Island View Lodge
MAY-JULY NEWSLETTER
A warm and hearty welcome to all our clients and friends. It has been a while since the last newsletter, but having the whole of South Africa up here in Namibia during the World Cup, time on hand was out of the question.
The Zambezi river level is dropping quickly but it is not yet on the average level for this time of year. The floods finally calmed down towards the end of May when the water started going below the riverbank. After struggling for days to get Road Authorities to assist us in fixing the road, we gave up, hired casuals and packed about 2000 sandbags in the places swamped away by water. Although not the best way to get here, we finally had access to the lodge by vehicle. At last they started fixing the road last week and soon it will feel like driving on a highway again. There are rumours that the gravel road might be tarred in future.
The “winter” has arrived and we have experienced some cool mornings and nights from time to time. The days however, is sunny as always. The past week we had very strange weather as it has been overcast for the last 7 days..
We had been very busy during the June/July holidays, especially with South African tourists camping. It was a nice sight to see the campsite so full and go for a walk through the camp at night and experience the atmosphere. I hope everybody enjoyed their stay.
SHAMWARI HOUSEBOAT
The Shamwari is back at the Lodge again since the beginning of June. All clients board from here when visiting the Houseboat. Interesting clients can contact us for enquiries regarding the Houseboat. We are planning to do trips from the Lodge down to the Chobe from Feb. to maybe middel April 2011 when the water is high. This will be a trip to remember. We will send out a package for this in the near future as this will be a all inclusive price.
GENERAL
We are still busy with some reservations – yes we have lots of plans for the future. We established a small garden in front of all the chalets and painted the new office. Currently we are busy building en-suite bathrooms for Heron and Kingfisher and putting up a huge deck that is in front of the bar and goes all the way around the “boma braai”. This will be nice and I can’t wait to finish.
We are also preparing for the Zambezi Classic that takes place at the end of August. 73 teams have entered and it is going to be jam packed. This is a big event as the first prise is a boat with a 100hp four stroke engine. I think we will be going four days without sleep.
Our families visited us as well during the June/July holidays to celebrate Nastassja’s 21st and Riaans 50th. The lodge also had its first engagement during the holidays. The Etsebeth and Van Rooyen families visited us and their children got engaged while up here. Island View is very special to them as they met one another at the Lodge five years ago hopefully they will also get married here. We are also having our first wedding in October 2011 as Riaan’s sister daughter decided to have her wedding on the Lodge. A lot of firsts for the Lodge.
FISHING
There has been a lot of discussion regarding the fishing, as this has been going up and down.
The fact that the level of the river has been so high for such a long period of time, as well as the temperature of the water might be some of the reasons. Getting tigerfish has been extremely difficult the past few weeks. We had some good ones in June,7,0kg, 6,7kg, 5,7kg, 5,4kg and 6,7kg (just around the corner of the campsite) The Houseboat, however had some good tiger fish coming in last week, 6.7kg and 6,6kg and 5,7 kg and many in the region of 4-5kg. This is a good sign and shows that things are starting to pick up. The breams however are starting to bite and we had some good catches for Nembwe (2,6kg), Pinky (1,96kg) Three Sport (3,5kg), Humpback (3,06kg) The big tigers are still out there!!!!!
CLIENTS VISITING IN FUTURE
We do want to advise our clients to please provide us beforehand with the details regarding fishing licences. It is quite a problem to get hold of them as they are seldom in their offices and sometimes it takes up to 2 weeks before we have them. Fisheries does’nt understand this problem and fines N$300.00 per person, taking their passports, until the fine has been paid at the police station. They do not take any excuses, so please assist us regarding this matter as we are doing this as a favour to our clients and would not like you to be fined while on the river.
We would also like to ask our clients to please understand that it is not always possible to get the chalet, boat or guide of your preference. As the bookings come in all of these are allocated to who ever booked first. We will try to keep everyone happy, but it is not always possible.
If you are planning to come up from August – October, please book as quick as possible as we have only a few openings here and there. Clients wanting to visit Nov – Dec must book as soon as possible as the bookings are starting to come in for that time.
On a lighter note – this is for all the Jagermeister fans. There is a record to be broken. Four people, four nights, 222 Jagermeisters (Sorry Julian and Co, you did your best, but your record of 207 dit not last long). The “Weigh-Inn bar is becoming responsible for many memory losses. Yes, it has been very difficult for some people to find their way back to their chalets. Leaving the bar, coming back an hour later with a rake in his hand for protection against the elephants, not finding the Robin chalet. The new walkway is also the reason for concern – taking aim and missing the target. Finding your way on the river the next morning is also becoming a big problem – you are on your way to Mondi and end up in Katima. That is total memory loss.
STYWE LYNE UNTIL NEXT TIME
RIAAN, MARISA, NIEL AND MICHELLE