Booze Cruise: With Cokes, and Mini-Croc Attack

On our last night in Chirundu, we did a Booze Cruise, but with cokes. The concept is simple: get on a boat and watch the game come to the riverbanks at sunset. Oh yeah- with beer. We had cokes instead. It was incredible as we floated down the river listening to the hippos, and watching different groups of elephants bathe and go back into the bush. It was one of the most relaxing things I’ve done. All the while, we had the fishing rods in the water trying to catch tiger fish with no luck.
There is something interesting about the difference in the North and South Zambezi riverbanks. On the Zambian side, the first couple hundred meters or so is lush, and green lined with palm trees. Afterward it turns to regular brown brush. On the Zimbabwean side, it was relatively grey and dull to begin with. The reason being- the palm trees on the Zambian side supposedly mark an old Arab trading road that existed centuries before. I am told that there are abandoned Arab camps with pottery shards hundreds of years old nearby as well.

Despite the relaxed sunset, earlier in the day, we had a few close calls.


Scenario One:
I am standing on the riverbank of the Zambezi next to an upturned/submerged tree. Behind me is a small dirt ledge about 10 feet high, and there are 4 other people with me. The boat is anchored but drifting facing upstream about 4 meters away. As I am standing there, the water was clear, and we can see the fish swimming amidst the dead branches of the tree. In this calm setting, out of nowhere a Crocodile exploded out of the water. It was only 3 feet long, but still the suddenness of it had me a bit mesmerized. It came within a foot or two, stopped and looked at me, then swam away down stream keeping a good view of us.

What I Learned: You really have no idea what is out there, and crocs really are dangerous. Later when I showed Graham, Chris’s son pictures of Lake Powell in Utah- he was stunned that such scenery was in the states and asked me- “You can really swim anywhere in the lake? Its safe?” He was shocked that there wasn’t anything dangerous there. Had that croc been just 2 feet longer, then he definitely wouldn’t have been scared to turn away.

Scenario Two:
We were drag fishing for Tiger fish when we drifted close to one of the small islands in the river. Feeding in the reeds was a bull elephant. Keith took us in upstream of the elephant, and then cut the engine letting us drift right in front of it. We were within five meters of the thing, it looked straight at us, took a defensive stance and started flapping its ears as a warning. It looked as if it was going to charge into the water, and trumpeted at us. As I got it on video literally the second after it trumpeted, Keith said “YES!” in the background.

What I Learned: No matter what you think your gonna think, elephants are scary when they are that close to you. I felt slightly dazed and weak after we floated by it, but I was still surprised by Keith’s shout of “YES!”. Even though he’s been here countless times, and seen more wild elephants than he could count, he still is invigorated by elephants when he encounters them. He still gets a thrill, or a high from it.

I think I understand why.