by Anna Riby, May 2010
Expectations were high regarding our most likely last safari during our time in Zambia. Maybe not a good way to start our trip to Lower Zambezi National Park, but since we had booked Chongwe River House together with another family, we couldn’t help ourselves.
To get to Chongwe River House, you can either drive all the way – but the last part of the road is terrible and takes a long time – or drive to the pontoon and take a boat from there, which saves a lot of time but is rather expensive. We didn’t want to miss the Valborg celebration (Walpurgis Night, April 30) at the Swedish School, so we decided for the third option, to fly on May 1.
There are regular flights to the air strip close to the lodge, but the departure time wasn’t ideal and it didn’t cost that much more for the 5 of us to charter a plane, so that’s what we did. We were quite relaxed going to the airport – if we’re delayed in traffic, the plane will wait for us, since we’re the only passengers. And we had already received an SMS from our Norwegian and Australian friends, who had left the day before, from their first game drive – lions spotted!
We soon learnt though, that chartered flights are often delayed. In our case there was a slight misunderstanding on the time of departure, which cause a delay of about one hour, and then the President were taking off, which delayed us another hour or so. By that time, we would have reached the pontoon or at least Chirundu, had we gone by car… But after that things speeded up, and we were soon on our way, flying over the circular fields, over the escarpment and there it was – the Zambezi. The pilot gave us a good view, by flying along the river for the last 10 minutes or so. We saw lots of hippos, and closer to landing some elephants. A great way to start the safari!
Brandon were waiting for us and took us for a nice mini game drive to the house. The wind in our faces felt so sweet and soft. There were butterflies fluttering everywhere and I’ve never seen so many kudu before, and waterbucks.
But we were approaching Chongwe River House – and what a house! To describe it is not easy, and I am still not sure I would say it’s beautiful. Think a giant elephant skull combined with a cross sectioned ant hill, and all with a hint of Salvador Dalí or Gaudí… But still very cosy and well integrated in the surroundings.
There is a big open area, with dining table and sofas made out of great tree trunks, all opening to the pool area and Chongwe River. One bedroom on the ground floor on each side – also with one side open, just a low wall opening to a private verandah, with a sofa and open air bathroom! Upstairs another bedroom on each side, with a bath tub overlooking the river.
After a lovely lunch on the deck by the pool and a few lazy hours, we started off on our first activity, namely fishing in the Chongwe River. We didn’t catch much, and certainly no tiger fish, but it was a pleasant excursion, in the beautiful late afternoon light, and also included the boat being chased by a hippo and a big croc coming a bit too close for comfort. In the evening we were driven to Chongwe River Camp, for a drink by the fire and dinner. Then time to sleep. But I have that first night, it wasn’t easy.
Clem and Brandon assured us that no animal would enter the house, and there was a net of thick ropes set up, but it still felt slightly exposed. And no walls or air conditioning to keep all the night noises of a Zambian national park out. Lions, baboons, owls, cicadas of course and an elephant that was splish-splashing in the river for more than an hour. When it finally got out of the water, I tip-toed to the bathroom and saw it munching its way past the opening in the bathroom wall. Wow!
The next day some of us went for a walking safari, quite exciting since lions had been spotted the day before (and we had heard them during the night). We all tried to be as quiet as possible and tip-toed after our guide and the park ranger. But I came to realized that humans wearing boots will not pass quietly – we sounded like a group of soldiers marching about.
Even though you might be more likely to see more animals on a game drive, a walking safari just gives you things that a drive won’t give you – like the Matabele ants marching purposefully towards an unknown goal, a band of birds that take off with a swooshing sound, which almost sounds like an angry elephant, the trace of an elephant trunk in the sand or the adrenalin kick you get from knowing that in any of the bushes around you there could be a hungry lion.
And suddenly we saw that lion – far enough to not be too scary, but close enough for us to see it well. Then we got reports over the radio of a male and a female lion not far off, and I couldn’t resist the temptation to see them too, so the safari vehicle with our friends and kids came and picked me up. They seemed to be posing for us, and didn’t even mind us watching when they did what they have to do to increase the lion population of Lower Zambezi. Short but sweet(?).
We had nice lunches and dinner, cooled ourselves in the pool, lounged on the pool deck, saw another elephant just outside the house, found a silver-blue snake in the curtains, the kids had cups and cups of hot cocoa that Francis kindly made for them, we saw another elephant crossing the river, just the top of his back and tip of his trunk showing over the surface, and we all slept better the next night – was it more quite that night, or were we just exhausted after the day?
We did a couple of more game drives or fishing trips. We saw hundreds of vultures and the buffalo carcass they were circling above. We didn’t catch any tiger fish. We got a quick look at a porcupine during a night drive. We noticed how quickly 4 lions can go from semi-conscious sleep (or at least that’s what we thought they were doing) to standing on their feet staring and sniffing at you – that’s what happened when we relaxed and moved a bit too much in the safari vehicle after having watched this male and his three girl friends for quite a while. And we enjoyed every minute of it!
A stay in Chongwe River House is not cheap, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience and well worth the money. And it was a worthy last Zambian safari for us – except that it left us longing for more…
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