Sunset boat cruise

There is something profoundly soothing about cruising on the Malilangwe Dam in the late afternoon - the way the light softens, glows and folds over the water. The warm air whispers on your skin, and the meditative stillness feels almost sacred. Every boat cruise, like every game drive, is different – but you are guaranteed of seeing hippos, crocodiles and birds.

As we approached a pod of hippos individulas broke the surface, their wide nostrils puffing little bursts of mist into the amber air. Every few moments, one would “yawn” an enormous display of teeth, and trying to catch that moment on camera is a challenge.

Shortly after seeing the hippos we spotted a large crocodile lying motionless and mirrored in the shallows, its rough hide blending perfectly with the muddy bank. Ancient and patient it was waiting for the day’s last warmth to fade before slipping without a ripple back into the river.

The birds are at their best on a boat cruise and you’ll see and hear fish eagles – their unmistakable calls echo across the river valley offering a spiritual soundtrack of Africa.

Our outing coincided with the nesting season of many birds. It was incredible to get a glimpse of these African darter eggs in a nest built in the fork of one of the dead trees that reach up out of the dam. The eggs had a pale green tint to them. Both parents share the incubation of the eggs, which lasts for about one month, and use their feet to warm the eggs since they lack a brood patch. There were several pairs tending their eggs, and the height of the boat as we went past a nest offered us this sneak peek.

Also busy nesting were grey herons. Herons breed in colonies called heronries. Their nests were in the highest of the dead trees in the river. Both parents incubate the eggs for around 25 days, and then both feed the chicks, which fledge when 7-8 weeks old.

The best place to look for kingfishers, is of course during a boat cruise, and we find a kaleidoscope of kingfishers here – African pygmy, brown-hooded, giant, grey-headed, pied, striped, woodland, and this jewel in the crown, the malachite.

Further upstream an anxious Egyptian goose took her clutch of fluffy goslings for one of their first swims.

Then we witnessed an extraordinary event, certainly the first time I have seen this here – a bull elephant swimming across the river that flows into the dam, from one bank to the other. It was incredible to see him take to the water! At first he held his tail out the water but as he swam across it was just the tip of his trunk and the area above his eyeline that wasn’t submerged. He used his trunk like a snorkel, and his large body provided the buoyancy while his legs paddled beneath the surface. There was no reason for him to cross in front of us at that precise moment, but when he reached the other side he spun around a squirted a trunkful of water directly at us!

Shortly after that we turned and headed for home, drinking in the splendour of the scenery and our indelible experiences. Watching the sun dip behind the horizon, you feel an unexpected peace — the kind that doesn’t need words or reason. The world continues, quietly and beautifully, with or without our attention. And yet, by witnessing it, by allowing ourselves to simply be present in its rhythm, we rediscover something essential: gratitude, humility, and a sense of belonging to something timeless.