Wednesday June 13 - continued The Katete Safari Lodge
consists of a large, main building, a few well hidden utility buildings, and the guest cottages. The
main building dominates the view as your jeep pulls up the drive. Our
hosts for the 3 day stay gave us a mini tour of the complex. First was the
 main lodge, which is a large, two-story, thatch-roofed structure. It is an
open edifice with no apparent front doors. The ground floor was host to the
lobby, while upstairs was the facility's one and only bar, "The Hippo's Wallow."
In addition to being an excellent lounge, it also served as a very comfortable observation
deck with an incredible panoramic view from which to observe game. The lobby area is a wide, airy space. Off to one side is an open-air sitting room. It looks like a Victorian den that is missing one wall, leaving it open to an adjacent courtyard and the elements. Imagine a child's dollhouse where
you can remove one side to arrange the furniture; this is the sitting room. On
the far side of the courtyard is a small pool on a deck overlooking Lake Kariba.
Looking many miles across the lake, one will encounter a range of mountains.
Those mountains lie within the borders of Zambia. Katete can accomodate up
to 30 guests. Except for our little troupe of 17 eclipse enthusiasts, the only other
guests at the lodge were a family of 6. It was a very intimate setting.
A path departs the lobby, heading into the compound.
I say 'compound', because on this property there are electric fences to keep out
the 'big cats'; the lions that live in the surrounding hills and plains. The path
leads you past the sitting room and deposits you at the dining room. This meal
/ gathering area is also a thatch-roofed unit sans walls, having only large poles for
supports. It too, is open to the elements on 3/4's of its outer circumference.
It is not exactly a rectangular nor a square structure; it is a more-or-less
rectangular-ish shape that is rounded off and features uneven 'sides'. Unless
you enter from the pathway leading to the lobby, you have to duck under the thatch which
hangs low to the ground. The architecture is the "boma" style found in all corners
of Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Our individual cottages were down the hill from the
main building and dining area. They seem quite small as you approach them and reminded
me of the home of the dwarves from "Snow White." Each one has its own balcony with
deck chairs, featuring an unobstructed view of Lake Kariba. The cottage's balconies
 are part of the boundaries of the lodge complex. The rest of the boundary is comprised
of the electric fences. Sometimes the big cats manage to enter the compound, so
there are armed guards to walk guests to their cottages once the facility's generators have
been shut off for the night. With the balconies acting as a boundary, we had been told
that curious elephants have been known to come right up and peek into the cottages.
I never would have guessed that elephants were perverts. The interior of these little
units looked like something that 'Papa' Hemingway would have stayed in; very rustic, yet elegant.
They feature exposed beam ceilings, overhead fans, a small writing desk and mosquito
netting over the beds.
Once we had settled in, we met back at the main dining room
for an open-air lunch. It was just the thing for weary tourists having arrived moments
before and 'surviving' 2 harrowing flights. The attendants waited on us, hand and foot. The
food was quite delicious and the service, fantastic. With the meal finished, our hosts
gave us a choice of 3 different activities in which we could participate: A game walk with a
guide, a boat trip to watch game animals or a game drive in one of the jeeps that delivered us
to this Eden. That first afternoon, I opted for the game drive in one of the jeeps.
No matter which of the 3 activities you were to choose, they each lasted for roughly 90 minutes.
We were given the same 3 choices, 3 times daily. Since this was our first day
and we had arrived towards the late afternoon, we only had time for one outting.
Most of the game drive is done on dirt roads that
are a reddish clay color. The earth all around the area was the same color.
These roads are all unmarked, rough and bumpy. They are just a little
narrower than a typical residential street. The surface was sandy in many places,
so animal tracks were often easy to spot. On this first outting in the game truck
(jeep), there were only 5 of us, including the driver. After a few false starts
(stopping because someone thought they saw an elephant lurking in the nearby trees,
which in reality turned out to be a large rock), we finally got underway. We didn't
see any animals at first. Just lots of trees, tall grass, short bushes and tons
of animal shit in the road. Scott and I were riding in the back and joking about the
lack of animals. I began to imitate
Jeff Goldblum's character 'Malcolm' from the movie "Jurassic Park": "Are we going to see
any dinosaurs in this dinosaur park?"
We continued down the roads until we arrived at the
airstrip. That is when the game drive actually became a game drive, and not
just a drive. Once we were on the airstrip, we spotted several impala. There
are so many impala here that the guides have a nickname for them: Nabis. (Pronounced "knobbies")
It's an acronym for Not Another
Bloody Impala: Nabi. We drove across the airstrip to
where another game truck was stopped. Near to that truck, 2 male elephants were engaged
in combat. A disinterested female was close by; the most likely reason for the turmoil.
Soon we spotted a warthog milling about. Our driver moved the truck to get a
better view of the brawling elephants, stopping on a concrete driveway leading up to an
abandoned airplane hangar. A metal culvert ran beneath this section of the concrete
surface. The truck was now positioned on the driveway, directly above the culvert.
There was a sudden ruckus to one side of the vehicle. Two warthogs came rushing
out of the culvert and joined the first one we spotted. We watched the animals at the
airstrip for a little while longer then proceeded to the far end of the runway and took a road
to Bumi Bay, a small inlet of Lake Kariba.
Our driver guided the truck along the shore of Bumi Bay where we
caught sight of dozens of Guinea Fowl, a few crocodiles, a fish eagle and some Egyptian geese.
We turned around and headed back towards the airstrip. Once there, we drove to the
opposite end of the airstrip, following a jaunty road that led to different part of Lake Kariba's
immense shoreline. By now it was late and getting dark, so we stopped the truck to sit and
watch the setting sun. Our driver/guide opened up a compartment beneath the back seat, pulling
out a cooler with drinks and a snack tray. While we quietly enjoyed the vista, I became
aware of motion quite near the truck. It looked as though someone had spilled a can of
motor oil and it was pouring past us, immediately behind the parked vehicle. This 'oil' was
anything but liquid. It was a surging column of Soldier Ants. These large black ants
dwarf the typical black ants found raiding kitchens and garbage cans back at home, being
easily 6 times their size.
Due to the way they travel as a group or military unit, they
are also known as "Matebele ants." They were given this name because of the fearsome
Matebele Warriors who once traveled in the same fashion. There are a few 'scouts' that lead
the way, followed by the body of the ant colony. Unlike household ants, this was not a two-way line
of ants; the colony traveled in one direction, as one body. Their methodology is similar to that of the Matabele Warriors who had swept through south and central Africa in the 1850s, wiping out every village in their path. Our guide explained how the little warrior ants that roamed before us can be dangerous in their own right: if 2 or 3 were to bite you in one area, i.e. your arm, it would itch and burn. If 10 or more were
to bite that same arm, it would be paralyzed. We did the typical tourist thing and took pictures or shot
video footage of the ants, but wisely kept our distance. Personally, I climbed into the back seat of
the game truck, getting as high off the ground as was possible. A short while later this flow of ants seemingly dried up and disappeared into the distance as they marched in the direction of the lake's shoreline under the darkening skies. It was then we decided to pack up our belongings and make our way back to the lodge, where we were treated to a wonderful dinner. Towards the end of the meal, Laura, one of our hosts who looks strikingly like Liv Tyler, came round and signed us up for our next day's activities. After dinner I
decided to call it an early night, crawling into bed and under the mosquito curtain by 9:00 p.m.
We had to be up at 5:30 a.m. for the next morning's activities. At Laura's suggestion, I
elected to go on the game walk first thing on the following day...
|