Fothergill Island - Lake Kariba and Matusadona
July 1 - Canada Day
We heard the male lions were communicating with each other while going to bed last night and again around 4am. Delaine was determined for us to see the male lion this morning on our last drive. After some tea and coffee by the fire, we headed out. Some of the clouds have lifted, so it feels a bit cooler this morning. We did not waste time stopping to view the usual animals and birds, and no time wasted on trying to take photos of the lilac-breasted roller flying or the baboons playing.
Our highlight this morning were:
African fish eagle
Saddle-billed stork
Black-winged stilt
Tawny eagle
Emerald-spotted dove
Crimson dove
Red-billed quelea
Yellow bird (name? it eats farmers seeds at harvest and it is legal to shoot them)
As we prepared for take-off Delaine Elephant parked along the airstrip to chase away the donkeys. He waved goodbye as we departed for Kariga with Barn (young hottie) piloting our Cessna.
The changes in landscape during our flight were amazing. We started off with flat, sandy soil with quite a few trees (except spots cleared for villages), then more grassy, a long winding dry riverbed, an escarpment, and a small mountainous area.
We landed at the airstrip on our on luxury island, Fothergill Island. It was a short drive to the high end accommodations. The gate opened and we drove along the groomed drive. Another set of gates opened to reveal a lawn so perfect that we thought it was astroturf.
We were greeted by an African pied wagtail doing a little jig on the perfect lawn. Our welcome drinks were delicious and the pickled beet cured bream was amazing.
While having our first of many amazing meals at Fothergill with some delicious salads, we saw white-browed coucal and scarlet-chested sunbird, lesser masked-weaver, little egret, and pied kingfisher.
On our first drive with Moses, we saw:
Secretary bird
Pravin coal
Impalas
Elephants
Zebras
The highlight of our drive was the pride of 12 lions. They were napping in some shrubs and we could see 6 or more of them. Moses smartly drove us around the back of the shrubs and we were able to get up close as they woke up, yawned, and stretched lazily. After a while they seemed mildly interested in the zebras and strolled off.
We had our post-sundowner and enjoyed the beautiful view with some elephants off in the distance.
Once again we were treated to an amazing meal with some great wine.
July 2
They had a lovely spread of fruit, cheese, cereal, avocado and chocolate chip muffins for us this morning. That was our pre-breakfast meal. Then we had a choice of bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, eggs and toast. We thought we had eaten a lot at the previous lodges!
Moses guided us after breakfast and our goal is to see lots of birds! He has the Roberts bird guide app on an iPad for us to use during the drive. What a great idea!
We saw the following:
Dark-capped bulbul
Tawny-flanked prinia
Masked lesser weaver
Fork-tailed drongo
Arrow-marked babbler
Tawny eagle & nest
Wire-tailed swallow
White-crowned lapwing
Oxpecker red-billed
Collared dove or cape turtle dove
Cattle egret
Black-winged lapwing
African pipit
Kittlitz’s plover
Egyptian geese
Blacksmith lapwing & eggs on the beach (right after I gave myself road rash on my left arm)
Yellow-billed stork
African spoonbill
Greater egret
African dater or snake bird
Reed cormorant
Grey heron
Common sandpiper
Marsh sandpiper
Saddle-billed stork
Little egret
Glossy ibis
Red-billed teal
Crocodile
Red-billed Oxpecker
Zebras
Hippos with babies
Temminck’s courser
Collared pratincole
Cape turtle dove
Meves’s starling
Secretary bird
Elephants (with an adorable baby)
Impalas (with the mountains in the background)
Tropical bulbul
Crested helmet shrike
Warthogs
Hippos (running inland)
Kudus
Monitor lizzard
We had a nice break with ranger tea and coffee, pretzels, dried mangos, and granola squares.
It was just after noon when we returned to the lodge. We decided to have a later lunch so that we could spend time at the pool before eating again. The water was very refreshing but the sun was hot, so it felt really good! We had another great spread for lunch, freshened up, then headed on a short drive to our afternoon fishing excursion.
We did not see a lot of wildlife on our cruise. The main focus was fishing. Despite spilling a full glass of wine on Ron's pants, we had fun.
We did see on the boat:
Grey-headed gull
Goliath heron
Hippos
Ron was able to snag two tilapia but could not reel them in. I was the only successful fisher person, I caught 2 fish. One was a decent size and the other was tiny. Thankfully the goal was not to supply ourselves with dinner. I think there will be enough food for us at dinner back at the lodge.
Moses let us know that there was a special sighting, so we headed back to shore. A vehicle was waiting for us. After a bit of effort by our captain, Moses and Ron to get us on shore, we boarded the Land Cruiser and headed off.
We were delighted to discover that our surprise was a beautiful sundowner spread along the water with lots of wine, a variety of alcohol, and large selection of canapés. It was incredible and the sunset was beautiful with elephants and hippos in the near distance.
Dinner on the lawn beside our own campfire was wonderful. The presentation was beautiful as always and we had napkins folded in the shape of a magpie shrike in our glasses. We had tenderloin, peri peri chicken, lemon chicken, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, and a beautiful dessert with meringue and fried basil or curry leaves.
We played another round of euchre and the Humphreys finally won a game after three straight losses during our trip so far! Then it was off to bed a bit later than usual because we get to sleep in, as breakfast will be at 8:30 tomorrow.
