We left Muchenje Lodge at 11am and at Kasane Airport we were
handed over to another driver for our onward journey to the ferry at Kazangula
45mins away and the nearest crossing point over the Zambezi and into Zambia.
It was totally not what we expected and we felt as if we
were in a Michael Palin Around the World
in 80 days episode – our driver helped us clear immigration (a small blue
building with one man in it) and then passed us over to another man who loaded
us onto his speedboat and wizzed us across the river. Meanwhile all other passengers had to queue
and freight lorries sometimes waited a week to cross. There is a bridge being built which will be
finished in 5 years and should improve matters enormously.
On the other side we were handed over to
Christopher from Waterberry Lodge, bundled into his minibus and driven the 50
yards to Zambian immigration where I stayed in the van and Ian went in to get
our visas. It was quite disconcerting to be left in the
van with all our luggage, engine running so presumably unlocked, whilst staring
eyes looked in. After a short while Christopher
came out, without Ian, and started to move the bus – brief panic but it turned
out he’d parked in someone’s way. Ian
said the immigration building was just as small as the Botswanan one and the
chap couldn’t believe we were staying in Zambia for 11 days, kept asking him
where else we were going. Eventually the
$50 visa fees were paid and Ian got back to the van.
The 45 min drive to Waterberry Lodge was uneventful and not
particularly interesting and the last 10 mins was on a very rough stone
road.
There are only 6 lodges here, scattered among the pretty gardens
and ours Wagtail, whilst not being the plushest, was perfectly adequate
although a bit small.
Unfortunately not our lodge
We’d been pre-booked on the sunset cruise so at 4:30 boarded
yet another little boat and roamed up and down the Zambezi looking at wildlife
for the next 2 hours. After what we’d
seen already in Botswana it was a bit tame and the animals too far away; either
on the Zimbabwe side or on small sandbanks where the water was too shallow to
get close. There were hippos but mostly they were doing
what they like doing best; walking on the river bed and popping their heads up
every 5 mins or so – nigh on impossible to get a good photo. The only thing of excitement was 10 or so
Pied Kingfishers hopping around.
Watching the sun go down from the middle of the river was beautiful.
Dinner was absolutely wonderful, we sat out on a deck
overlooking the Zambezi and I had the most fabulous chicken and prawn curry
ever (yes I know, prawns and Africa, but it was truly superb).