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Only on waking did we realise what a view we had from our bure overlooking Lake Kariba up a short slope too steep for hippos!
Seven of the group decided to hire a boat, driver/guide and fishing gear. Robert, who is also the chef and whatever else he is called on to do, took us out on a punt poking into small bays and stopping for us to fish with the old rods and reels. They had corks or reeds for floats, rusty old hooks and when one rod was found to be sans hook, there were no spares in the box! Robert brought along a small bucket of earthworms for bait and amazingly we caught a couple of dozen small bream. None however were big enough to eat so all were returned to the water. But we also saw hippos, crocodiles and plenty of birds including a beautiful little Malachite Kingfisher and some huge Ground Hornbills.
That afternoon we scoured all our cars for meat and salad vegetables. We made salads and later the staff cooked all the meat on a huge BBQ fire. We all gathered around the pool (complete with shallow hippo-walkout area) for drinks and then sat at a long table under the stars for a big meal together. Margaret made some amazing golden syrup dumplings(while teaching the staff how to make them) for the whole table rounding off the impromptu meal with delicious dessert.
We discovered that we were the first guests at the lodge for 3 months. It shows up how much Zimbabwe lags behind the other countries in the region with regard to tourism (amongst other things!). Here is a lodge in a fantastic position with much to offer. Some refurbishment would be needed but the future potential is there once Zim sees some of the changes (eg political…) that it desperately needs.
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