Courtney Ward has been “dancing with dolphins” for ten years in the warm waters of southern Mozambique at Ponta Malongane. People say she is part dolphin and you can believe it when you see her gliding through the water like a mermaid with her mono-fin.

Dolphins crowd around her and out of a pod of over two hundredshe knows about thirty individuals on sight. They may arrive together or in small groups and Courtney and the dolphins give each other the eye (or was that a wink?), acknowledging an understanding that she says is, “a very physical and joyful relationship.” She says they love to play and so does she.  Courtney also talks about the real soul connection she has with the dolphins, which she finds funny, since she originates from about as far from the sea in South Africa as you can get; Kimberley. She calls herself the, “dolfyn van die woestyn,” dolphin from the desert. She has such inter-connectedness with the dolphins, that they even visit her in her dreams.

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I do like a generous size bath and the big oval bath in the lagoon-side safari suite at Mosiac Farm, could fit little ole me and my 6ft man. The only problem was that that neither I nor Man, could reach both the spout and the taps at the same time. We had to run the bath in tandem, him on the taps, me on the spout (not elegant). But once in, it was all worth it.

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“Can you come to Lake Kariba on Thursday for a week?”, said a friendly voice. “I know it’s Monday today but I have space for one more person on my houseboat going down the length of Lake Kariba.”

My initial reaction was that I couldn’t get organised in three days, then the yearning for adventure and curiosity as to how Zimbabwe was coping took over, and without noticeable hesitation, I said, “Yes, I’d love to.”

I have fond memories of Lake Kariba, when about ten years ago I met Zim’s version of Crocodile Dundee and his sidekick, whom I named Camel Safari Man. These two hunks…..but that is another story, which you will find on this blog in due course. I thought this time was likely to be more sedate and what could be better than being on a houseboat, travelling from one end of this inland sea to another. There is nothing much to do on a boat but relax, and that’s exactly what I settled in to do.

The 8-bedded Lady Jacqueline, run by Flame Lilly Holidays, whose charismatic owner is Brett McDonald, had an empty leg to run from Kariba to Binga, and Brett wanted to show us that travel in Zimbabwe is not just possible, but still a pleasure.

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The Cherry on the Safari Cake

Just when I thought life on safari couldn’t get any better, it did.

It was my birthday and I was sitting in a bubbling hot spring on the edge of the Kafue River in Zambia. Fireflies were dancing around my head and a fellow journalist on this press trip - a rather tall, handsome fella - was giving my shoulders a massage (c’mon it was my birthday). I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

Large boulders surrounded the hot springs, protecting it from an unannounced visit by hippos or crocodiles. There I sat with a glass of bubbly in hand and a big smile on my face. If this wasn’t enough, I was then informed that Hippo Lodge offer massages at this spot too. This information served to put the cherry on top of the safari cake for me and I mentally awarded Hippo Lodge in Zambia’s Kafue National Park, top honours in my safari lodge repertoire.

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