Lake Kariba

Days 47 & 48       3^rd & 4^th November

The next stop on our journey was two nights at Musango Island on Lake Kariba.  We landed at Bumi Hills airstrip and then had a drive and a boat trip to the island, to the delightful Musango Safari camp run by Steve and Wendy Edwards for the last 25 years.  A lovely small, personal, tree-shaded lodge overlooking the lake and a great place to relax, with cool individual rooms among the trees, thatched down to the ground and little bushbuck wandering around.

We declined the game drives in favour of pottering round the lake shore on their pontoon boat, watching elephants coming to drink, and the odd herd of impala plus lots of lovely water birds, including the White Crowned Lapwing, which was a new bird for me, the Giant and Malachite Kingfisher, the Great Egret, Reed Cormorant and the Green-backed Heron, watched by the odd wary hippo and a terrapin.

A group of 8 fun-loving visitors from South Africa made for enjoyable get-togethers at mealtimes, and the food was superb.  The little swimming pool was a welcome refreshment in the heat of the day.

A highlight was having dinner under the stars with 3 elephant passing silently by along the beach in the moonlight.

Another fun activity was throwing a freshly-caught fish out into the lake and trying to photograph a Fish Eagle swooping down to pluck it from the water – we were allowed 3 attempts, and boy do they move fast!!  Luckily, with my Canon 7D II going flat out, I did manage to get one or two decent shots.

Shortly after the fish eagle fun, we were privileged to watch a beautiful Osprey cruising above us, then folding back his wings and diving at incredible speed into the water over and over again to catch his breakfast (unsuccessfully) until the Fish Eagle chased it off ‘his’ patch.

We were sad to leave such a lovely and unique little piece of paradise.

We are now in Harare, staying with friends Linda & Oskar Rothen, who used to live in Uganda.  We are here for a week before we move on next Monday to Malawi, so we won't be blogging for a few days.