Writer: Sarah Kingdom Photography: Islands of Siankaba, Thorntree River Lodge
our room and the rain falling on the canvas roof at night made us feel cosy and warm tucked up in bed, lulling us off to sleep. The next morning we awoke as tea and coffee were delivered. We sat on our verandah, watching 40 or 50 blue-cheeked beeeaters and just as many wire-tailed swallows swooping over the water. A Cape clawless otter appeared, swimming around Departing Royal Chundu, our next stay was the partially submerged small islands in front of our room. Walking to breakfast Islands of Siankaba, a lodge built on two private islands in the middle of the Zambezi. we found cracked crab carcasses on the Accommodation features wooden rooms bridges, remnants of giant kingfishers’ breakfast. built on stilts and perched on the river’s edge, with verandahs jutting out over the Moving on, our last stop on this luxurious water—all interlinked by a series of raised tour of Livingstone was the Royal wooden walkways. The walkways and suspension bridges that link the two islands Livingstone Hotel. We only had one night here, but we certainly made the most of our together gave an air of adventure to the lodge from the moment we arrived. They visit. Just after arrival we were ushered off were a constant source of entertainment to an extravagant high tea, where we were to my husband, who would deliberately each presented with a three-tiered cake stand loaded with goodies, accompanied by wait until I was in the middle of the main suspension bridge before jumping up and our choice of any number of tea varieties down on it and trying to make my crossing and, of course, some sparkling wine. Having as shaky as possible! missed lunch, we savoured our high tea whilst watching zebras grazing by the pool. The rain we had experienced at The Stanley Just as I swallowed my last bubbly sip, nibbled my last morsel of cucumber sandwich, continued at Islands of Siankaba, and the sound of the swollen river swirling beneath and decided there was no way I was going ingredients, which started with the chef’s ingenious take on chibwantu (a traditional home-made fermented beverage), served in a giant snail shell, and went on to include the imaginative use of ingredients such as wild spinach and vinkubala (caterpillars). This was, for sure, a novel and special way to end our stay.
to fit in any dinner, I was whisked off to a luxurious massage in a gazebo on the banks of the Zambezi.
Our last morning in Livingstone dawned and we enjoyed a delicious champagne breakfast while watching the spray of the Falls. We followed this with a last-minute visit to the Falls themselves (which you can access directly from the hotel garden). Taking advantage of our last bit of luxury we didn’t even walk there ourselves, instead catching a ride on the hotel’s golf buggy! After a solid week of rain, the Zambezi was a swollen river of chocolate and the Falls were really pumping; it was hard to drag ourselves away from watching the sheer volume of water that was pouring over the edge. But sadly all good things come to an end… Sarah was hosted by some spectacular lodges on her visits to Livingstone… THORNTREE RIVER LODGE: www.africanbushcamps.com STANLEY SAFARI LODGE: www.robinpopesafaris.net ROYAL CHUNDU: www.royalchundu.com ISLANDS OF SIANKABA: www.siankaba.net ROYAL LIVINGSTONE HOTEL: www.royal-livingstone.anantara.com
TRAVEL & LEISURE ZAMBIA
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