TRAVEL DIARIES- MY LAKE KARIBA HOLIDAYS

photo from Pindula News website

One of my most memorable holidays in Zimbabwe was the Lake Kariba house boat cruise. I have had the opportunity of doing it twice , that was in 2003 and 2005🙏🏿. All of these two trips were corporate sponsored events. Around June 2007 when I was serving my three months notice as the Bulawayo Branch Manager I was invited for another Kariba trip, I turned it down I felt it was not right to go when I was leaving shortly after that.

My first trip in 2003 I was a junior manager at Zimbabwe Insurance Brokers. The drive from Harare at over 300kms is not very long. I had previously travelled to the town of Chinhoyi in 1995 from Marondera. In my final A’Level year at Marondera High School I ran anything from 400 metres relay and above. We had travelled to Lomagundi College for Athletics.

Late in the afternoon we arrived in Kariba town. Kariba dam looks like an ocean. We got into the houseboat then owned by SMM Holdings. At that time our parent company Zimre Holdings was a subsidiary of the then Mutumwa Mawere owned SMM Holdings. We were being hosted by NicozDiamond Insurance Company also a sister company within the Zimre Holdings. I had worked for Diamond Insurance Company from 1999 to 2000 before the merger with NICOZ so our hosts were previously my workmates.

The second trip in 2005, I was now working as an Underwriting Manager at Zimnat Lion Insurance company and our host was Zimre Reinsurance Company. In the second trip it was a few days after I had negotiated for a 2002 Toyota Hilux 3.0 KZTE double cab. I had got an offer to join Altfin Insurance Company as their Bulawayo Branch Manager. I negotiated a counter offer with the MD and I got the Toyota Bakkie. It was the first time taking the Bakkie for a long distance.

Late afternoon on Friday we got into the houseboat. We started sailing around the dam. Kariba is in a national park, and on the shores of the lake there is wildlife roaming about. You see a lot of fishing boats from both Zambia and Zimbabwe that mainly catch Kapenta fish and there is a number of Lake Harvest fish farms on the dam. The boat then sails far away from the town for the night.

The sailors will tell you after the boat anchors that around the waters there are a number of crocodiles around. Early in the morning we take speed boats for fishing and move towards the rivers that are tributaries to Lake Kariba. In the background there are the famous Matusadona mountains.

In the evening we then sail towards the town of Kariba and one gets a feeling that you are coming from an ocean towards the shore. The following day you get to tour Kariba dam wall, the Catholic Church at Kariba Heights built by Italian workers who built the dam wall as well as the commemoration of all the European workers who perished during the construction of the dam wall. If you have nerves of steel you can also race your car down from Kariba heights. Of course there is the night life in Kariba. Before leaving Kariba you go and buy fish to take with back to Harare.

I would recommend everyone to tour Lake Kariba at least once in your life.