Day 1. Sat 17th April
Siavonga.
We are up at 5:30 to meet the rest of the group off the plane at 6:25.
As it turns out they have arrived half an hour early and are sitting around
waiting for us. Julie "Blondie" is a seasoned traveller and has already
been to Africa around ten times, several of which were with Barefoot Safaris.
Katharine "Sunshine", also a Barefoot veteran, having done the African
Odyssey with Ken, is aptly nicknamed, as she is always bright and cheerful.
This safari is by invitation, and the only person who has not been with
Ken, or indeed to Africa, before is Pete, Kathy's boyfriend. However, she
has vouched for him, and her confidence is certainly not misplaced. He
is well over 6ft with a swashbuckling look, and Ken quickly christens him
"Pirate"
We pile into the Land Rover and after a quick stop at Melissa's for
Kwacha, head south, picking up a small hitchhiker on the way in the shape
of a chameleon who accidentally jumps in through the window.
Today is an easy drive and we stop of in Kafue for breakfast before
leaving the main road and heading for Siavonga on the shore of Lake Kariba.
The weather is still overcast and quite cool, and we get a few spots of
rain, but it clears up during the morning. The rains have been good this
year and everywhere is very green.
We arrive at the Eagle's Rest
hotel around 1 o'clock. It is right on the shore of Lake Kariba. The
weather has now cleared completely and it is as hot as one expects Africa
to be, so we enjoy a light lunch and a couple of beers, and retire for
a nap.
Later in the afternoon I risk the crocodiles (and the bilharzia) and go
for a swim in the lake, where I am joined by one of the hotel's dogs, a
lovely old labrador bitch called Pula. It turns out the hotel owners have
several dogs, and a parrot, all named after currencies.
We are due to go for an evening cruise on the lake, but this is cancelled,
so Ken takes us for a walk instead. The main tourist town on Lake Kariba
is Kariba on the other side of the Zambesi in Zimbabwe. Siavonga is a sleepy
little place, but enjoying an unexpected boom since Robert Mugabe effectively
closed Zimbabwe to whites. There is a little shop, and a mains water pipe
where the women from the villages collect every day to fill their containers
We return to the hotel for an excellent meal by the lakeside. The owner,
an Englishman called Ian Kennedy, comes and introduces himself and buys
us a round of drinks.
I should have been sharing a room with Ken, but he has wangled a room
to himself, which means I get one to myself too. By 10 we have crawled
under our mosquito nets and are falling asleep to the sound of fruit bats,
which make a noise like a squeaky cartwheel.