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Lake Kariba is the world's largest artificial lake and reservoir by volume. It lies 1300 kilometers upstream from the Indian Ocean, along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Lake Kariba was filled between 1958 and 1963 following the completion of the Kariba Dam at its northeastern end, flooding the Kariba Gorge on the Zambezi River.
The Zimbabwean town of Kariba was built for construction workers on the lake's dam, while some other settlements such as Binga village and Mlibizi in Zimbabwe and Siavonga and Sinazongwe in Zambia have grown up to house people displaced by the rising waters.
Before Lake Kariba was filled, the existing vegetation was burned, creating a thick layer of fertile soil on land that would become the lake bed. As a result the ecology of Lake Kariba is vibrant. A number of fish species have been introduced to the lake, notably the sardine-like kapenta (transported from Lake Tanganyika), which now supports a thriving commercial fishery. Other inhabitants of Lake Kariba include Nile crocodiles and hippopotamus.
It is unforgettable, on dust-tasting, hazy blue, September days, to watch the game treading its daily course to the edge of the lake's vast waters; or, in the rainy season when the air is crystal, when images are razor sharp, to watch the massive black blocks of wet-skinned elephant posing on the billiard-table flood plains carpeted with new green baize.
You will never forget the electric thrill of a racing reel as the line flies to the powerful pull of a fighting tigerfish; perhaps most unforgettable of all, watching the red sun sliding into dusky blackness as the earth turns beneath it into night whilst the dead trees that fill the lake and the blue-black mountians that slope down to its wooded shores, slowly merge with the blackness and are gone.
Most of all, of Kariba, you will remember the smells of Africa. The dust of the day, the moisture of the lake and, most evocative of all, the smell of advancing rain.
Half a century ago, the growing needs of a hungry nation drove man to control the flow of this great river and, in 1958, at the narrow neck of a remarkable gorge, a rising wall of concrete stemmed the river's flow. And so created what at the time was one of the largest man-made lakes in history.
Already existing in the waters was the famous tigerfish, a fighting game fish that offers excellent fishing. Indeed, in the new lake, the tiger thrived. The waters were rich in food and tiger grew to record sizes.
The Zimbabwean town of Kariba was built for construction workers on the lake's dam, while some other settlements such as Binga village and Mlibizi in Zimbabwe and Siavonga and Sinazongwe in Zambia have grown up to house people displaced by the rising waters.
Before Lake Kariba was filled, the existing vegetation was burned, creating a thick layer of fertile soil on land that would become the lake bed. As a result the ecology of Lake Kariba is vibrant. A number of fish species have been introduced to the lake, notably the sardine-like kapenta (transported from Lake Tanganyika), which now supports a thriving commercial fishery. Other inhabitants of Lake Kariba include Nile crocodiles and hippopotamus.
It is unforgettable, on dust-tasting, hazy blue, September days, to watch the game treading its daily course to the edge of the lake's vast waters; or, in the rainy season when the air is crystal, when images are razor sharp, to watch the massive black blocks of wet-skinned elephant posing on the billiard-table flood plains carpeted with new green baize.
You will never forget the electric thrill of a racing reel as the line flies to the powerful pull of a fighting tigerfish; perhaps most unforgettable of all, watching the red sun sliding into dusky blackness as the earth turns beneath it into night whilst the dead trees that fill the lake and the blue-black mountians that slope down to its wooded shores, slowly merge with the blackness and are gone.
Most of all, of Kariba, you will remember the smells of Africa. The dust of the day, the moisture of the lake and, most evocative of all, the smell of advancing rain.
Half a century ago, the growing needs of a hungry nation drove man to control the flow of this great river and, in 1958, at the narrow neck of a remarkable gorge, a rising wall of concrete stemmed the river's flow. And so created what at the time was one of the largest man-made lakes in history.
Already existing in the waters was the famous tigerfish, a fighting game fish that offers excellent fishing. Indeed, in the new lake, the tiger thrived. The waters were rich in food and tiger grew to record sizes.