Sunday, 9 October 2016

Lake Kariba




Singazongwe is a couple of hundred miles north of Livingstone. It is a small fishing village on the banks of Lake Kariba. The lake is actually a reservoir formed when the Zambesi was dammed in the 50s. Its huge – c.5000 km². The lake straddles the border between Zim & Zam. On the Zim side, I’m told the lake is something of Riviera with posh houseboats for rent. Not here on the Zam side.  Leaving the main road, there was 60K of rapidly deteriorating road to be crossed. Poverty & potholes took over. Simple block houses were replaced by even simpler woven huts. Cars by bicycles. Roads by tracks. When I finally arrived I was on a stony, sand footpath. The satnav was lost. African directions were true to form – “ How far?” to the elderly man on an ancient bicycle “No time, you have a machine – just keep going until you reach the lake”. The land is parched. The air is red hot & the road has seemingly become a footpath.
After the obligatory guesswork, more random directions & misleading signs I arrived. I am the only one staying. I’m in a two bed thatched lodge on the beach (£30/night). No shop, no fuel, no WiFi. “We only have beer & water to drink”. That’ll do & immediately downed a couple of Mosi's (the local brew).



Later a boat arrives from the nearby island (which you can also stay on). Mario is a builder originally from Cape Town now living in Lusaka with his miniature dashhound called Trix. After eating (“what’s on the menu?” I asked the stern looking lady in the kitchen “we have steak...anything else?” She just looks at me. “Ok I’ll have the steak”), I sit down with Mario & his guys. With his dog on my lap, he talks about my route (“no, you should go this way”), politics (all the decisions in the world are made by just eight people – read “Captains & Kings”), war (“it will never stop, big countries are making too much money out of selling arms...that’s why they assassinated Kennedy”), his love of Maseratis (he's Italian) & of Peter Sellers (“the man is a legend – there will never be another like him”).

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