"Mike Resnick - Between the Sunlight and Thunder (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

impala in exquisite sauces) was superb, as were all the various services provided by the lodge,
and it
is our conclusion that as luxurious as the Block lodges in Kenya are, the Sun chain in Zimbabwe --
consisting of Hwange, the Victoria Falls Hotel, the Monomatapa, the Montclair, the Troutbeck Inn,
and half a dozen others -- is even moreso. The staffs are courteous and expertly-trained, the food
is
world-class, and the accomodations are usually equal to anything you can find in New York or
London. For those of you who want to see Africa in absolute luxury, where the words "rough it" do
not exist, just mosey down to Zimbabwe and make the circuit of Sun hotels.

September 12: Two more fabulous game runs, three more fabulous meals, and a lot of loafing in our
suite. After dinner we walked out to a spotlighted waterhole about a quarter-mile away, climbed up
to a bar that was perched on stilts overlooking it, and spent the next couple of hours watching
and
photographing an endless procession of animals as they came down to drink.

September 13: We took a morning game run, then stayed around the lodge until our midafternoon
flight to Lake Kariba. Kariba is a man-made lake, more than 100 miles long, 30 miles wide, and (in
places) 1500 feet deep. When it was created some 30 years ago, it literally put a dent in the
earth...but unlike most projects of this type, it didn't foul up the ecosystem. It not only
provides
power for most of Zimbabwe and Zambia, it is also the biggest damned reservoir you ever saw, as
well as a huge vacation area bringing in all kinds of hard currency. They also stocked the lake
with
fish, left them alone for a few years while they grew fruitful and multiplied, and now pull some
eight
tons of fish per day out of it. We knew all this before we got there -- but until you fly over the
lake,
until you look out both windows of your plane and see that water extending almost to infinity, you
can't begin to appreciate the magnitude of the project. If the Victoria Falls are an awe-inspiring
work
of God (or Whoever), Lake Kariba is an equally awe-inpiring work of Man. We arrived at the
Caribbea Bay Hotel, probably the least impressive member of the Sun chain, in late afternoon, and
while Carol was unpacking, I scouted around to find us a restaurant -- and came up with Pedro's in
the basement of the hotel, an authentic Mexican restaurant in the heart of Africa.

September 14: In the morning we took a ferry to the Sanyati Lodge, on the far side of the lake.
The
landscape, far from being the flat land that usually leads up to a lakeshore, was formerly the
tops of
some mountains (remember: this is a man-made lake), and we climbed about 150 steps up to our
cabin, which had a gorgeous view of the Sanyati Gorge, a channel between two mountain tops that
rose up out of the water. Our hosts were Hans, a former farmer who Carol declares is the best
birder she's even met, and his new bride, Diana. We asked Diana to radio ahead and find out what
time we had to catch a charter plane to our next destination, Chikwenya Camp in the Mana Pools


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