A Weekend Away at Nina’s Fishing Camp

For months now friends of ours have been raving about Nina’s Fishing Camp, a lodge on the banks of the Zambezi River in Western Province, Zambia. It’s actually on the way to Sioma Falls, where we camped at over Easter.

Zambezi River rapids

The view from our room. If only I could provide the sound of
the water too!

Anyway, last weekend we finally made it there for a truly fabulous few days away, or a “lekker” weekend, as the Afrikaans would put it!

Mike and Arno 

I know very little about fishing and have never really had much of an interest in (although I do love eating fish), but as the weekend at Nina’s proved, you don’t need to be into fishing. Just being at the beautiful lodge, cruising down the Zambezi in the warm sun, listening to the water flow down the rapids while lying in bed reading or napping, made a very enjoyable weekend. Having great people, Robyn, Arno and Simone, and the owner Nicky, to spend it with, also helped.

Our group for the weekend enjoying a lovely meal together

Nina's Fishing Camp from the water

The rooms at Nina's Fishing Camp

View from the water

Pretty much as soon as we arrived, we took to the water so that the boys could see who had the best fishing skills; the fact that Mike has never fished off a boat before was irrelevant! Well, despite what some may say, fishing really does come down to luck. We hadn’t been out there for 15 minutes when Mike caught his first Tiger fish. A good size one too, about 2kg! Another 20 minutes later, Mike caught a second Tiger fish of equally good size, not impressing Arno at all! Unfortunately due to a beer versus fish moment, Mike missed out on his third catch with the beer in the hand winning!

Fishing on the Zambezi River

Mike's first catch: A 2kg (approx.) Tiger Fish

Mike and his catch

Mike's second catch of the day. Another good one!

Something that we didn't know about fishing is that for every fish you catch on your first go at Nina’s, you must take a shot of…..well, I'm actually not really sure what was in the shot glass but it did have a good burn and a garlic after-taste.  Truthfully, I doubt it’s a Nina’s Fishing Camp policy :-)

Robyn: After a shot of the mystery mixture

Simone taking her chances with the shot glass

Robyn, Arno and Mike enjoying a few "quiet" drinks

Anyway, needless to say, there were a few tired and one (Mike!!) particularly hung over participant on the fishing boat the following day.

A quiet, peaceful cruise along the Zambezi River is exactly
what we needed after the previous night! 

Day two saw more cruising and attempts to catch the biggest fish of the weekend, although less successful this time. Small catches but nothing of the size caught the previous day. It was a very pleasant morning followed by a relaxed afternoon of reading and napping.

The evening was spent sharing a very South African dinner of “Samp” with an Ox Tail “Potjie” (pronounced “poy-key”), a dish that spends many hours cooking and tasted delicious!

Ox Tail Potjie

Arno and Simone serving up the Ox Tail Potjie and Samp 

Simone and Robyn deciding how hungry they are

My plate: Ox Tail Potjie with Samp and a glass of white wine to wash
it all down. Yum!!

Day three and the return home saw some of our built up rest and relaxation take a sudden drop when one of our tyres burst about 150kms outside of Livingstone. Fortunately it was a rear tyre and our driver got us safely to the side of the road (thanks Arno). However it was a good blow- out; see below picture. A relatively quick tyre change by the boys and we were back on the road in no time!

"Ruth's" sister having her tyre changed after a blow-out on the way
home

The tyre: It was a pretty decent blow-out

And as this blog post is published, our friends Robyn and Arno are sadly (for us) returning to South Africa. But the good news is that we now have friends to visit in South Africa when we head down there early next year. Can’t wait!

L-R: Me, Mike, Arno, Robyn and Simone