Greetings from the SeaLion, Lake Kariba’s only operating ferry that allows you to travel the length of the entire lake. We are on it for 23 hours, so I might as well make use of the time to write an update for our site, which I hope to be sending out through cyberspace with the next available internet at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
 
We wrapped up filming at Lake Malawi and I am quite happy about the footage I got. Now months of reviewing, logging and editing lie ahead. I am very thankful to Pieter for having supported me thoughout the production process and I have left Malawi with fond memories of the people in the fishing village of Chembe, especially the kids, and in particular a little boy named Kumbo who was quickly by my side every time we were shooting in the the little fishing port.  

Before departing from Lake Malawi we chartered Musafa (the only yacht on the entire lake) with our friends, Hans-Peter and Colleen, from South Africa. We enjoyed a splendid time in great company, saw more of the lake and commemorated our 7th wedding anniversary having returned to the same catamaran we had been on during our honeymoon. The highlight of the charter was the visit of a remote and very secluded little fishing village on the eastern shore on the boarder to Mozambique. The village featured truly rural and untouched existence of fishermen surrounded by majestic Baobab trees and a few subsistence veggie gardens. The people though warned us not to go into the water since a crocodile had just tried to attack a woman doing her laundry in the lake. This didn’t deter Pieter, nor our friends Hans-Peter and Colleen to go diving in the lake.
 
We carried on to Zambia and revisited the Luangwa River Camp site that we remembered well from our Tour d’Afrique in 2006. It comes to show that memory is a very selective thing because while I remembered the lovely hot showers I had forgotten the fact that a shower results in one smelling like a smoked fish since the water is brought to boiling temperature by a smoking firewood geyser. We met a couple of fellow globetrotters whom I spent the entire morning with discussing the philosophy of traveling while Pieter rode his bike to the boarder of Mozambique and back. The couple had been on the road for 18 months already and the woman, Jan, told me that they were at a point where they did not really know where to go and what to do next. Both she and her husband Trevor felt that they had become slightly complacent with traveling in Africa after such a long time on the road and wondered if they should go on or perhaps go to a place like India instead. I told them that the more exotic, the greater the risk and the more one pushes the comfort zone – the better the choice. We said good-by and the couple headed-out eastward, in the opposite direction from us. A few hours later on the road we met them again. They had thought about their choices and turned around. Now they were going to India which means shipping their car out of Durban to Mumbay.  This must have been the biggest impact I had on anyone in a long time!
 
We only spent two days in Zambia and then crossed the boarder to Zimbabwe at Lake Kariba. There we had a spectacular close-up encounter with lots of hippos at night. Not only did they enter the campsite from the lake but they were mowing and fertilizing the grass directly around our tent.
 
We had a very good time in Mana Pools and saw lots of animals. Pieter, however, was a little disappointed in comparison with the huge amount of wild life he was able to spot during his last visit in the dry season. After lots of rain the park is very lush and the animals don’t have to come to any of the 4 pools in order to find water. Yet we had a big elephant bull in our camping spot and lots of visitors at night, including impala, hyenas, lots of hippos, and something mysterious that kept brushing against our ground tent. We crawled into our tent while our camp fire was still burning and the hyenas between the fire and our tent cast over-life size shadows on our inside tent walls. What a sight!   The commotion was big around our tent all night and we heard lions roar, elephants trumpet and the hippos snorting throughout the night. Mana Pools is a truly magically place with superb untamed wildlife and unique vegetation right on the banks of the mighty Zambezi river. It is also the only game reserve with lions, buffalos, hippos, leopards, and elephants, in which one is allowed to walk around unaccompanied. We hope that people are sensible so that it will stay this way in the future since most dangerous encounters are typically provoked by people, and not by the animals.
 
Time to go, since the sun is setting over Lake Kariba and the Gin&Tonics are in order for another beautiful sunset in Africa. ($0.95 each!) If you ever want a ride on this amazing floating watering hole, contact www.karibaferries.com.