Resort near Lusaka city. We had an accessible room which was well equipped, albeit not to the standard we might expect in the UK. The shower-room was huge, although a bit more room in the bedroom would have been better. Manoeuvring the Optimus was a challenge but as I can transfer from my chair and walk short distances with a pair of sticks, I left it out in the stairwell.
The main resort area was nice and open plan, so I had little trouble getting around, even if I did have to take the long way round to follow the natural slopes in the absence of a lift. There were some places in Lusaka (such as the markets) I simply couldn’t access so I did miss out on that.
We went to Chaminuka Lodge and did a bush drive – it is quite surreal seeing the animals completely in the wild. The guide stopped the truck as a trio of elephants stopped right next to us and almost completely stripped a small tree of its branches.
We visited the East Park Shopping Mall and I’m pleased to say I was able to get around quite well. The food is of good quality, and cheap. I’ve become accustomed to Zambian dishes at home, but there is wide range of dishes you might expect to get here in the UK too.
The Copperbelt
Visiting the Copperbelt was a high priority for me as it was where my wife Ruth grew up. The drive was horrendous, and on arriving at a small lodge in Ruth’s home city of Kitwe late at night we discovered that the supposedly accessible room had a 20cm step to get into it. We hastily looked around and found the very nice Sherbourne Hotel. They didn’t have an accessible room per se but gave us a suite right next to reception and other facilities. Once again, the fact I have some mobility made this an option, but had I been confined to a wheelchair I would have struggled. The Copperbelt used to be a thriving area, but as the mining companies have withdrawn, so have all the facilities they provided.
After a few days in the Copperbelt we headed back to Lusaka for a couple of days before the drive down to Livingstone. The roads were somewhat better in the south-western part. Evidently, they are not as churned up by the lorries transporting goods into neighbouring countries, and the fact Livingstone is the tourist centre probably means the roads have better investment.
Livingstone
Livingstone is home to the Victoria Falls, one of the wonders of the world. We decided to make a proper honeymoon of this bit of the trip, and so booked the luxurious Royal Livingstone Victoria Falls Hotel. The room itself was a very good size and I was able to get my chair in without much bother, though I would’ve struggled to get it into the bathroom had I not been able to walk to it.
Waking up to find Zebra grazing outside your bedroom window is quite something. The Victoria Falls themselves are a 10-minute walk/ride along a path and the experience is stunning.
In conclusion
It pains me to say, but Zambia is not an ideal holiday destination for wheelchair users. The people are wonderful and went out of their way to try to help me, but the infrastructure simply isn’t there. We will be going back, largely because of our family there, but my understanding from talking to several people is that most, if not all, of central Africa is the same in terms of lack of accessible features. However, if you are able to overcome these challenges, a trip will not disappoint, just plan it all well.
Following his diagnosis, Ian started a spinal cord herniation blog in the hope it brings some useful insight to other people suffering from this or a similar condition.
This story was featured in Forward Magazine
