CHONGWE RIVER CAMP

DAY 4 OF OUR AFRICAN ADVENTURE

We leave Livingstone and fly to Lusaka in a small Proflight aeroplane stuffed full of large Americans and one vomiting child. I have to say the Proflight team seem very efficient – we didn’t have any delays anywhere along the way with them.

At Lusaka airport we were met by Greg. A rather gorgeous, alarmingly young pilot, arguably with one of the best jobs in the world. He was to fly us down to Chongwe in a tiny 6 seater Beechcroft Baron 55. I was a little alarmed when we clambered in to see that it still had ashtrays indented into the sides – HOW OLD IS THIS PLANE? Seriously, I’m surprised we weren’t given Red Baron flying hats and goggles. Such an exciting plane ride – I loved it – even the loudness of the engine – my poofy (am I allowed to say that word these days?) brothers both put earplugs in. Pathetic.

Greg and my brother the co-pilot:-

Back of the plane, taken from the front of the plane:-

Half an hour later we landed at the lower Zambezi airstrip – “Royal” it’s called – which is not quite as royal as you might imagine – literally a strip of tarmac surrounded by that splendid African red earth:-

A small building and a little wooden child’s desk under the tree with a file on it which appeared to be the office. Nobody else in sight but another family waiting to get on their little plane – one of the small boys just standing waiting in his underpants. Very cool.

Victor from The Chongwe River Camp picked us up in a jeep and drove us the 20 minutes back to camp. From there we were welcomed by the gorgeous Flossie, Gracious and Michael – who as it turned out was to be our “butler” during out stay.

We were shown to our tents. The Albida Suite. There is an audible gasp from the three of us. Proper “WOW” factor. This is truly luxury beyond and not just in the world of camping. I have changed my mind. I love camping after all – when it comes complete with ice in ice buckets, decanters, dining room tables, folded down at one edge egyptian cotton sheets, hot and cold running water (although occasionally the pump does fail) and a flushing loo. This is not just “glamping” this is right up there with the best luxury retreats you can find anywhere in the world. We were given a lesson in how to use our torches, cabin lights, walkie talkies and only-to-be-used-in-an-emergency whistles. We were warned to never leave our tents during the night, except to go to our outside loo, which was enclosed and safe, never to run away from an elephant but to back away slowly and calmly, look out for leopards and lions and not to be too alarmed by the noises the hippos made through the night.

As we had arrived too late to join in any of the safari activities, we were taken (from our own private jetty) on a little sunset river cruise, just to get the general idea of where we were. From our suite which is entirely open plan, you can see the wide Zambezi to the right, but we are actually situated on the Chongwe river – on the confluence – where the two rivers meet. My brother hopefully reports that a lot of fish congregate in confluence (I am going to use the word “confluence” as much as possible because I like it a lot and up until this moment I had never heard of it).

View of our “suite” from the river:-

The camp in general:-

We sat and watched the animal world go by. Incredible. Then the sunset. Then the hippos….

…and then another best gin and tonic I have ever had.

We had a splendid three course meal at our splendid dining room table (black pepper steak et al), served by the splendid Michael, who every night created splendid creatures out of napkins:-

We were joined for dinner by a merry band of frogs, a HUGE spider the size of my fist (that luckily stayed quietly on a tree) and those African sounds along the river….

After our meal we were walked up to the main camp base during which time a torch is flashed about the trees and paths in an alarming manner – although at this stage I thought it unlikely we’d be seeing anything actually in camp. At main camp where most of the other guests congregate to eat at one long table, sit round a large campfire and relax in the lounge area we had a quick drink and a quick panic about our lack of phone/wifi signal and how was anyone going to ever get hold of us or know that we were still alive and hadn’t died in a plane crash.

We were all tired. It had been a long day. We sat by our own mini bonfire for a while, loving the view and the noises and already I felt completely confident about going to my own separate tent around 10pm – my tent is quite far away from the boys – there is a whole open plan sitting and dining room between us. Apart from a mosquito net our tents are entirely open to the elements and lying in my bed I can look upon the river. Spectacular. I love it. Feeling wild and brave. I have a beautiful double bed to do little angel shapes in and an outdoor bathroom to shower in.

YIPPEE.