Aaaayyyyy Kariba, Zimbabwe

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The Kariba Dam

About 370km from Harare is the vacation village of Kariba.  Built beside Kariba Lake, which is a 270km long lake created from the construction of Kariba Dam on the Zambezi.  Most people come to the lake to houseboat and/or fish.  We expected to do neither, but would see what came about.  So, we headed out in Mike's little Toyota Hilux bakkie, and tackled the Zim roads up to Kariba.  No fines and no bribes were handed out in the journey which we were happy about.
Arriving in town, we set up tent at Warthogs Backpackers, and toured around the town a little.  Not much here really, but seems like a decent place to hang out.  On our way back to the camp, we discovered that it is built on an animal thoroughfare, and there were elephants in the campsite area.  Cooooool!!

Mike, John, Michelle and Wayne at the Country Club

That evening, we headed in to the bar at Warthogs, and met a few of the locals - Mike, John, Wayne and Keith.  There was no effort required to meet these guys, they just started chatting to us!!! We heard some of their stories about how they ended up in Kariba, and as usual Zimbabwean stories go, they were quite interesting. The next day, we were invited for drinks at Mike's house, to see the hippos outside his door.
Having a car in Kariba was a necessity and we used it to it's fullest.  We were able to do a self-drive safari around the small Kariba National Park, and cruise right along the waterfront where all the hippos, zebras, crocs, waterbucks, and tons of birds were out feeding.  We stopped for a picnic with the hippos on shore, but keeping our distance.  I think we were the only people in the park that day too, so we had all the animals to ourselves.

Female and Male Zebra in Kariba

Martin with the Hippos in Kariba

When we arrived at Mike's we found ourselves at the end of a point in a development called Lomagundi, and he had water on both sides.  This water was inhabited by lots of hippos, crocs and the elephants would even walk right past his fence.  Within the first couple of drinks, Mike had invited us to stay at his place, so we quickly drove over to Warthogs, grabbed our tent and came back to find our own private room with AIR CON!!!  Fantastic!!  What a nice offer.  We also had breakfasts and lunches cooked for us by the hired help, and they were delicious.
The next night we found ourselves at Warthogs bar again for chicken night, where we met more of the locals.  We found out it is a pretty small town, and close knit community here.  We would also run into a lot of these characters up at the Country Club high up on the hill the next night, with views over the lake for sunset.  We felt like one of the gang, and we had different invites to events or happenings in town.  So nice!

In Mike's Jacuzzi - see the hippos behind??

What we did manage to do was do a little tour of the dam.  You actually have to pass through Zimbabwean customs and head down to the dam, as the centre of the dam is the border.  We actually met one of our local friends Rick on the dam and turns out he is the Chief Maintenance man for the dam.   So, we got some inside scoop on the place, along with some urban legends and facts on the dam.  The urban legend is that the guy who designed the dam, actually had two other dams burst and then he committed suicide.  Because the location of this dam is a little suspect, there has been much attention to safety, and it is highly monitored!!  Totally safe????  It was pretty impressive to look over that big wall, and see the arched concrete heading up towards you, and the mighty Zambezi flowing away.

Feeding the buffalo and hippos

On our last day in Kariba, Mike was having a party.  And, not like us to turn down a party, we chipped in helping him prepare some food for the night, before hopping into the jacuzzi and having some wine while watching the hippos.  John came over with his boat and we finally got out on the lake which had been so highly recommended to us.  Over on one of the islands, they were bringing a big hay bale to feed the buffalo and hippos, and the food was scarce.  I helped the guys push the bale up the hill to pretty close proximity of the beasts - quite possibly the closest I had been outside of a vehicle.  A job well done, and we relaxed on the boat with some sundowners, a swim, and watching the sunset.

Out on the boat on Kariba Lake, Barnyard, M, John and Mike

When we got back to the house, the party was already going.  We had a delicious braai that night, but I'm afraid I got into the wine a little too much in the afternoon, and hit the bed quite early for my liking.  Michelle came upstairs to discover me fast asleep in bed before midnight.  Poor showing, but the air conditioning was good.
We all woke up with heavy heads the next day, struggled through breakfast, then all got in our cars for the 5.5 hour drive back to Harare.  Loooooooong afternoon!!!   *Stub