Lynne Bolduc and her husband traveled to Africa with Rothschild Safaris following an incredible story of survival. She regularly sends us tales of her travels with us. Reading her true Safari stories is a great way to put yourself in the moment and learn what a Safari to Africa might offer. The humor, the excitement and the small moments of intense pleasure in every day.
The trouble started with a picture.
Having received a photo of his brother catching a marlin in Florida, my husband, Greg, was determined to top that by catching something equally impressive.
We were finally on our dream Safari to Africa. Staying along the Zambezi River in Zambia at Chongwe River Camp offered the unique opportunity of fishing for tiger fish, so Greg had to try it. I decided to go along for the boat ride and scenery.
Greg and I prepared over breakfast on the morning of the fishing expedition by reading passages from “A River Runs Through It” by Norman Maclean which I had brought as my reading material for the trip coincidentally.
“Fly fishing is an art that is performed on a four-count rhythm between ten and two o’clock”
we kept repeating.
Our fishing guide pulled the motorboat right up on our private beach and we set off into the Zambezi River National Park.
We virtually had the river to ourselves as it was not the high season for fishing. We cruised by pods of hippos with only their eyes visible above the water.
Our fishing guide actually caught the fish that we would use as bait.
I wrote in my journal while Greg tried fly-fishing.
Having had no luck with the fly-fishing, Greg switched to regular cast fishing.
While the scenery of being in a wide blue river, with green islands and brown mountains all around, under a blue sky with puffy white clouds floating as lazily as we were in the boat, was beautiful, I was bored of just sitting there, so decided to try something I had never done before.
I would fish.
Our guide baited my hook and showed me how to cast it which turned out to be the most challenging part because, once it was cast, you just stood there….until something happened.
We had been on the river for several hours with no bites. So I was standing there, looking at the beautiful scenery, and all of a sudden there was a big tug on my pole and my reel started spinning wildly. I didn’t know what to do, so just hung on to the pole and called out,
“Something is happening!”
The guide took the pole from my hands, the line went slack, and we all three saw a large tiger fish leap out of the water as if he was laughing at us, having gotten off of the hook. So on my very first attempt at fishing, I was the only one who got a bite from a tiger fish.
On our way back to camp, we saw a huge elephant in the tall grass aptly called “elephant grass” on a small island and were able to get very close as we were in a boat and could just speed away at any moment if need be.
Back at camp at lunch, my husband toasted my first successful fishing trip with the local beer called Mosi.
And then he vowed to return to the Zambezi to catch a tiger fish himself.
