Earlier this year Spurwing Island hosted the Zimbabwe Air Rally which was organised by Marion from Experience Africa Safaris.
For those of you that know my husband Woody, you will know he has an insatiable interest for anything that flies. He and his brother grew up learning how to build and fly model planes with their father. Although all grown up now, Woody has never lost his passion for flying machines. A few years ago, I had to patiently explain why I DIDN’T think it was a good idea to build and then fly his very own Tiger Moth! Women, you will get this, men, maybe not so much.
Anyway, I digress. We had only been living in Kariba a couple of months when we found out that the Zimbabwean Air Rally was coming to Kariba again this year. Their detailed itinerary took the intrepid pilots from Charles Prince airport just outside of Harare, to Fothergill Island on Lake Kariba were they landed and were then boated across to Spurwing Island.
During the course of the 3-day programme, the pilots get to see some of the beautiful sights Kariba has to offer. Changa Safari Camp hosted a beach party and volleyball tournament, while the Zambezi Trader also got in on the tour and provided a lunch and sunset cruise.
We were not able to participate as Woody is not actually a pilot, and we don’t own a plane! But we settled for the next best thing and drove out to the airport on re-fuelling day to watch the planes come in to land and take-off again. Sadly, we had the wrong day and only managed to catch a couple of the planes, however, Woody was still happy to see any planes, so it was not a lost cause and was a different way to spend our Saturday morning.
Next year the Zimbabwean Air Rally has Victoria Falls and Hwange as its destinations instead, but we can’t wait for the rally to hopefully return to Kariba in 2020.
