Megan Ingoldby enjoys a few days in Zambia at the Royal Zambezi

The snow is falling outside my window and it’s hard to believe that this time a couple of weeks ago I had just arrived in the Lower Zambezi to sweltering temperatures over 30° C! If I close my eyes, I can still almost feel the warmth of the sun on my skin and hear the laughing hippos in the background as I sit looking out over the Zambezi River sipping on an ice cold local beer.

If I had to choose just two words to describe a stay in the Lower Zambezi and Royal Zambezi Lodge especially, they would be ‘flexibility’ and ‘diversity’.  Having done my fair share of safaris over the years, one of the real joys of this area is how much choice I have in what to do each day and at what time I do it. The guides are always there to give advice on the best times for a particular activity, but when I need an extra hour of shut-eye, no problem - they work around that! Want to go out tiger-fishing all day – again, no problem! They’ll even set up a picnic barbeque lunch on an island in the Zambezi. 

I spent many happy hours on game drives, bush walks and on the river. The river activities were my favourites – the canoeing on the Zambezi was exhilirating and who would have thought that I’d get so hooked on tiger-fishing? One of the highlights of my trip was encountering a breeding herd of elephants on our bush walk. You might think I’d be nervous, what with those protective elephant matriarchs; but with Simeon our pro-guide and Cabiner, our armed ZAWA guide, I felt secure from our safe vantage point and humbled to be standing so close to these beautiful giants, who were quite unaware of our presence.

Being something of a food-lover, this is a particularly important part of any holiday for me. I was not disappointed! They’re not always able to get all the ingredients we take for granted -  they hadn’t been able to get tomatoes of any description for nearly two weeks, for example - but you’d never know it, unless you’d been told, and Darrel, Royal Zambezi’s head chef, served us up some real treats. I really enjoyed the lunch platter concept – perfect on a hot summer’s day - with several different kinds of salad and something a little more substantial to satisfy even the biggest of appetites. I think my favourite was the home-made quiche.

Dinner is a sumptuous three-course affair, which we ate under the stars on the deck in front of the lodge. There is nothing quite like a warm summer night in Africa, enjoying great stories of fellow guests and hearing lions roar in the distance while you eat... I’m convinced it makes the food taste better, even something as seemingly ordinary as roasted vegetable soup. However, there was nothing ordinary about my pesto-brushed line-fish served on a bed of rosemary garlic potatoes with a paprika cream – I made sure I got the recipe from Darrel.

Royal Zambezi Lodge is just a 30-minute light aircraft hop from Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. With BA’s direct flights to Lusaka (and almost no time difference), you can leave the office after work in the evening and be taking elevenses beside the Zambezi the next morning. We can offer fantastic holidays in the Lower Zambezi - ring me for a chat.