Overland Odyssey
Whoever coined the phrase “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”, never tried to move freight overland into the remote reaches of the Miombo Woodlands. The terrain is achingly beautiful, but unrelentingly rugged. It is hard on humans and savage on equipment.
Whoever coined the phrase “When the going gets tough, the When our operations manager, Clinton Burls, heads out into the wilderness looking for the finest honey, going off-road is all in a day’s work. His journeys into the uncharted regions of the woodlands are legendary, and grueling.
The beauty can break your heart, but these roads might break your back.
A 75 kilometre trip from his home base to a nearby village on local roads can take him 3 hours. So when he heads off the beaten path, things can get interesting. Many is the night he’s been forced to spent the night out in the open with his vehicle hopelessly bogged down on a barely discernible track.
Somehow, the dawn always brings willing hands from a settlement nearby. A passing cyclist might send help or a rare truck laden with pedal-powered sewing machines and other city necessities will happen by. Greetings, laughter, spades, ropes, sweat and they’re on their way again.
Getting bogged down and digging yourself out again… and again, is part of the journey.
It is because these areas are so untouched and pristine that the honey produced in these woodlands is so very pure.
There is no industry here, no machines and no pollution. Farming is limited to subsistence cropping carried out with hand tools and back-breaking work. There’s not a tractor or a pesticide to be found. The people here, and the bees, live and thrive in an unparalleled harmony with their natural environment.
Tracks can just vanish into the woodlands and there’s no clue what’s waiting at the end.
It is this natural isolation and environmental purity that Clinton seeks for Musanya’s Honey fields. He heads out with our first local recruit, Area Supervisor Kenny Kumba, in a four-wheel-drive pick-up to scout good areas to set up hives.
Once a good patch of woodland with fine trees and healthy undergrowth is found, local villages and settlements are contacted. Clinton and Kenny find and engage with local leaders and chiefs to introduce them to Musanya’s vision.
As beautiful and untouched as these areas are, there is very little in the way of modern development. Most people here live on less than a dollar a day. Access to amenities like electricity and running water is practically zero.
Essentials like health care and education are likewise limited to the very basics. Access to the means to provide these through economic upliftment is limited where opportunity and route-to-market are simply dreams.
We travel these roads to bring development and opportunity to extremely remote communities.
Our dream is to make meaningful development a reality for the people we work with. Honey of the quality found in these remote reaches of Zambia is rare in the world. Musanya aims to make it a sought-after luxury product.
We can then channel the income from global distribution back to the beekeepers who produce it. By creating an agri-business opportunity through honey, we seek to empower people though commerce rather than charity.
Delivering hives to far-flung villages is a promise of something better. It brings hope.
The beginning of this journey is working with the communities who make the Miombo Woodlands their home. We offer a simple exchange. With the permission of local elders, we equip families with ten beehives and the training to care for them.
When the hives are ready for harvesting, we provide the means and equipment and pay the family a market-related price per kilogram of honey. Lead farmers are appointed by the community and then trained to administer and inspect the hives of a set number of farmers.
Depending on the number of active families, each region also selects three or more individuals to be trained and equipped to harvest honey. Another adventure begins when the honey is transported. It goes first to local collection points and then on to the processing facility in the southern Zambian town of Livingstone.
Consultation is everything. Our trips always lead to a gathering of people and sharing ideas.
But that journey comes at the end of a season of beekeeping. There is a great journey that must be undertaken to establish the apiaries in the first place. Greater than the journey of exploration and discovery by our operations team, and expedition must be mounted to supply the hives.
Our hives are fabricated in the town of Ndola on the Copper Belt. They have to reach the most remote parts of Zambia’s North Western Province, and someone has to take them there. First we load a large interlink truck with hives in flat-pack form. These are taken by road to a staging point closest to the target community. Roads are challenging, with potholes and deviations along the way. It is not unusual for a journey of few hundred kilometers to take days. At the first drop-off point, the load is broken down and distributed onto off-road trucks for the next trek. ‘Bundu-bashing’ comes next. This is the delightful term for heading off cross-country in Africa.
Patience, willpower and axles are put to extreme tests. The pursuit of the finest honey on the continent is not an easy one.
With Clinton and Kenny scouting ahead in their more nimble pick-up, the expedition forges ahead by slow degrees. Once the word gets out that the hives are on their way, people come out to help wherever the going gets sticky.
As hives are distributed, the load gets lighter. Conditions seldom get easier though as we penetrate deeper into the woodlands. The rapture of a journey’s end is huge for the transport team, but the Musanya crew is only getting started. Hives must be assembled and distributed to families. School classrooms or shady trees become training facilities as demonstrations and practical lessons in beekeeping are conducted.
Flat-packed for ease of transport, the hives are easily assembled on arrival.
Team leaders are chosen and briefed and they are shown how to assemble the hives from their flat-pack format. Once this is done, correct siting and installation is honed so each of these lead farmers can show the beekeeper families under their care the various tasks of bee farming.
This job done and with schedules for regular visits confirmed Clinton and Kenny.
Shade their eyes for a glimpse down the track towards home. Our intrepid honey-hunters are on the trail again bringing honey to the world and hope to rural Zambian families.
Spread a little cheer with our easy-peasy Honey Cherry Vanilla Muffins and get the best out of Musanya’s pure African honey and seasonal cherries.
We’re always talking about the quality of the honey we harvest. Of course we are. We love the flavour, we love its purity and best of all, we are proud of how our honey is changing lives in remote parts of Africa.
Superfood honeys fuel your body so it can fight back against chronic disease and other nutrient deficiencies. Our honey comes from small, African producers to encourage sustainable development in rural communities.
Creating small business opportunities for people in remote rural communities is all part of the promise of Musanya’s sustainable beekeeping project.