A couple of months ago the company my husband works for, KB Engineering, in conjunction with Avoca Marine, completed work on ‘The Barge’. These two companies had been hired by the Belgian company Razel-Bec, who won the tender to work on the reshaping of the Plunge Pool below the Kariba dam wall.
The Barge was built specifically for the purpose of working in the small space below the dam wall, but needed to be very strong and manoeuvrable. Both companies worked hard on their respective duties and once The Barge was complete a few of us locals were invited out on the lake for the test drive one afternoon. What a privilege to know that what you are witnessing is a part of history being made. The Barge performed magnificently, and all involved were very happy with the way it handled and it was duly loaded up and shipped off to the Zambian side of the dam wall, where it was launched into the plunge pool. For those of you who are visiting Kariba anytime soon, you will now be able to see The Barge at work.
Earlier this year, we were also invited to go out on a sunset yacht tour that one of our tour operator partners provide. We were joined by an American couple and I couldn’t help noticing the gentleman looked a lot like Harrison Ford. Just a few weeks prior, some new acquaintances had mentioned that they thought Woody looked a bit like Kevin Costner! My mind went into overdrive, seeing them sitting side by side on the yacht, and I wondered if I could pull a photo op and brag that both Harrison Ford and Kevin Costner had booked a tour together to Zimbabwe through Heartveld Adventures?! Just imagine the facebook “likes”! – honesty prevailed – still a cool photo though!
Most people who live in Kariba have a passion for fishing, we are no exception. To change things up a little, instead of fishing on Lake Kariba itself, we took a drive out to the Nyaodza River. We didn’t know if we’d be able to fish, as the river was going to be low, but we wanted to take the drive anyway. On our way out, we came across a very big, but also very dead, Puff Adder snake on the side of the road. It hadn’t been run over, so we wonder how it died? Gave me the heebie jeebies, as I often run that road with our Kariba Running group. It certainly made me keep my eyes peeled on the road more on our next run!
As we suspected, the Nyaodza River was very low, and although there was a small section still flowing, it was mostly dry. There was still a large pool below the bridge itself, and so we put out rods in for a bit of fun, and caught a very strange looking fish neither of us had ever seen before. We released it back after taking photos, and were told by a long-standing Kariba resident, that it was an African Butter Catfish, and is known to live in the Nyaodza River. We had a lovely picnic by the river, and then finished off the day with some drinks at one of the points overlooking the lake on our way home. This spot is always teaming with birdlife and zebra’s, and this day was no different. What a great way to spend a day in Kariba if you don’t feel like going on the lake itself.
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