The Kabompo Ferry is a

vehicle A vehicle () is a machine designed for self-propulsion, usually to transport people, cargo, or both. The term "vehicle" typically refers to land vehicles such as human-powered land vehicle, human-powered vehicles (e.g. bicycles, tricycles, velo ...

pontoon ferry at the

Kabompo River The Kabompo River is one of the main tributaries of the upper Zambezi River. It flows entirely in Zambia, rising to the east of the source of the Zambezi, in North-Western Province along the watershed between the Zambezi and Congo river basins ...

near the village of Watopa, approx. 60 km east of the river mouth to

Zambezi River The Zambezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than half of t ...

. The Kabompo River is dividing the

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

North-Western Provinces The North-Western Provinces was an Presidencies and provinces of British India, administrative region in British Raj, British India. The North-Western Provinces were established in 1836, through merging the administrative divisions of the Cede ...

of Zambia. The ferry with a 25-tonne capacity serves the D557 road, a main north-south gravel road connection in western Zambia, from Lukulu,

Kaoma Kaoma was a French-Brazilian band formed around 1989 by French producers Jean Georgakarakos and Olivier Lorsac to promote the song "Lambada (song), Lambada". Loalwa Braz was hired to sing lead vocals, other musicians were Chyco Dru (bass), Jacky ...

and

Mongu Mongu is the capital of Western Province in Zambia and was the capital of the formerly-named province and historic state of Barotseland. Its population is 179,585 (2010 census), and it is also the headquarters of Mongu District. Mongu is the ho ...

in Western Province to

Kabompo Kabompo is a town in north-western Zambia, lying on the Kabompo River with a population over 88,000 people. It is surrounded by teak forest and is home to a Roman Catholic mission. Kabompo was founded in the 1900s or even earlier than that, the dis ...

, Zambezi town and

Mwinilunga Mwinilunga is a town in the North-Western Province of Zambia. It is the headquarters of Mwinilunga District, one of the province's eleven districts. Geography Location The town lies on the west bank of the ''West Lunga River'', along the Ching ...

in North-Western Province. It is a manually powered

cable ferry A cable ferry (including the types chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...

, 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, {{coord, 14.038409, S, 23.629588, E, region:ZM-01_type:city(14000), display=title

References

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. Kabompo River Ferries of Zambia