Wednesday, September 26, 1995
Katete Lodge, Lake Kariba
Up at 4:30 to pack and head for the airport. Before heading out, I am able to get connected and send Harlan journal entries through 9/24. Rob and Shirley are fascinated by the Toshiba and the process. They ask for advice on Windows 95. I tell them to wait for the next release.
We sadly leave Chokamella Lodge. We were very impressed with every aspect of the Masuwe and Chokamella Lodges, which are both owned by the Landella Group. They work very hard to make your stay enjoyable and memorable. Well run, good food, and personalized service on the game drives. They don’t know how to say no. They’ll be hard to top.
The lake is huge. Formed when the dam was built in the fifties, it is populated with crocodiles and hippos. We spot elephants and buffalo from the plane. The runway at Bumi Hills is gravel, but the landing was smoother than many I’ve experienced at SFO.
It is hot. Really hot. We are riding in a open top jeep, under the blazing sun, up a rough dusty road to the Katete Lodge. I mean it is really, really hot.
At the lodge, we find that we have landed in the lap of luxury. We enjoy a very nice lunch with salad, gazpacho, and several glasses of white wine. In a heat and wine induced stupor, we float down the walkway to our room.
The room is beautiful. White mesh mosquito nets cascade from the tall thatched roof to form a canopy over the beds. Dark wood furniture and colonial style accents complete the romantic picture. Sigrid takes one look and says we are never leaving. We drink in the view of the lake and wildlife from our balcony, and collapse until sunset. Drag ourselves out of bed to photograph the sunset. Dinner and back to bed. There are no mosquitoes this time of year, but we use the nets anyway.
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NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: This is a back-post / cross-post from my first on-line journal/blogging effort - a journal of our Southern Africa Tour in 1995. Originally posted to an abandoned domain (NetSnake.com), the term "blog" had not yet entered the parlance. I am migrating the original posts to this blog. Links to the original journal Date Index or Africa Tour Home Page will likely eventually disappear. The images from the original post were graphics and screen caps from video which I am leaving in it's low-rez glory for historical integrity. My intent is to also add some of Sigrid's higher quality scanned photos to these blog back-posts. The difference in images should be obvious.
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