Lake Kariba Holidays

Flying across the African bush on a light aircraft is always a fantastic experience, but flying into and out of Lake Kariba is an experience you’ll never forget. Kariba, on Zimbabwe’s northern border, is the world’s largest manmade lake, in terms of volume of water. Seeing it from the air makes you appreciate its vastness – you feel like you’re at the edge of the sea.

Guests book the flight as a way of travelling from A to B and getting between camps but it’s a very special flight. As you cross the countryside on the Bumi to Mana Pools flight, part of the Zambezi river comes into view. You get plenty of time to appreciate the spectacular landscape beneath you while enjoying views of the rugged Matusadona mountain terrain, the islands and the petrified trees.

Flying times are dependent on whether a Cessna or Caravan is being used but the flight from Somalisa to Bumi is around 1 hour 15 minutes and from Bumi to Mana is around 1 hour and 20 minutes. Sometimes you get a glimpse of the Kariba dam wall – a must for any engineers – with its magnificent concrete arch. The amount of water that pours over is quite phenomenal. The pilot will give commentary especially if they see wildlife as sometimes you can see elephants grazing at the shoreline.

What makes Bumi so special is that they don’t have any other operators nearby so you only see their vehicles in the area. The scenery itself is amazing and, during game drives and walking safaris, you can often see animals, including  elephants, impalas, kudus, waterbucks and baboons, on the shoreline.

Safaris can start very early. There's a great spot for sunrise with a lot of beautiful ‘dead trees’. After that you could do a mid-morning game drive and return for lunch just in time to see large elephants arriving at the shoreline for a mud bath and swim in the lake. You could do the late-afternoon drive with sundowners. Kariba sunsets are amazing. During a night safari you'll be on the lookout for nocturnal species like white-tailed mongooses, owls and maybe even hyenas and genets.

On Kariba, there are certain animals that you can see more often than in many other places and their behaviour is totally different. They are so used to the vehicles which they don’t see as a threat. On a walking safari, there’s a lot to talk about – dandelions, ants and termite mounds as well as animal footprints. How fresh are they? Where are they going? How do trees communicate? There’s so much to learn.

Bumi Hills has so much to offer with water-based activities on the lake. A lot of animals come close to the shoreline where there’s plenty of food to eat and you can see these on a boat cruise where you can approach the animals without causing much noise. Lake Kariba is also one of the greatest fishing spots in Africa amd over 240 bird species can be found.

Instead of a game drive you could choose a mid-morning or afternoon fishing trip. There are a lot of different species you can catch but in particular it’s great for tiger fishing and bream. A lot of people who want a challenge choose tiger fishing which is done on a catch-and-release basis. After you catch one, you can weigh it and see how many kilograms it weighs before releasing it back into the lake.

Afternoon boat cruises start at around 4pm to search for animals on the shoreline. The advantage with this is that you can approach the animals without causing much noise. For birding, Kariba’s amazing because there are over 240 bird species reported in the area; darters, cormorants, plovers, Egyptian geese and herons. The cruise then docks somewhere and wait for sunset, probably one of the best you will ever see.