Gone fishing in Kariba

Published Oct 21, 2014

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Harare - Houseboating on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe is possibly one of southern Africa’s most iconic holidays. And after four days of floating around in the sun, watching birds, checking ellies strolling through the grass at the water’s edge and doing a spot of tigerfishing, I can see why.

Generations of Zimbabweans, Zambians and South Africans have headed off to the lake during their long weekends and holidays to spend time with family and friends on this vast expanse of water surrounded by the best of the African bush.

Four days of doing exactly nothing, but relaxing, reading, sunning myself on the deck of the Lady Jaqueline houseboat, eating, sleeping and occasionally dipping myself in the on-deck plunge pool, was definitely something I could get into.

My partner, who is more hooked on fishing (pun intended), had dreams of spending hours on the boat, drinking beer and catching tigerfish.

I am happy to report that all dreams were fulfilled – even though not quite in the manner we had hoped, because, as it turned out, Mr Fishing ended up sleeping and eating and I was the only one who caught a tigerfish.

However, we won’t dwell on that.

By the time we got around to arranging our trip, both of us were in serious need of a break, so we agreed to extend our journey and take a little detour before meeting up with our family in Victoria Falls, from where we would all head to Lake Kariba together. We flew directly to Kasane in Botswana to spend a couple of days doing a spot of game viewing by water on the Chobe River at the eastern tip of the famous Caprivi Strip, now known as the Zambezi region.

Kasane, on the edge of the Chobe Game Reserve, feels like some kind of “frontier” town. As the guy from Flame of Africa drove us down the “main” street, he pointed out the school where the elephants had pushed down all the newly erected fences, trying to get to a marula tree that had actually been cut down the season before in an attempt to prevent the elephants coming into the grounds.

He then pointed out the spot where the authorities were busy placing a metal grid across the culvert in the road to prevent a family of hyena from breeding there again.

And, as we turned down towards the water’s edge, where we were to board our safari boat, he pointed out where, the previous week, a pride of lions had brought down a buffalo on the main tar road and refused to budge, resulting in everyone having to drive on to the dirt verge to get around them.

After all that, I’m not sure what we expected. To say the trip on our “safari” boat was nothing short of ridiculous is perhaps an understatement. Within minutes we saw literally hundreds of elephants and buffalos, not to mention antelope species and even hippos, out grazing on the grassy islands scattered across this section of the river.

The bird life was also fantastic. We had a chance to putter past the new, luxury Chobe Water Villas under construction on the Namibian side of the river.

We needed to check it out – you know – in case we seriously need another break in the future.

As we were tucking into the delicious wors rolls and chicken cooked on the on-board braai, we passed Flame of Africa’s fantastic floating restaurant, The Raft.

It crossed my mind that it would be great place for those taking a 4x4 trip through the region with mates to have a night off from cooking over the gas, or for people who have special occasions to celebrate. We were told one could also sleep on it out in the middle of the river.

Mr Fishing immediately asked if one was allowed to fish off it. Even though his binoculars were at his face, I could see his brain ticking and his mind smiling.

Both of us were smiling the next day at Vic Falls, when we had the opportunity to board a helicopter arranged by Shearwater Adventures and fly over this incredible natural wonder and see the world-famous Victoria Falls from the air.

Then it was the longish haul to Binga on the edge of Lake Kariba where the Lady J, as it is fondly known, is moored.

Even though we arrived a little late, in no time at all, the crew had us settled into our luxury en-en-suite cabins and by the time we’d unpacked and freshened up from our dusty trip, a magnificent fillet steak dinner with mushroom cream sauce and veggies was ready.

From there on, there was no stopping the amazing meals and snacks and service. We’d wake in the morning to tea, coffee and rusks. We’d pile onto the tender boat in the early mornings and head out fishing. The fishing grounds – if one can call them that – were often a little way from where we had moored, so it was like taking a game drive when on safari.

We’d potter along, binoculars at the ready to spot the numerous fish eagles, many nesting, the elephants wandering along the water’s edge, the crocs lazing on the rocks and the hippos grunting, sometimes a little too close for comfort as far as I was concerned!

I won’t go into the story of how I caught my smallish tiger fish, lest “you-know-who” gets grumpy again.

Okay, well if you insist. Actually, I have to be honest. It was a bit of a fluke. I was tired of casting and was fishing for bream at that point, dropping a worm on a hook over the side. Next minute, the line went taught and a fish flew into the air on the end of it. I reeled furiously, and there it was. I said skill. Mr Fishing still says fluke. Apparently tiger fish don’t normally bite on a worm.

Most mornings after fishing we’d return to a huge brunch of fruit, yogurt, cereal and the usual eggs, bacon, beans, rösti, tomato, mushrooms, fried onions… you name it, followed by hot freshly baked muffins and preserves with coffee.

Then we’d laze around on the top deck and read or sleep and dip in the aforementioned little on-deck pool until it was time to head off fishing and game viewing again. We’d return in time for a shower and supper. We’d sit under the stars in the balmy warm evenings, watching the moonrise over the water and the baobabs, finishing our beers and wine before staggering off to bed exhausted, as if we had been frantic all day.

Each day, the boat would move to a new mooring, one night to a pretty beach where they made a lovely bonfire for us to sit around. A couple of nights, the staff pulled our mattresses on to the deck for us and we slept under the stars, listening for a while to the far-off Capenta boats chugging along, and then the soft breeze blowing across the water. Aaaah, Africa. What more could we want?

 

l Contacts:

Flame of Africa: 031 762 2425 www.flameofafrica.com

Shearwater Adventures: www.shearwatervictoriafalls.com

Sunday Tribune

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