Missionary and explorer David Livingstone once referred to the Zambezi River as a “magnificent stream”. Clearly, he never paddled himself down Africa’s fourth largest river in a Canadian-style canoe, sharing the water with a few thousand fiercely territorial hippos and man-eating crocodiles, camping on its banks in the company of lions, hyenas, elephants and buffaloes. Had he done so, he might’ve been more inclined to the moniker of “Mighty Zambezi”.
The feature relates the nervous, yet happy, blur of a week’s paddling in the company of four Zimbabwean guides, who all shared a healthy regard for Mr Snaggly Tooth (the Zambezi’s Nile crocodiles they spoke of in whispers). It is a tale of hot, wind-crazed afternoons and moonlit campsites where lions roared and hyenas shrieked during dinner, all served up with chilled Zambezi Lagers. The story captures the thrill of drifting to within spitting distance of buffaloes and elephants on this illustrious waterway that forms a natural border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.