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Fothergill Island, Lake Kariba: Zimbabwe’s luxurious new lakeside camp
By The Times (UK)
As we approached the riverbank, the giant crocodile flicked open its eyelids. In its open, yellow mouth rows of pointed teeth glinted in the afternoon sun. Armoured ridges cast shadows across its powerful back. And on either side of its rounded belly the clawed toes of its webbed feet lay tensed, primed for action.
Drifting towards the prehistoric beast on our low metal pontoon boat, no one moved. A few minutes before, we’d turned off the engine so we could hear the chirrup of birds and watch them flitting about in the sky. Then suddenly, on a sandbank a few metres from us, there lay a man-eating monster, waiting for its dinner. In my mind that was me.
I have a deep fear of crocodiles. If I have a nightmare it invariably involves one. As a child growing up in Harare I’d pore over newspaper stories about crocodile attacks. And on holiday I’d check the water fearfully for the stealthy reptiles. Only on boiling hot days, when a dip in a fresh river was irresistible, or as a teenager, when it was uncool not to waterski on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe’s north, I’d nervously go in, then hurtle out with terrified squeals.
Witnessing the size of the crocodiles that now live on the lake, 40 years after I last waterskied there, I realised I had several lucky escapes. The world’s largest man-made lake, created in 1969 following the completion of the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River, on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, is a quarter of the size of Wales, measuring 5,580 sq km. Because the Matusadona National Park to the lake’s south is not as touristy as Zimbabwe’s more famous natural attractions, such as Hwange, Mana Pools and Victoria Falls, it really is wild.
According to Steve Edwards, the 70-year-old owner of Musango Camp who was the first warden of Matusadona when it was founded in 1975, the park was a wildlife paradise at first. But when poachers started to move in — primarily to kill its precious rhinos and elephants for horn and ivory, then to stock their larders with fish and bushmeat — its rangers started to lose the war. At its lowest point, when few tourists were visiting Zimbabwe, there was almost no money to fix vehicles, buy fuel or pay salaries. In 2019 it lost its last rhino. Then, in November that year, African Parks stepped in. Since the NGO was launched in 2000 it has become a conservation saviour across the continent, overseeing the management of 22 parks in 12 countries, from Chad and the Congos to Zambia. In 2017 Prince Harry was appointed its president and today more than 200,000 sq km of Africa is under its protection. And last year a luxury safari camp, Fothergill, opened on the borders of the park.
When I arrived at African Parks’ Matusadona headquarters its impact was immediately noticeable. The meticulous compound offices were stocked with state-of-the-art technology. There were boats for antipoaching missions and 4×4 vehicles for patrols. Most importantly, a clearly dedicated team was in place, led by the park’s new warden, Mike Pelham. Last year alone they arrested more than 500 offenders, from gold panners to commercial fish poachers. And wildlife populations have already begun to bounce back: a recent aerial survey showed roughly 700 elephants, 470 buffaloes, 4,000 impalas and 1,000 hippos – as well as a healthy population of zebras, after 200 were reintroduced.
The organisation’s dream is that one day soon pangolin and rhinos will roam these shores once more. But before that happens, Pelham explained, the profits from wildlife and tourism have to trickle back to local villages, so they understand how conservation can benefit them. When I visited villages with African Parks’ community development manager, Daniel Sithole, I was shown portable canvas kraal walls to protect cattle from lions, and fields of chillies, which are burnt to ward off elephants. I saw bicycles given to 200 children to ride to school, and was told about libraries established in 35 local primary schools. At the nearby village of Mola, the chief, who proudly told me he has four wives and 34 children, sent us off with one son’s CV in case a ranger’s post became available. Opportunities in the area are few: African Parks recently received more than 700 applications — many with A-levels — for just 40 jobs.
Which explains why it was such a big deal for the community when Fothergill opened. Built in 1977, the resort (named after the seemingly indefatigable game warden Rupert Fothergill, who masterminded the rescue of more than 6,000 creatures as the Kariba Dam waters rose) was a simple, popular resort. But when international tourists disappeared from Zimbabwe, so did the camp; when the local businessmen Andy Lowe and Neil Evans stopped by to see it in 2019 it was a ruin. Eager to save it, the keen fishermen decided to take on the national park’s lease and last year, after a multimillion-pound investment, Fothergill was reborn.
Kariba has never had a luxury camp before. This has always been an unspoilt and back-to-basics place where, if you weren’t sailing across the lake on a houseboat, you’d take shelter from the scorching summer heat in Edwards’s thatched Musango Safari Camp, or cool off in the pool at Changa Safari Camp or African Bushcamps’ clifftop lodge, Bumi Hills.
Today, because Fothergill has its own airstrip, guests can fly straight in on a chartered plane from Victoria Falls, Hwange and Mana Pools. Plus, new scheduled Fastjet flights to Kariba town from Harare and Victoria Falls, followed by a 45-minute boat transfer, will open up the island for long weekends.
Once you’re on Fothergill’s 20,000-acre private concession, the remoteness and beauty of the area starts to sink in. The camp runs across the top of a low ridge and, from the front, the lake stretches out like a giant sea. Its surface is prickled with the tips of trees that were drowned when the Zambezi River was dammed and, to the back, its horizon is etched with the purply mountains of Matusadona.
Every inch has been built to Lowe’s exacting specifications, from an electric game fence to stop elephants destroying the 400 new trees to a high-tech solar plant. The spacious communal tents and nine double canvas-walled tents, plus a three-bedroomed villa — with air con-cooled beds and private decks, swing bed and plunge pool — have been elegantly designed using different local woods by the Harare designer Sarah Cremer. Its fridges are filled with premium spirits and fine South African wines, while the talented Zimbabwean chef Oscar Malaba, who spent years in South African restaurants, has devised an inventive menu. Robot mowers manicure the rolling lawns around the tents.
The excursions to view wildlife, in the early morning and late afternoon, have been equally well thought out. Every day I set out at dawn on an open-sided, tech-filled Land Cruiser with the friendly, knowledgeable guide Jasper Kusakadza, who not only knows every bird, but whose grandfather has taught him how to use local plants, from making tinctures for snakebite to grinding roots to alleviate menstrual cramps.
When he first arrived at Fothergill, Kusakadza told me, “if elephants saw us they were so stressed they just ran”. But as we scanned the wide, golden grassy plains nothing ran. Along the lakeside huge herds of impala grazed, amid dazzles of zebras. Elephants wandered right up to us, ripping off branches and munching grass. A muddy herd of buffaloes lurked amid the leadwoods, and shy kudus poked their noses out of stunted acacias. As we stopped in a dry riverbed for a surprise bush breakfast, not far from fresh lion prints, dozens of birds flitted above, from tiny iridescent sunbirds to soaring raptors.
The animals were similarly relaxed when viewed from quiet electric pontoons on the water. As we floated out in the evening with cold G&Ts, elephants showered themselves in the shallows with their trunks. Pods of hippos snorted and bared their tusks. Kingfishers darted and the lake’s iconic fish eagles cried as the setting sun shimmered in silvers, then apricots, then navy blues, riven by a streak of moonlight and spangle of reflected stars.
And that huge crocodile we’d spotted wasn’t alone. As we drifted alongside the riverbank, one yellow-eyed monster after another shot off the sand into the water and, five minutes later, all had disappeared.
After this trip I can be sure of one thing: I’ll never waterski on Lake Kariba again. But I suspect I’ll still have reptilian-filled nightmares.
Lisa Grainger was a guest of Mavros Safaris. Ten nights’ full board from £6,300pp, including three nights at Fothergill, two at Musango Safari Camp, three at Davison’s Camp in Hwange and two at the Victoria Falls Hotel, plus domestic flights and transfers (mavrossafaris.com). Fly to Johannesburg
Three more camps in Kariba
1. Musango Safari Camp
Steve and Wendy Edwards have lived on this wild lakeshore for most of their married lives. As Matusadona’s first warden, Steve is still considered one of Zimbabwe’s most knowledgeable guides, hence his regular clients from zoos, universities and even the Smithsonian, who come to see his collection of Iron Age tools and dinosaur fossils and go birding. Their traditional pole and thatch camp, built in 1992, with its eight practical canvas and mesh rooms, nightly campfire and comforting starlit dinner, is for those who want a casual bush base with entertaining company.
Details All-inclusive doubles from £786 (musangosafaricamp.com). Ten nights’ full board from £4,360pp, including stays in Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park and Musango Camp (expertafrica.com).
2. Changa Safari Camp
The owners of this camp, Kevin Higgins and Angus Preston, are also keen conservationists — Preston’s family own the well-known Hide lodge in Hwange. Set on the mainland near Matusadona, 40 minutes’ boat-ride from Kariba marina, their camp, created in 2012, is light, modern and accessorised with local crafts. Each of the eight spacious canvas bedrooms is comfortably furnished; some have romantic outdoor bathtubs. Meals are served on private tables under big terminalia trees or the stars.
Details All-inclusive doubles from £810 (changasafaricamp.com). Nine nights’ full board from £5,122pp, including stays in Victoria Falls, Mana Pools and Changa (aardvarksafaris.com). Fly to Johannesburg
3. Bumi Hills Safari Lodge
A boutique hotel rather than a bushcamp, this ten-bedroomed African Bushcamps lodge sits atop a rocky hill, with far-reaching views over the lake. Because it has its own landing strip and jetty, guests can arrive by charter plane or speedboat from Kariba marina. Inclusive activities are varied, from walks, game drives, night drives and catch-and-release fishing excursions to spa treatments and village visits to the Mola community. The pretty pool, contemporary living space, open gardens and large deck make this popular with families.