Mpulungu

Mpulungu is a town in the Northern Province of Zambia at the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika, and it is Zambia's lake port. Boats from Mpulungu reach the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Burundi, and the MV Liemba ferry sails from the town to Kasanga and Kigoma in western Tanzania, with onward connections to Bujumbura. It is also a fishing port and lies at the end of the old Great North Road. In 2007 a rail link was proposed from the TAZARA line at Nseluka, which together with a Mpika to Mchinji link would shorten the rail route to the deepwater port of Nacala in Mozambique. The harbour has a history of its own: until the 1920s vessels had to lie offshore at Katuta Bay, and in 1925 the provincial commissioner J.H. Venning took the Governor to the sheltered channel between Kumbula Island and the shore as a site for a harbour.