MSUNA

On our return from Mozambique, we did the washing and re-packed for a few days at Msuna, where we were going to meet a friend who was celebrating a "significant" birthday.  It was a quick easy drive from Bulawayo - possibly because I slept most of the way (can't stay awake if I'm not driving !!!), and we arrived there in the early afternoon.  Most of the party was out fishing, but we found our lodgings and a friend and moved in.  The house that we stayed in is really lovely, and is available for the public to hire.  It has 5 bedrooms, 2 of them have ensuite bathrooms and are air-conditioned.  The other 3 are upstairs, where there are 2 shared bathrooms.  There are fans throughout the house.  It is fully equipped for self-catering, and there are 2 very pleasant staff to cook and clean.  With lots of space, a wonderful view of the water, a private swimming pool AND someone to cook, it's a great space for a Zambezi break.

I always enjoy getting on to the water - so long as their are no hippos in the vicinity - but as the years have passed my desire to actually fish has waned, and I prefer instead to bird watch.  This was really rewarding on this trip and I managed to notch up a few "first-timers".  I got close to spotting 40 species, which is really good for me, and excludes all those that I didn't identify.

There are some lovely houses at
Msuna, all privately owned, some are rented out and some aren't.  Recently renovated are the little lodges at "Indibiri".




These and the house we stayed in are my definate favourites at Msuna.  The Resort itself is looking magnificent, the gardens are beautifully kept and everything was green, green, green, and lovely and hot !!  The men partook of some "fishing with green stuff" and managed to bring home some good catches from the river bank fishermen !!!!  We had a wonderful few days there - as always, too short - but we had been away from home for some time altogether, so we needed to get back and knuckle down to some work (to pay for the next trips !)

Sidinda

Our next trip took us to the most wonderful spot. It is so wonderful that I am torn between telling people about it or keeping it secret !! When First-Born is home from cold and boring faraway places, he MUST fish (in between the hunting, shooting, falconing, drinking and partying), so we squeezed in a short trip to The River. None of us had ever been to Sidinda before but had heard that it is a good spot (what an understatement !!). It was a 5 hour drive - 400kms - just the last 30 or so kilometres on a perfectly acceptable dirt road. There are no signposts, so we just went off in search of the spot, using friends' directions and some local knowledge. As we got closer, the people disappeared and the vegetation became thicker and we could spot the evidence of large game having been in the area. It became more and more appealing the closer we got to the camp. Our arrival at the camp was confirmed by a very understated sign, but the camp was awesome !! The large wood and thatch rooms are standing on stilts built into the side of a hill, looking out over the river. The rooms are very open - no doors or walls - because of the extreme high temperatures in summer. We were lucky to be there in August and the weather was just perfect - not VERY hot and certainly not cold, just a little crispy in the early morning. There is a perfect clean white sandy beach in front of the camp, but unfortunately no pool. Paddling in the river is not recommended - the only crocs we saw were large ones ! It was a wonderful few days, everyone fished (and caught nicely) (except me - I was there to relax, read, take photos, explore and bird watch). The awesome thing about being at Sidinda, is that there is no-one else around, it is a very exclusive spot. Boats cannot come up the river as they can't get past the rocks, and as it is very close to the end of the Batoka Gorge, there is no other resort between there and Vic Falls, so no-one comes down river either. There are no villages nearby, and we only saw one Zambian hut some kilometres up the gorge. There is no mains power, no telephones, no tv, so this is a really special place to go where you can truly enjoy being alone and have the place to yourself !! Our 3 night stay there was just not long enough, but better than nothing, for sure !! The birdlife was amazing, I had several "first time" identifications, and sleeping in in the morning was out of the question as the bird calls were riotous - but how lovely to hear them all. The hippos only visited at night, we could hear them grunting and sloshing around under our rooms, but they moved off in the day and weren't spotted nearby. Sadly it was all over far to quickly and we had to leave. On the way out we could see that we had just missed the elephants - their tracks and poo and branches were all over the road, we could smell them, we just couldn't see them !! We plan to visit Sidinda again next year - but for MUCH longer !!