We departed Chitake Springs on August 1st, after a total of six amazing nights camping in the wilds of Mana Pools National Park, and made our way to Warthogs Camp near the shores of Lake Kariba in the town of Kariba, Zimbabwe.
I say near the shore of the lake because the water level is at record lows. Where once you could stand on a small wooden platform at the edge of the property and see fish swimming is now a dried plain that extends about 500 metres until the water’s edge.
Waterbuck, zebra and the occasional warthog grazed on the newfound plain.
Warthogs is a funky, basic place with good food, cold beer and very nice safari-style canvas tents, where we spent the next two nights with hot showers and a semblance of civilization. And we usually had internet!
I won’t get into the difficulty we had finding the place. We didn’t have a Zimbabwean SIM card, so no Google Maps, but we made it after about three hours of hilly, scenic driving on a good road to reach our destination.
Our plan was to go fishing the next day for the elusive tiger fish, referred to as the piranha of the Zambezi.
Lake Kariba is the largest man-made lake by volume in the world and was formed by the damming of the Zambezi River and the filling of the Zambezi Gorge.
It was the wrong time of year to catch the tigers, but we hired a boat anyway and headed out onto the lake to catch the not-so-elusive bream that are plentiful.
We continued to the shores of Antelope Island, where we tied up to the shore and set our hooked worms into fairly shallow waters.
It didn’t take long, and we started reelin’ in the bream. (Any Steely Dan fans!?)
It was great fun and after a couple of hours we made our way back to camp and kicked back for a little relaxation.
Kariba is located in the Charara Safari Area, so wild animals roam freely. When the lake was at normal levels, many animals would wander into camp, but with the lake so low, they had no reason to stop by for a visit. You could always hear the grunts and antics of the hippos in the distance.
The two nights passed quickly, and we departed Kariba on August 3rd, crossed the Kariba border with little hassle, and made our way into Zambia for a five-hour drive to Monze and a one-night pit stop on our way back to Kasane, Botswana.