ZAMBIA | SEASONS ON THE ZAMBEZI
Seasons
ON THE ZAMBEZI AT VICTORIA FALLS, LIVINGSTONE [ WRITER: Alison Orr ]
[ PHOTO: Chundukwa River Lodge / Safari Magazine ]
An account from Chundukwa River Lodge When you live on the Zambezi River, just 35km above Victoria Falls, much of life revolves around the river, the Falls, and their variations of ‘high and low water’. Here, seasons are categorised according to relevant characteristics of that period or time of year, rather than the traditional western four seasons of the year. And whilst you can split the year into several seasons, the most common are the Wet and Dry seasons, and Low and High water levels. Local communities are in tune with these shifts in climate and changes in their surroundings for various different reasons – planting, harvesting and storing crops, irrigation, hydro-electric power supplies, fishing, roof maintenance, and in some cases shifting homes and livestock from low to higher grounds – as the Lozi people in Barotseland do, before the annual floods. For us at Chundukwa we are focussed on the types of adventures that our guests can enjoy as the seasons change – always closely linked to the Victoria Falls. Also being a ‘River Lodge’ nestled on the banks of the magnificent Zambezi River, we observe the changes in the varying bird-and-wildlife seen at the water’s edge, the changing channels on the river, and the water lapping under our stilted river chalets. Along the course of its 2574km journey to the Indian Ocean, the Zambezi River flows from Zambia, through parts of Angola, back into Zambia, and along parts of Zambia’s borders with Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and finally into Mozambique where it reaches the Indian Ocean. The catchment area is vast, and the morphology of the river equally diverse – as wide as 25km in the Barotse Floodplains, a mile wide at the Victoria Falls, and in parts of the Batoka Gorge below, as narrow as a stone’s throw. Historically, the rainy season in this greater region and in much of the Zambezi’s catchment area is from November to mid-April, and the dry season from May until October. However, further along the Zambezi these seasons do not fall exactly in line with ‘high and low’ river levels.
32
TRAVEL & LEISURE | May - Aug 2021
