After a very frantic time in Lusaka we
decided it was time to relax so we headed to the beautiful Lake Kariba. The
first thing that this trip gave us was a newfound appreciation of Megabus. After
four hours waiting to set off in a packed, boiling, rickety minibus and then
four more hurtling round corners with a driver who clearly wanted to die, on a
road the locals call the ‘death road’ I swear I will never complain about
British public transport again. According to locals there are two accidents a
week on this particular stretch of road, a fact emphasised by the lorry
carcasses littering the track. We
passed through tiny villages comprised of nothing more than mud huts. Despite
this, we noticed MTN shops everywhere where you could buy top ups for your
phone!
When we arrived at the lake things
instantly picked up. We had a small lodge right on the edge of the lake, mango
trees at our door and stunning views. We spend the next few days sunbathing and
avoiding Susan, the resident crocodile of the beach. We also went on an
incredible sunset cruise where we saw a huge dam that formed the lake and also
acts as the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Although beautiful, we were sad
to learn that when the river Zambezi was dammed to make the lake, thousands of
local people lost their homes, sacred burial sights and fertile farming land.
We met some amazing people at Lake Kariba
who were all keen to teach us about the area. Advice for the future: If bitten by a tiger fish you’re in
trouble because its teeth are laced with an anticoagulant. The trick is to
catch it and rub its eye on the wound because the eye contains a coagulant. The
locals also delighted in terrifying us with stories of poisonous snakes and
canoe-capsizing hippos. We were the laughing stock of the lodge when we had to
ask a security guard to remove a spider from our room!
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