Trip of a lifetime: Sat 15 Dec - Mon 17 Dec 2012

After a couple of days in Harare we set off on Saturday morning on our road trip around Zimbabwe. This gave Chris a chance to see rural Zim beyond the towns. The roads are surprisingly good and apart from the frequent (and extremely annoying) police road blocks the journey from Harare to Kariba was a few hours easy drive. We had hoped to see some game, particularly elephant on the road near Kariba but the recent rains meant that they have all headed into the valleys where there is now a lot of greenery for them.

We spent the next 2 nights at Cutty Sark in Kariba. This was a trip down memory lane for me as it is about 30 years since I was last there. It is in the process of being refurbished and updated after years of having very few tourists and when it is finished it will once again be a lovely place to stay. The gardens are beautiful, green and lush and an oasis in the heat and humidity of Kariba. We walked through the gardens the first evening, disturbing a family of mongooses (mongeese, mongii????) and watched an amazing sunset over the water while in the bay nearby a family of hippos were wallowing in the water. A sundowner on the terrace over looking the lake before dinner was the perfect ending to a long hot day.

Next day we went down to the Kariba dam wall and had a walk along the top of the dam wall. In 1958 the dam wall was built to hold back the Zambezi river, flooding the valley and creating Zimbabwe's largest dam. A huge hydro electricity station is inside the dam wall and creates the majority of Zimbabwe's electricity. At the time it was very controversial as the dam displaced the Tongo people who lived along the edge of the water. The were also thousands of animals who had to be relocated in a massive operation known as Operation Noah. Lake Kariba is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Zim and is a beautiful spot for game viewing and tiger fishing and the majority of people stay on the houseboats which can be seen all over the lake. Another large industry is Kapenta fishing. Kapenta are similar to whitebait and are either dried or deep fried. The boats fish mainly at night and the bright lights which attract the fish into the nets can be seen dotting the lake all night. We also visited Carribea Bay hotel which was a very popular place in its day, with a lot of people travelling up to Kariba for a party weekend.

View of Kariba Dam and statue of Tongan water God 'Nyami Nyami'

We were up early the next morning to catch the ferry to take us from Kariba to Mlibisi from where we drove to our next stop at Victoria Falls.

The ferry leaves Kariba in the morning and takes 24 hours to travel the length of Lake Kariba from east to west. Getting the car reversed on to the ferry was a challenge - you have to reverse down a really steep hill with a drop on one side into the lake. Then over 2 steel ramps to get onto the car deck. With 3 people shouting different directions at me I eventually managed it!!

'Right hand down a bit!'

We had such a lovely relaxing time sitting on the deck and looking out over the lake. With the aid of binoculars and zoom lenses we managed to view elephant, hippos and buck on the edges of the water - to Chris's disappointment we didn't spot any crocodiles. Lunch, dinner and breakfast were all served on board and the food which was produced from the tiny galley kitchen was very impressive. beautifully presented by friendly and cheerful staff.