Kariba Houseboat Safari – Day 1

March 11, 2009 | Posted by Safari Guide

Kariba Houseboat Trip Report – March 2009

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 & 6 |

Harare to Kariba

That’s around 15 beers a day…per person, I thought to myself as I finished loading the car with all the food, clothes, fishing equipment and the cases of beer for our 5 night Houseboat trip on Kariba. Soon afterwards, we set off on the Lomagundi road, for the four hour journey from Harare to Kariba. A journey that was only interrupted by a stop just before the town of Karoi at Buffalo Downs butchery for my supply of biltong (dried meat) and chili bites (more dried meat.. with a chili flavour).  Oh and one emergency stop just before Kariba on the twisting, winding road from Makuti down to the Zambezi Valley when my nephew, became more than little car sick… all over the car… after eating my biltong!

Kariba to Antelope Island
We finished loading Nautique (my dads houseboat) shortly after lunch. After paying National Parks for fishing permits, lake fees and some other fees, that I guess are for his new Mercedes, we set course for Antelope Island, just over an hour away, giving us plenty of time to get sorted before sunset. We moored in our favourite spot, on the western side of the island, with it’s wide open grassland area and tall dead ‘Kariba’ trees, it makes an excellent habitat for Fish Eagles. I immediately counted over 10 individuals and 3 nests, each with chicks in them. As well as Fish Eagles, we saw Baboons, a small herd of Impala and in the water: Hippo and the usual Crocodile. With sunset approaching, I cracked open an ice cold beer or two and later on placed a mattress on the front deck of the boat under Orion and his mates and drifted off to sleep.

Birds
On the road trip From Harare to Kariba

• Martial Eagle
• Bateleur Eagle
• Gymnogene (African Harrier-Hawk)
• Francolin – think a Coqui
• Golden Weaver Birds
• Lilac-breasted Rollers

Antelope Island

• African Fish Eagle
• Cattle Egrets
• Wire-tailed Swallows
• African Pied Wagtails
• Pied Kingfishers
• Crowned Lapwing (Plovers)
• Blacksmith Lapwing (Plovers)

Trip Report Menu
This post is part of a series of posts on a Lake Kariba Houseboat Trip in March 2009

• Day 1 – Harare to Kariba to Antelope Island
• Day 2 – Antelope Island to Palm Bay
• Day 3 – Palm Bay
• Day 4 – Palm Bay to Spurwing Island, Kariba
• Day 5 & Day 6 – Spurwing Island to Antelope Island to Kariba

For more Information Check out the Safari Holiday Guide to Lake Kariba Houseboats & Safaris

Kariba Photo Gallery
For more photos of this trip, check out my Kariba Wildlife Photographs.

Photographic Equipment Used
All the photos in this gallery were taken using the Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Digital Camera. I also often used the Olympus TCON-17 1.7x Tele Conversion lens (TCON-17). For more information check out:

• The Best Digital Cameras for Safaris
• Telephoto Conversion Lenses for the Panasonic DMC-FZ28 & DMC-FZ18 Digital Cameras

Categories: Trip Report, Zimbabwe | Tags: Houseboat, Kariba, Safari, Trip Report, Zimbabwe | No Comments »