VALERIE TENDAI CHATINDO
The sun beats down on the dust covered earth like a drummer. Unrelenting in its scalding blaze, a fiery combination of both heat and UV. It is hot!
Yet something about this place soothes the soul. Its understated beauty and quiet humility. In the distance, the sprawling freshwater lake almost seems to join the earth to the sky, trees seemingly suspended in the air like the birds that hover above. Lake Kariba, home to the great and mighty snake river god, Nyaminyami, or so the Tonga within this region say.
Photos by Tinotenda Zowa
Kariba is the hub of activity brimming underneath its facade of calmness. A dam producing thousands of megawatts of electricity to power Zimbabwe and Zambia, a booming fishing and processing industry and the big game concealing themselves within the dense foliage. There is more to this place than what meets the eye.
I first came to Kariba in second grade with my parents when the economy afforded us the privilege of vacationing regularly. My dad, a fishing fanatic, opted for us to stay on water, in a rented houseboat for our three day stay. It was amazing! Waking up to the shards of light colouring the water gold and dining on bobbing and gently swaying waters was an experience.
As someone who grew up in Victoria Falls, I wasn’t at all perturbed by the great mighty crocodiles that slid lazily into the waters as we steered our fishing boat to well-known fishing grounds during the day. Call me mad but I have a fondness for all God’s creatures, cute and frightening.
My trip this time around, with my few friends, is on a bit of a tight budget and I find that unlike the first, I want to do all the ‘touristy’ things. It’s usually a 6-hour drive from Harare to Kariba, passing through Chinoyi and Karoi, but because we’re on a picture snapping frenzy throughout the trip, we take 8 hours to arrive at our destination. By the time we do, it is close to dusk and we are exhausted. Kariba hosts one of the best 4 star rated hotels in the country, the Caribbean Bay Hotel, a feat of architecture built to resemble an Italian palazzo of sorts. And in case you’re wondering, this isn’t my three-day home. Admittedly, I am made for the finer things in life however my pocket limits me!
For an affordable price of US$80 per night we book ourselves into the Waterfront Resort Hotel which has its own niceties in the form of the friendly staff and the beautiful scenery as it rests on the waterfront of the mighty lake. What a view!
By day two we tour the dam wall and alternative border to Chirundu, we also visit the signal tower which is the communication front with all vessels on the waters and finally reach the famous view point which affords us a wider view of the totality of the dam.
It’s still only 12 in the noon and there’s plenty of time to do more. We go on over to Marineland where we enjoy a wonderful and informative boat cruise on the lake with their amazingly friendly staff.
Our day ends with a brief visit to the local crocodile farm owned by Padenga Holdings where we gaze upon the smelly and calculating cold blooded crocs whose meat has become quite popular in Zimbabwe and skins fetch high prices in the fashion industry. I do not envy them at all.
All in all, it’s an amazing adventure and short vacation. Sure, we are more pigmented by the time we leave and naturally very exhausted from all our vigorous activity and dance with the sun but every second spent in Kariba has totally been worth every pricey penny.
