At the start, I found it difficult to concentrate on fishing, with the elephants eating and drinking nearby. It was our first evening on the lake, and also my first real view of elephants.

We had left Kariba town earlier that afternoon on our house boat, P-Ten. The lake is over 400 Km long, and for a while, was the largest man-made lake in the world. That afternoon, we only motored a couple of hours, before the crew anchored the boat in a small inlet called Palm Bay.

With the houseboat’s two tinder boats, four of us went fishing in one, while the others left to view wildlife. As Magoo, Sinks, Roseanne and I moved towards the first fishing spot, I was warned again not to put fingers or hands in the lake. Evidently, more than a few tourists and locals have been lost to crocodile attacks. Along the way, we passed multiple pods of hippos. They are amazingly graceful, for such large animals.

At the first cove we pulled into, our lines were baited by Steve, our guide. We fished for a while, but the group wasn’t having much luck, so we moved on to a new location. Turning into the second cove, elephants came into view. We had observed several elephants earlier that day through binoculars while motoring up the lake, but this was our first close viewing. They were maybe 25 feet away on the shoreline. After baiting my hook and casting out, I found myself watching the elephants rather than my line, and lost two fish that way. Eventually, I caught a squeaker and a small tiger fish. A couple of the others reeled in some bream, which are excellent eating.

Later, we moved to a third location, and finally returned to our houseboat as the sun was setting. The others were already there drinking sundowners. We joined them and compared stories of our late afternoon activities. Fried bream appetizers were soon served by the crew and we became more animated as the darkness grew around us. Later, we settled into a nice dinner with several bottles of red wine….

…..We’re into our third day now, and have seen numerous elephants, hippos, Cape buffalo, gazelle, kudu, crocs and many beautiful birds, whose names I cannot remember. We are going out on a tinder in a couple of hours with the Wagner brothers for more animal viewing, and are told that there is a good chance we will see lions. Last week at this location, the crew saw a lion bring down an impala on shore.

Tomorrow morning, some of us will go fishing again, while others are looking for game. I’m betting the views from both boats will be pretty good.

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Addendum –

⁃ We didn’t see any lion that night, but were able to get within ten yards of some huge Cape buffalo, and perhaps five yards away from a rather large croc on the shore. There are some real advantages to game viewing from the relative safety of a boat.

⁃ We fished several times over the course of our five days on Lake Kariba. As a rule, we had middling luck. Then on the last evening, while Cathy and the Wagner brothers went out for a last wildlife viewing, Roseanne and I decided to fish one last time. As soon as we cast our lines, we were getting hits. We ended up catching well over twenty-five fish between us, in a little over an hour. For most of that time, there was a single bull elephant silhouetted in the setting sun on a spit of land fifty yards away from us. The view was perfect. He eventually walked off and into the surrounding woodland. We admired the colors of the sunset a bit more, before Steve piloted us back to the houseboat.

⁃ Later on our vacation, we were in Cape Town and met a mutual friend, Ian – he commented on fishing at Lake Kariba – “ah, great times. The laziest vacation ever.” I’d have to agree. It wasn’t safe to walk on shore, so the only part of my body that had any exercise was my left arm. I used it while casting for fish, and also for 12 ounce curls.

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This is the third in a series of short blogs I will publish over the next several weeks, about our trip to Africa in September and October of 2018. I wrote most of this while still on the houseboat. I’m not trying to be exact in detail, rather, I’m trying to give a bit of the spirit or feeling of the various parts of the trip. Read at your leisure. Or not.

Related Blogs about the trip to Africa:

Pink Gins (The Genesis)- https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/pink-gins/

Zimbabwe (Just prior to departure) – https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/20/zimbabwe/

Harare (First Blog about the trip) – https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/02/harare-zimbabwe/

The Drive to Lake Kariba (Second Blog about the trip) – https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/08/the-drive-to-lake-kariba/