Lower Zambezi - theres a Tiger fish on my line and an elephant shaking the tree!

Our next destination was the Lower Zambezi national park and we were staying at Sausage Tree lodge right on the banks of the river.

Our flight got in to the main airfield and from there we had a short drive through the tall riverine forest before emerging out on the banks of the Zamezi river and then taking a boat for the final part of the trip to camp.  It was fun to sit on the boat and watch game on the islands and shores; elephant, buffalo, impala, hippo and a score of birdlife.

 Our hosts at Sausage Tree were Alan and Nicky, a couple I had met briefly back in Kenya a couple of years ago and so it was great to catch up with them again.

In the afternoon Phoebe and I decided to see if we could hook a tiger fish from the river and so we went out with our guide, Mike, to test our luck.  The fishing was fun and we hooked two big ones, although they both got away with the hooks in their mouths, the first jumped several times and pulled off a few yards of line before breaking free.  The second was probably a catfish or ‘vundu’ as they are locally known and again we had a short stick rod bent almost double as it pulled strongly against the drag.  Once again it managed to break the line and Phoebe and I contemplated our fishing skills or lack thereof!  We did have fun and along with the fishing enjoyed watching the wildlife and the bird life and the glorious sunset so altogether a successful outing! Some of the other guests had been out on a game dive that evening and seen lion and leopard along with buffalo and elephant plus of course lots of impala, kudu and other game animals.

The following morning Phoebe and I enjoyed watching a young bull elephant just outside our room feeding on the seed pods fallen from the acacia albida tree. He was carefully picking them up one by one and when they were all finished he went to the tree and gave it a few big shoves to shake off a whole bunch more. As we sipped our coffee on the veranda we quietly enjoyed watching this beautiful animal taking his breakfast.