All hail the Zambezi Queen

Article by: www.iol.co.za

November 30 2010 at 06:19am

With our many rivers, it’s sad that house-boating in southern Africa is not as big as the paddle and steam boat traditions of the Mississippi.

So it was a delight to discover the Zambezi Queen on the Linyati River between Namibian land and Botswana, not far from Kasane and close to Zambia. There are quite a few smart house boats operating in the vicinity, but they are dinky compared with the luxurious, 14-cabin, 156-ton majestic Zambezi Queen.

In the great tradition of African story-telling, the saga of how this floating palace was built on the banks of the Linyati by owner Brett McDonald is a classic. The sourcing of two 1.8 ton generators from the US and getting them on to the Zambezi Queen is a story on its own.

Then there were the roof solar prisms which came from Austria, the sand, charcoal and bag filters used to provide fresh water, and the furnishings, which had to be trucked from Cape Town. And that’s just a part of it.

Determined to ensure world-class, state-of-the-art safety and eco-friendliness, McDonald travelled the world, including to the Amazon, researching all the technology and facilities for the boat. During the two-odd years of building, locals dubbed it Noah’s Ark, possibly because if there was a flood, it could accommodate most of the wild animals from the nearby game reserves.

As it turns out, there was a flood – and it came just in the nick of time. McDonald still chuckles at the many plans he had concocted until then to shift the boat off dry land into the water.

The week we arrived for our Zambezi Queen adventure, the Linyati River was flooding again. The vegetation and wild animals were all shiny and healthy as we cruised elegantly past them in our custom-built game-viewing boat, which transported us the few kilometres from Kasane to where the Zambezi Queen floated on the glassy waters with the presence of a matriarch

We were greeted by friendly staff, the majority of whom are from local villages, and directed to the beautiful 43m long viewing decks for refreshments.

Elephants waded in the reeds just metres from us and as the light started to fade, everything turned that luminous green and gold one only finds in Africa, and the whole world went quiet. As towering clouds in the distance came closer, we hopped aboard the tender boat for a spot of game viewing before the storm came.

Game viewing is very different from the water. For starters, you are out in the open and can sneak up pretty close to animals.

We got back just as fat raindrops started splatting into the water. My cabin, with its own deck and en-suite, was on the lower level with sliding glass doors opening out across the water. The privacy of sleeping out on the water with the nearest neighbours being a pod of hippos is a rare treat in today’s world.

Even though the game and bird watching from the comfortable couches on the Zambezi Queen’s viewing decks was spectacular, we were also treated to a game viewing road trip around the nearby Chobe Game reserve with Kasane’s local vet and a basket packed with delicious snacks.

On another day we took a tender boat through the maze of flooded reeds, past hippos, crocs, elephants and a variety of antelope and water birds, to a tributary of the Savuti River, to go fishing for tiger fish. We also visited the neat local village of Kafubu on the nearby island where the locals still live very much as they have for centuries.

The island is also home to some of the largest baobab trees I have ever seen. Due to the amazing 360° view from its high branches and its central location, one of these giants was apparently used during apartheid by the South African military as a lookout.

Sadly, it was also used by bored soldiers for target practice and is pock-marked by bullet holes.

Other Zambezi Queen activities include an evening boma beach braai on the river bank followed by lazing on big cotton cloths listening to bushmen’s stories. But the best thing of all, was spending the afternoons dozing, either in the well-stocked reading room, on comfy couches or in the Jacuzzi on deck, peacefully watching the world as the Zambezi Queen slowly drifted.