Kariba
A town on the hills above the great dam, at the head of a man-made lake 280 kilometres long, with its own airport of entry four kilometres away.
- Arrival
- Harare, Robert Gabriel Mugabe International · HRE
- To Kariba
- About 280 km north-west of Harare by air
- Private jets
- Into Kariba (KAB), an airport of entry
- Best time
- April to November
The city
The wall and the water.
Kariba exists because of the dam. Between 1955 and 1959 a concrete arch 128 metres high was thrown across the Zambezi gorge, and the river backed up into a lake some 280 kilometres long and 5,400 square kilometres in area. Around 57,000 Tonga people were moved from the valley, and in Operation Noah rangers rescued some 6,000 large animals stranded on new islands as the water rose.
Today the town looks down on a lake that behaves like an inland sea, with drowned trees standing in its shallows and Matusadona National Park on its southern shore, where black rhinos have returned. Visit in the dry months, April to November; by October the heat reaches 35 °C and evenings are spent out on the boats.
- Kariba Dam The 579-metre crest of the arch, opened in May 1960, with Zimbabwe on one side of the gorge and Zambia on the other.
- Lake Kariba Some 5,400 square kilometres of water stretching west towards the horizon, best seen from a boat at the end of the day.
- Matusadona National Park Hills and shoreline across the lake, where black rhinos have been brought back.
Arriving
An airport of entry on the lake.
Long-haul travellers fly into Harare, about 280 kilometres to the south-east. Kariba Airport, four kilometres east of the town and thirteen from the dam, takes the onward flight, and it can also clear jets arriving directly from abroad.
- Johannesburg 1 h 45
- Kigali 2 h 25
- Seychelles 4 h 30
- Milan 9 h 35 long-range jet
- Bangkok 11 h 20 long-range jet
When to go
April to November.
A hot valley climate, with heavy rain from December to February. From May to September almost none falls; June and July are the mildest months at 27 °C, and the heat climbs to 35 °C in October before the storms return in November.
- 31° J 195
- 31° F 157
- 31° M 122
- 31° A 33
- 29° M 5
- 27° J 0
- 27° J 0
- 29° A 0
- 33° S 0
- 35° O 15
- 34° N 73
- 32° D 187
Elsewhere in Zimbabwe
More reasons to come.
- Victoria Falls The Smoke that Thunders, its spray visible from miles away.
- Hwange The largest park in the country, and its elephants.
- Mana Pools Walking safaris and canoeing on the Zambezi.
- Matobo Granite boulders, rock art and rhinos.
- Harare The capital on the highveld, and the start of flights to Mana Pools and Kariba.
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