I’ve been very neglectful I know but unfortunately I haven’t had great internet availability. So I will have to give a brief summary of what has happened since we left Zimbabwe.
We left Harare ealier than planned as Dave’s course was cancelled so we had to get him back to South Africa quickly so he could do one down there before going back to work. At the same time our flights to Lusaka got postponed to 25th April as Chooks’s work permit hadn’t come through. Once back in Ballito I decided I should pop up to Dubai to see how the family were settling in up there so I left for Dubai on the 13th April for 10days. It was very hard saying good bye to Dave as I don’t like crying in public. As I tried to keep control of my emotions I let Dave do all the talking as I didn’t trust myself to speak. Which is a shame because I didn’t agree with him when he said 8 months isn’t a long time but instead of disagreeing I just let im hold me. I’ve started again now, which is a very good reason not to keep a diary as somethings you just don’t want to have to relive.
Although I was excited at first to see Dubai; I soon became very bored and was longing to be back in Africa. I haven’t really got a lot to say about Dubai apart from the shopping is amazing but depressing if you have no money and no use for the clothes for at least another year. So instead I am going to entertain you all with my reflections so far on my adventure in Africa.
Before you start thinking that I grew up with a love of animals & that I always wanted to live in the African bush, I will have to put you straight on that. I grew up in Dorset with my two brothers, Tristan and Barty; both of whom are younger than me. The only pets we were allowed were goldfish, which always seemed to die on us and actually I still don’t know what happened to them when we moved from Dorset to Norfolk. Barty always wanted a dog but after we moved up to Norfolk my Mum joined British Airways as cabin crew and we went off to boarding school so there would have been no one at home to look after it. I think it was a lucky escape for our Mother as she hasn’t any love for animals. As to wildlife I loved the outdoors and camping and the beauty of the countryside but apart from being able to identify the most common trees and flowers that was as far as my interest took me. So how I’ve ended up traipsing around the African countryside I hardly know. I guess it’s amazing where love will take you. How cheesey!!
My one passion, which has stayed with me through my teenage years until now is fashion. Before I started spending such long periods of time in Africa I worked for a couple of years as manager and buyer for a boutique called Ruby and Tallulah in Burnham Market. I loved my job, not only did I get to advise people on what to wear all day I got to go to Paris and London fashion weeks. The job was ideal for me but sadly Norfolk didn’t have anything else to offer me and during my time there Mummy and Rick sold our house and moved to South Africa. Loving fashion so much I should have followed a career in London but I’m not a city girl and instead I followed my parents to Africa. In Ballito I met David and for the past couple of years I have gone back to the UK to work during David’s hunting season and then come back to Ballito to see him during his off season. With the decision in mind of trying to find somewhere to settle between the two continents I decided to give it a go in Africa. There wasn’t a job available with the company Dave works for and I wasn’t sure I was ready for Dave to see how useless I would be in the bush and after spending those three weeks with him in Moz I think I made the right decision in looking elsewhere.
But anyway back to fashion. My intention in revealing this to you is that I wanted to give you a fashion report from Africa. You can’t compare African fashion with British fashion, for a start they are a season behind us as our winter is their summer and vice versa. If you can call it a winter!! There are parts of South Africa like Cape Town and Jo’burg, which can get quite chilly the same as parts of Zimbabwe but not enough to start wearing big winter coats, gloves and boots like we do in the UK. They do though and I don’t blame them, it’s nice to have a change from wearing shorts and bikinis for a while. I actually prefer winter clothes there’s more of an art to it. You can really design your outfit and actually wear clothes. I’m not suggesting that South Africans go around naked but some of the girls you do have to double take to see if they are actually wearing a skirt!! I have to admit I’m not as shocked by how the girls dress here as I was when I first came to South Africa. The thing is that in Durban from about January to February it is so hot and humid that you can’t even face putting on clothes. For me that means I take to wearing light, loose dresses as I just cant bare tight clothing when you feel so sticky. South African girls seem to see it as an excuse to wear as short a skirt as possible and as low a cut tops as possible but all of this remains as tight as possible, which to me seems to defeat the prupose of trying to stay cool.
In Harare you have the disadvantage of having a deflated society, which has reduced the availability of fashionable clothing. Mixed in with this you have a lot of youngsters who have spent a few months or years in England and appear to have raided Topshop and New Look whilst they were there. I was very surprised to see a girl in pink tights walking through Borrowdale Village. Zimbabwe used to be known as the “bread basket of the World” so was largely a farming community, so to see a girl in pink tights in Harare is as strange as the same outfit walking into a local pub in Norfolk. I won’t say the Hoste Arms because more bizarre outfits have been known to grace the bar there. My Mother being one of them when she walked into the bar in a full length silver fox coat complete with hood; very extravagant for essentially a farming village pub but she looked fabulous. But then the Hoste is a bit more fashionable than your average village local. What I’m trying to say is that there is a time and a place for everything. Being fashionable or getting an outfit right has a lot to do with the location and environment you wear it in. Always dress for the occasion.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Easter Weekend
Our trip in Zim has been extended as Dave needs to do his advanced first aid refresher course next week; so we decided to go back down to the Valley again for Easter weekend for some more fishing. DK had also bought Kal a new rod and reel so we were both eager to try out our new toys. The guys were complaining about the roads being busy with Easter traffic, I think we saw almost 50 cars in 5 hours!! They’ve obviously never travelled anywhere in the UK that same weekend. It was a shame though because a lot were trailing boats so we new that the river was going to be busier than last week and we wouldn’t be the only ones there.
All the way along the road from Harare to Chirundu there are guys on the side of the road selling worms for fishing. One guy adverstised his worms as “Anaconda Worms” and another said his were “Puffader Worms”.
We kept remembering about the worms too late and missing the stops so by the time we stopped we were desperate. This guy didn’t even have a sign up he was just holding a box. We bought a box of worms from him for $4. The box was full of earth with what looked about 6 worms in it and the soil was looking very dry but they had to do.
We had been invited by Ben who is the new manager of the croc farm, which used to belong to Dave’s family; to come and stay in Dave’s old house where Ben now lives. When we arrived Ben wasn’t there but we were greeted by his “cook boy”, Levison, who was wearing his best suit and tie. We unloaded our kit and checked out the state of the house. Dave’s family had left the house three years previously and it had been pretty much left to rack and ruin. The geyser had fallen through the roof, which hadn’t been fixed so over three of the rooms there was no roof. The kitchen was crawling with ants and stunk of rat poison, which coated the edges of all the work surfaces. The cleanest part of the house was outside but the mozzies were terrible. The fridge was in one of the bedrooms which had a crust of bread on the floor in front of it which was crawling with ants. The two mattresses in that room were also covered in ants. To top it all there was also no running water. So you can imagine how excited I was about spending the weekend there!! For super we ate the tiger fish I’d caught the previous weekend and we toasted the Nyami Nyami in the hope of catching more fish in the days to come. The Nyami Nyami are the River God’s that the Batonka tribe believe were separated when the Kariba dam wall was built. Mr Nyami Nyami lives in the river and Mrs Nyami Nyami lives in Lake Kariba. After the wall was built the Batonka people believed that all the earthquakes caused by the land around settling from the pressure of the built up water was actually Mrs Nyami Nyami trying to break the dam wall to reunite with Mr Nyami Nyami. When you are on the water you have to toast Nyami Nyami if you want to catch anything.
Kal and DK had brought there own mattress with them and decided that the coolest place to put it was the lounge. We brought in the two mattresses from our room once we’d brushed off all the ants and we turned the lounge into a dormitory. Kal and DK had also brought there fan with them which was lekker to have on us. Rodney who lives up in the main house heard we were staying and came to see us. He saw what a state the house was in and offered for us to come and stay with him. We were very keen but were already settled for the night. So we decided to move over in the morning.
We had a great day on the river catching 6 fish in total. I caught two, both about 1.5kg.
DK caught 2 and Chooks and Kelvin both caught about a 3.5kg. Dave and Karen still hadn’t even had a bite and were getting very frustrated. We found a great place to have lunch on the river bank under a big Natal Mahogany, which was lovely to snooze under.
When we got off the water we headed straight for Roddy’s house to confirm it would be alright for us to stay. He was very pleased to have us so we went back to Ben’s house to pack up our kit and go back to the big house. I’ve never been more relieved. Our rooms at Roddy’s were en suite and air conditioned so we were all very happy.
We got invited up the hill to a party by a friend of Dave, DK and Kal’s who was also staying in Chirundu. Dave and I rode in the back of the Land Rover, which is great for game viewing from. We saw two elephants on the road on the way there and one on the way back.
Chooks woke us up with a cup of tea at 6.30am. We’d all been very keen to get up early the day before but when it came round to it we weren’t so enthusiastic. Especially after all those gin and tonics, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. Thanks to Chooks we managed to get ourselves together and were on the water by about 9am. The river was much busier than the weekend before, we very rarely looked up and saw than less than three boats riding on the same drift as us. Kal and Dave started to get desperate about having no bites and even gave Nyami Nyami a chocolate Easter egg.
We found a different place to have lunch, which everybody was so excited about I was very nervous as we had to walk through a bit of long grass to get to our pic nic area, which DK had set up for us. I was worried about about crocs and snakes so once I got to tarpaulin I based myself in the middle and didn’t move for a couple of hours.
Our day fishing wasn’t as successful as the previous day. After a few hours of being unsuccessful Kelvin put his rod in just to prove to us that there were actually fish there because of course he caught a 3kg fish. That was the only fish we got in the boat all day. I’d had a couple of bites but I couldn’t land any of them. The boys started calling me Immy Zzzzzz as I seem to have all the luck with the fish. Kal put up a good fight with a log but apart from that we caught nothing. It was still a beautiful day. Kelvin dropped us off at the pump house on the estate where we’d left DK’s Land Rover. On our way back to the house we saw another ellie, ran over a cobra and we saw a croc, which quickly escaped into a pan next to the road.
I woke the next day feeling much better and we all had tea watching the warthog and a troop of baboons who were playing by the pan in front of the house. After tea we hit the road back to Harare. The roads were busier than on our way down I think I counted at least 75 cars!! Zimbabwe has had toll roads now for a few months and they’re a bit of a joke. They consist of about 5 cones in the middle of the road, which are gigantic and a policeman standing there collecting your money. The toll costs 1USD and they give you a receipt. To be fair it is working because the roads are much better than when I came up in December.
We stopped off at Nandos in Harare which was just what I needed; I always seem to be hungry at the moment. I hope I don’t have worms!!
All the way along the road from Harare to Chirundu there are guys on the side of the road selling worms for fishing. One guy adverstised his worms as “Anaconda Worms” and another said his were “Puffader Worms”.
We kept remembering about the worms too late and missing the stops so by the time we stopped we were desperate. This guy didn’t even have a sign up he was just holding a box. We bought a box of worms from him for $4. The box was full of earth with what looked about 6 worms in it and the soil was looking very dry but they had to do.
We had been invited by Ben who is the new manager of the croc farm, which used to belong to Dave’s family; to come and stay in Dave’s old house where Ben now lives. When we arrived Ben wasn’t there but we were greeted by his “cook boy”, Levison, who was wearing his best suit and tie. We unloaded our kit and checked out the state of the house. Dave’s family had left the house three years previously and it had been pretty much left to rack and ruin. The geyser had fallen through the roof, which hadn’t been fixed so over three of the rooms there was no roof. The kitchen was crawling with ants and stunk of rat poison, which coated the edges of all the work surfaces. The cleanest part of the house was outside but the mozzies were terrible. The fridge was in one of the bedrooms which had a crust of bread on the floor in front of it which was crawling with ants. The two mattresses in that room were also covered in ants. To top it all there was also no running water. So you can imagine how excited I was about spending the weekend there!! For super we ate the tiger fish I’d caught the previous weekend and we toasted the Nyami Nyami in the hope of catching more fish in the days to come. The Nyami Nyami are the River God’s that the Batonka tribe believe were separated when the Kariba dam wall was built. Mr Nyami Nyami lives in the river and Mrs Nyami Nyami lives in Lake Kariba. After the wall was built the Batonka people believed that all the earthquakes caused by the land around settling from the pressure of the built up water was actually Mrs Nyami Nyami trying to break the dam wall to reunite with Mr Nyami Nyami. When you are on the water you have to toast Nyami Nyami if you want to catch anything.
Kal and DK had brought there own mattress with them and decided that the coolest place to put it was the lounge. We brought in the two mattresses from our room once we’d brushed off all the ants and we turned the lounge into a dormitory. Kal and DK had also brought there fan with them which was lekker to have on us. Rodney who lives up in the main house heard we were staying and came to see us. He saw what a state the house was in and offered for us to come and stay with him. We were very keen but were already settled for the night. So we decided to move over in the morning.
We had a great day on the river catching 6 fish in total. I caught two, both about 1.5kg.
DK caught 2 and Chooks and Kelvin both caught about a 3.5kg. Dave and Karen still hadn’t even had a bite and were getting very frustrated. We found a great place to have lunch on the river bank under a big Natal Mahogany, which was lovely to snooze under.
When we got off the water we headed straight for Roddy’s house to confirm it would be alright for us to stay. He was very pleased to have us so we went back to Ben’s house to pack up our kit and go back to the big house. I’ve never been more relieved. Our rooms at Roddy’s were en suite and air conditioned so we were all very happy.
We got invited up the hill to a party by a friend of Dave, DK and Kal’s who was also staying in Chirundu. Dave and I rode in the back of the Land Rover, which is great for game viewing from. We saw two elephants on the road on the way there and one on the way back.
Chooks woke us up with a cup of tea at 6.30am. We’d all been very keen to get up early the day before but when it came round to it we weren’t so enthusiastic. Especially after all those gin and tonics, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. Thanks to Chooks we managed to get ourselves together and were on the water by about 9am. The river was much busier than the weekend before, we very rarely looked up and saw than less than three boats riding on the same drift as us. Kal and Dave started to get desperate about having no bites and even gave Nyami Nyami a chocolate Easter egg.
We found a different place to have lunch, which everybody was so excited about I was very nervous as we had to walk through a bit of long grass to get to our pic nic area, which DK had set up for us. I was worried about about crocs and snakes so once I got to tarpaulin I based myself in the middle and didn’t move for a couple of hours.
Our day fishing wasn’t as successful as the previous day. After a few hours of being unsuccessful Kelvin put his rod in just to prove to us that there were actually fish there because of course he caught a 3kg fish. That was the only fish we got in the boat all day. I’d had a couple of bites but I couldn’t land any of them. The boys started calling me Immy Zzzzzz as I seem to have all the luck with the fish. Kal put up a good fight with a log but apart from that we caught nothing. It was still a beautiful day. Kelvin dropped us off at the pump house on the estate where we’d left DK’s Land Rover. On our way back to the house we saw another ellie, ran over a cobra and we saw a croc, which quickly escaped into a pan next to the road.
I woke the next day feeling much better and we all had tea watching the warthog and a troop of baboons who were playing by the pan in front of the house. After tea we hit the road back to Harare. The roads were busier than on our way down I think I counted at least 75 cars!! Zimbabwe has had toll roads now for a few months and they’re a bit of a joke. They consist of about 5 cones in the middle of the road, which are gigantic and a policeman standing there collecting your money. The toll costs 1USD and they give you a receipt. To be fair it is working because the roads are much better than when I came up in December.
We stopped off at Nandos in Harare which was just what I needed; I always seem to be hungry at the moment. I hope I don’t have worms!!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Shopping in Harare
The next day we left Chirundu. It was my birthday and Dave had promised to buy me a present in Borrowdale, which is the Kings Road of Harare. The problem is the shops there wouldn’t even rival the high street in Hunstanton. The best shops are hunting or fishing shops and seeing as I had the fishing bug we went along to Master Angler. Here Dave bought me a reel as he has a spare rod we can attach it to and a pink Bass Pro beer can cooler, which is so cool!!
From Harare we went onto Marondera as we were staying with DK and Karen at his Oupa’s farm. We stayed there for a couple of days and there house is so nice and homely. DK cooked a stir fry on our first night and Karen baked me a cake for my birthday. The next night we went down to the dam on the farm where DK’s Oupa has built a lovely thatched lodge and braai area. A couple of Dave’s rugby friends came over and we had a braai. The sunset was spectacular.
The next day we drove into Harare again, which is only an hour away from Marondera but we’d had a flat tyre that morning. Dave pulled a 4 inch bit of lead out of the tyre. We couldn’t get the tyre fixed in Marondera as they had no power so we risked it and trickled onto Harare. With the spare attached we could only drive a max of 80km/hr so it took us two hours to get there. Luckily Harare had power so we dropped off the car and went into Borrowdale. We stopped for lunch at Delicious, which is the in place to eat in Borrowdale as you can go on the internet there. We then went into Feredays, which is a hunting, camping and fishing shop and has been around since the days of Frederick Courteney Selous. Because of which it is extremely expensive. Dave bought some gaters to go over his boots a leather bullet holder for his belt, which all came to 85USD.
From Harare we went onto Marondera as we were staying with DK and Karen at his Oupa’s farm. We stayed there for a couple of days and there house is so nice and homely. DK cooked a stir fry on our first night and Karen baked me a cake for my birthday. The next night we went down to the dam on the farm where DK’s Oupa has built a lovely thatched lodge and braai area. A couple of Dave’s rugby friends came over and we had a braai. The sunset was spectacular.
The next day we drove into Harare again, which is only an hour away from Marondera but we’d had a flat tyre that morning. Dave pulled a 4 inch bit of lead out of the tyre. We couldn’t get the tyre fixed in Marondera as they had no power so we risked it and trickled onto Harare. With the spare attached we could only drive a max of 80km/hr so it took us two hours to get there. Luckily Harare had power so we dropped off the car and went into Borrowdale. We stopped for lunch at Delicious, which is the in place to eat in Borrowdale as you can go on the internet there. We then went into Feredays, which is a hunting, camping and fishing shop and has been around since the days of Frederick Courteney Selous. Because of which it is extremely expensive. Dave bought some gaters to go over his boots a leather bullet holder for his belt, which all came to 85USD.
After fishing we spent a couple of hours relaxing in the shade of a tree on the river bank, which was just stunning. There was no one else in sight just DK, Karen, Dave and I.
In the late afternoon we packed up the cars with food and booze and headed into Dave’s old estate to have a braai in the bush. We first went to pay our respects to Dave’s Dad who we’d laid to rest under a Baobab tree next to a beautiful pan with lilies; last year. Quite poetically a herd of elephant cows passed by on the other side of the pan whilst we were toasting Jon. They had two calves with them and one was very tiny. We then drove onto the boundary of the estate by the river and started a fire and watched the sun set. Dave stalked and caught a Nightjar and we hear lions roaring in the distance. I didn’t want to leave it was so beautiful. Unfortunately we eventually got chased off by the mozzies.
We drove back in convoy and Dave stood up through the sun roof with a spot light and we had a game drive back. We saw two male lions just on the side of the road so we drove into the bush and watched them watching us back for a while. Unfortunately it was too dark to get any decent pictures. They were young boys only about two years old. So they had a bit of a Mohican hair do going on. That was pretty amazing and topped a perfect day. I think I’m beginning to understand what makes the African bush such a special place. I’d been wearing my new Courteney boots so I was feeling much more confident and thought I was finally conquering my fears. However when we got back to the house there were two of the biggest geckos I’ve ever seen and all my previous worries came back. The geckos here are called Turners geckos and I’m sure they must eat small birds.
Dave was determined to catch one, which he did and the gecko wasn’t too happy about it. Dave told DK to put his finger in his mouth which he stupidly went to do then changed his mind last minute as the geckos teeth grazed his finger and drew blood. As DK pulled away his finger the gecko swung round and attached his mouth around Dave’s finger. The gecko’s jaws were so strong that they couldn’t get him to release Dave, in the end they had to use their knife to wedge the gecko’s mouth open so Dave could pull his finger out. We were all laughing because he got all that he deserved.
In the late afternoon we packed up the cars with food and booze and headed into Dave’s old estate to have a braai in the bush. We first went to pay our respects to Dave’s Dad who we’d laid to rest under a Baobab tree next to a beautiful pan with lilies; last year. Quite poetically a herd of elephant cows passed by on the other side of the pan whilst we were toasting Jon. They had two calves with them and one was very tiny. We then drove onto the boundary of the estate by the river and started a fire and watched the sun set. Dave stalked and caught a Nightjar and we hear lions roaring in the distance. I didn’t want to leave it was so beautiful. Unfortunately we eventually got chased off by the mozzies.
We drove back in convoy and Dave stood up through the sun roof with a spot light and we had a game drive back. We saw two male lions just on the side of the road so we drove into the bush and watched them watching us back for a while. Unfortunately it was too dark to get any decent pictures. They were young boys only about two years old. So they had a bit of a Mohican hair do going on. That was pretty amazing and topped a perfect day. I think I’m beginning to understand what makes the African bush such a special place. I’d been wearing my new Courteney boots so I was feeling much more confident and thought I was finally conquering my fears. However when we got back to the house there were two of the biggest geckos I’ve ever seen and all my previous worries came back. The geckos here are called Turners geckos and I’m sure they must eat small birds.
Turners Gecko
Dave was determined to catch one, which he did and the gecko wasn’t too happy about it. Dave told DK to put his finger in his mouth which he stupidly went to do then changed his mind last minute as the geckos teeth grazed his finger and drew blood. As DK pulled away his finger the gecko swung round and attached his mouth around Dave’s finger. The gecko’s jaws were so strong that they couldn’t get him to release Dave, in the end they had to use their knife to wedge the gecko’s mouth open so Dave could pull his finger out. We were all laughing because he got all that he deserved.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Jo'burg to the Zambezi Valley
We got off early as we had a long drive ahead of us. We were driving up through Botswana, which depsite meaning we passed two border posts was quicker than going the busier route through to Zim. In Botswana we had to stop by a "Botswana" sign so I can say "I'm in Botswana saving lives...do you?" from the Armstrong and Miller show.
The sunset on our return to the chalet was beautiful. I can honestly say I cant think of any better place I’d rather be.
Kal, DK, Dave and I slept like children in the shade of a tree for a couple of hours and then we were back on the boat again late afternoon. It was a very unsuccessful day for all as we caught absolutely nothing. When we got back to the house Uncle Mike got out his guitar and we sat around the fire listening to him play until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer.
We decided to make a bet with the boys this morning after some typical male egotistical boasting so we were keen for a good day of sport. So far we had only managed to catch the one fish between us all so we were confident our luck was about to change. And boy did it change. Within a few minutes of casting my rod for the first time that morning we heard that zzz zzzing again. Now I’d caught a lot of reeds over the weekend so I wasn’t too confident that it was a fish but Kelvin pulled slightly on the line and confirmed it was a fish. Now all attention was on me all the girls quickly reeled in their lines and were focused on cheering me on. First I had to let him run with the bait for a bit and then on Kelvin’s sign I striked hard with the rod, I had to strike a couple of times before I’d hooked him. I had no idea that it was going to be so heavy. Those tiger fish are awesome they give such a fight. My rod was almost doubled over whilst I pulled and reeled away trying not to let the line go slack. Just when I was starting to think is there really a fish on the end of this hook he flipped up in the air in protest. The girls started cheering again as they could see it was a big fish. I was still reeling in and my arms were really beginning to ache now. Finally we could see him close to the boat and Kelvin dropped the net in and fished him out. I was very impressed, I was beginning to think this fishing malarkey was a waste of time but after that moment when I held my first fish I’m on for the competition.
Mine was a 3.5kg tiger fish, which I’m told isn’t too shabby for my first fish. My arms didn’t stop shaking for a good hour after from the adrenalin but my rod was straight back in after I’d bagged that. Lesley caught another one that day, which was even bigger than mine so we were ready to call it a day and compare, catches with the boys. Well the boys had caught nothing again so we won fair and square.
We stayed with Dave's Uncle in Bulawayo on the way up and Chooks gave me an early birthday present which was a pair of Courteney Boots so I'm so excited and ready to tackle the bush again in my Safari Boots!!
We continued our journey at some ridiculous hour the following morning and made it to Harare just about lunchtime. We met up with DK (Dave's best friend) and his girlfriend Kal and drove on in convoy to Chirundu in the Zambezi Valley. The drive up to Harare had been beautiful. I've seen several amazing sunsets but sunrise is my best. Especially over that characteristic vista of the Zimbawean midlands.
By the time we got to Chirundu the headache, which had been slowly growing all day had reached it's peak and once settled in the chalet at Tiger Safaris I went straight to bed. The next morning I was informed I'd missed a great night involving an elephant bull at the fence around our chalet and a crocodile in the pool, where Dave and DK had been swimming.
Luckily the croc was only about a meter long so the boys quickly caught it and released it in the bushes!!
We were up early the next day to make the most of our time on the river. Now I've never even held a rod before so fishing is completely alien to me. We spent a couple of hours on the Zambezi which is complete bliss as you don't see another human for hours. Unfortunately we didn't catch anything. I was later to learn that fishing involves a lot of sitting and waiting with not a lot of catching. Later that afternoon Dave's cousin Lesley, her boyfriend Peter and another family friend Uncle Mike arrived. We spent a couple of hours lounging around the pool, which is very hard to relax in now that you spend the whole time on constant look out for other crocs. Well I did anyway everyone else was very blasé about the fact that a croc may slip in while we're not looking.
At 3.30pm we headed back to the boats with a cooler box so full I thought we would never get through it (how wrong was I). We had two boats and spent the whole afternoon catching up and enjoying the amazing view and of course a few beverages. We spent about an hour very close to a pod of hippos, which I could spend all day watch them.
We were after the famous Tiger Fish but it was getting close to home time when I was beginning to think they were another Zimbabwean myth. We spent half an hour fishing for Bream off the edge of the river.
We were typically split one boat for the boys and us girls were in the other. My about 4pm Kal and I had become more interested in our drinks and gossip so neither of us had a rod in. You can imagine our surprise when we heard that zzz zzz zzzing of the line running. We looked over to Lesley and there she was rod almost bent in half trying to reel this fish in. They put up quite a fight these tigers but Lesley professionally landed the fish and it weighed 2.5kg. So we were very proud and ready to get ashore to show everyone our fish and because unbelievable the cooler box was running low.
The sunset on our return to the chalet was beautiful. I can honestly say I cant think of any better place I’d rather be.
The boys were very impressed and the evening got very out of hand as the drinking increased. We had a food fight, which I ended up with 2 eggs cracked over my head, followed by a game of spin the bottle in the pool. So you can imagine the worse.
We weren’t so early out on the river the next day as we were all feeling a bit sorry for ourselves from the night before. We took 2 boats out again and the rest of our party drove through Dave’s old estate and met us by a tree on the river bank where we had lunch.
Kal, DK, Dave and I slept like children in the shade of a tree for a couple of hours and then we were back on the boat again late afternoon. It was a very unsuccessful day for all as we caught absolutely nothing. When we got back to the house Uncle Mike got out his guitar and we sat around the fire listening to him play until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer.
We decided to make a bet with the boys this morning after some typical male egotistical boasting so we were keen for a good day of sport. So far we had only managed to catch the one fish between us all so we were confident our luck was about to change. And boy did it change. Within a few minutes of casting my rod for the first time that morning we heard that zzz zzzing again. Now I’d caught a lot of reeds over the weekend so I wasn’t too confident that it was a fish but Kelvin pulled slightly on the line and confirmed it was a fish. Now all attention was on me all the girls quickly reeled in their lines and were focused on cheering me on. First I had to let him run with the bait for a bit and then on Kelvin’s sign I striked hard with the rod, I had to strike a couple of times before I’d hooked him. I had no idea that it was going to be so heavy. Those tiger fish are awesome they give such a fight. My rod was almost doubled over whilst I pulled and reeled away trying not to let the line go slack. Just when I was starting to think is there really a fish on the end of this hook he flipped up in the air in protest. The girls started cheering again as they could see it was a big fish. I was still reeling in and my arms were really beginning to ache now. Finally we could see him close to the boat and Kelvin dropped the net in and fished him out. I was very impressed, I was beginning to think this fishing malarkey was a waste of time but after that moment when I held my first fish I’m on for the competition.
Mine was a 3.5kg tiger fish, which I’m told isn’t too shabby for my first fish. My arms didn’t stop shaking for a good hour after from the adrenalin but my rod was straight back in after I’d bagged that. Lesley caught another one that day, which was even bigger than mine so we were ready to call it a day and compare, catches with the boys. Well the boys had caught nothing again so we won fair and square.
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