Zambezi River, Western Province, Zambia

5ThomasH1971 5:00 PM Dec 13, 2013

"Zambezi Explorer"
My wife and I had a memorable holiday in Zambia in 2006 we done the usual safaris etc, we decided the sound of idyllic canoeing down the Zambezi would just round off our holiday nicely. To try and keep it short this is how it panned out. We left our hotel 'Zambezi Sun' early AM and where driven to a small village where we handed over a small amount of the local currency as a sort of thank you to the village chief for letting us access our canoe port from his village, from memory this guy had quite a few wife's.. Anyway when we got to the canoe a couple of surprising things struck home A) we where the only ones doing it and B) we had to blow our inflatable canoe up with a foot pump! We had 2 local guides who had a canoe each, the strong silent type from memory. We set off and within minutes we where cascading through some white water on this massive expanse of water,my wife and I was bricking it the guide says " if you fall out don't worry the crocs don't really swim in the strong currentened areas!!!!! Reassuring right but what happens when you eventually end up in the calm water when the white water stops I asked myself..... Anyway I will continue. We canoed for about 4 hrs skipping past wallowing hippos and crocs sunning themselves on the banks of the river, I must admit neither my wife (girlfriend at this time) could relax to enjoy the amazing scenery and surroundings we where in due to concentrating so much trying not to capsize in the strong currented waters we where travelling through. We stopped at an island which was slap bang in the middle of the massively wide river for a cold beer and a bite to eat, this gave us an oppurtunity to have a toilet break etc which was much needed if u get my drift. We where soon off again when after another hour or so of canoeing the river narrowed significantly and yep u guessed it there was a group of hippos slap bang in the middle with a solitary male hippo "Massive" between the group and the sanded bank, the other side had no bank and was heavily overgrown with veg blah, blah , blah so the guide pipes up let's hold out for a while to see if the male moves back to the group. Alas he wasn't for moving and we had spent a bit of time waiting, the guide says stay close to the bank and paddle slowly & gently and we should be ok! So off we go 3 canoes ( us and the 2 guides) when we get parallel to the male hippo he raises his head unapprovingly let's off some steam and submerges rushing towards our canoe with the water tiding up in our direction! Both guides jump out there canoe onto the bank one starts bashing the water frantically with his paddle while my wife freezes with fright and can't even paddle so I'm paddling like crazy but all I do is rotate the canoe and swing my end out away from the bank!!!!! Man our lives flashed in front us I can tell you, the panick was intense the guide was slapping the water like mad whilst the other was looking for the nearest tree to climb up whilst my wife was just frozen with fear whilst I'm shouting like a mad man to jump out the boat! The gods must have been on our side that day as the hippo never completed its charge and we managed to take advantage of his goodwill and whilst giving us more evil eyes we set off at world record pace I can tell u the canoe was airborne for the next 5 minutes. Anyway drama over we canoed a total of 36 km that day and when we eventually ended our "leisurely canoe ride" we moored for the night on an island where the guide preceded to light flame torches around this small molehill of an island to ward off neighbouring hippos. We set up tent and tried to get to sleep with the sound of Africa all around us, most worryingly the constant sound of nearby hippos which sounded so close I'm sure they must have been within meters of our little raised bank which was our home for the night.. Needless to say neither my wife or I went to the loo "bushes" that night! We got picked up by speed boat the next morning and where taken back to our awaiting transport on dry land, admiring the crocs & hippos from the safeness of our big speed boat. To summarise we loved Africa and we will go back one day, but we won't be doing the canoe thing again. We laugh about it now, but we sure as didn't when it happened. Hope u enjoyed the read. Tom & Caroline Hastie

5Julia B 5:00 PM Aug 13, 2014

This river is fantastic and has many options
On the Zimbabwe side we did a 5 day trip with Wild Horizons from Victoria falls including 4 nights on the zambezi river with 2 days canoing on the upper Zambezi. Fantastic fun and amazing wildlife. then out from Chirindu we canoed with Natureways safari down to Mana Pools and spent 3 nights on an explorer safari carrying all the gear and food and sleeping in tents under the stars on the islands in the mighty Zambezi river. WOW WOW WOW is all I can say, hippos, elephants, crocs everywhere but what an experience and the guides keep you safe. Get onto the zambezi river and beside it and you will see soooooo much wildlife.