Zambesi Sunset Cruise

RANEE'S SOUTH AFRICA DIARIES: JOURNAL 5

May 21:
After a little glitch with bus seats, we were off to go around the corner for all of 4 minutes to reach a jetty where a small platform vessel with a bar and tables and chairs would take us for a ride on the Zambezi for 2 hours between 4 and 6 pm so we could look for wild life on the shores and ogle the spectacular sunset on our way back.

The Zambezi was immense, wider than any river I have ever seen and reminiscent of the infiniteness of the Sunderbans waters as they make and re-make the delta. The river was segmented, with islands between its channels. Our two-hour journey took us the length of a 4km long island in one of the channels.




Like the Sunderbans landscape, the banks of the Zambezi were eroded, eating up land-pockets and creating curved marshes, swamps, tunnels around many rounded bends. Trees lay half-submerged and dying among reeds and water-ferns and creating a water-land, mystic, mysterious green-blue world that became the perfect habitat for wild-life.

We didn't really see much of that wild-life, just a couple of groups of hippos in the water and one humungous tusker that swam across a channel in front of us. From the shape of the shadow in the distance, we started off thinking it was a herd of elephants, given our mental impression of the girth of our own elephants. Then we modified our estimate to two when the shadow came closer and finally realized that it was just one animal! This was our first sighting of the huge African elephant and it was quite amazing.

Wild-life or lack thereof notwithstanding, the Sunset Cruise gave us more than value for our money. All drinks--no limits-- and delicious snacks are on the house (or the boat!) so the kids had their cokes and we continued with our beer and platters of mouthwatering appetizers kept coming our way.

Suitably satisfied, we watched the sunset! The sun was a gigantic red orb that just liquefied in seconds and left the world dark orange and red—breathtakingly Nat Geo!


At dinner we paid in dollars and got our change back in Kwacha and by then, we were quite adept at the exchange. 1$ was taken to be 4000 Kwacha. A typical lunch/dinner entrée was between 40000 and 60000 Kwacha and it was quite filling. Water was 4000 Kwacha a small bottle and Castle Lager was 7500 Kwacha. A small peg of was about 20000 Kwacha.