All-Nighters for Grown-Ups on the Mighty Zambezi
Remember when you pulled your last all-nighter?
When not sleeping meant nothing compared to overloading the senses with a deluge of sound and a pretty light show? When nights only drew to a close once you’d watched the sun come up with a few good friends and the ringing in your ears began to fade?
Whether it’s been too many years for the idea to have appeal, or covid fatigue feels too real for it to seem practical, diving into an all-nighter may not be very high on your priority list – until that is, you do a sleep out with Royal Chundu on the Zambezi River.
Although the Zambezi ping-pongs her way through six different countries, most travellers seem all too-tempted to typecast her by Victoria Falls alone. To think anyone can truly get to know the Zambezi from a few scattered viewpoints is to miss most of what makes her so mighty. Trace those torrents of water back upstream however, before they roar into the chasm of Batoka Gorge, and you’ll find a gateway into this river’s many personalities - above which hangs a sleep-out deck.
Victoria Falls, or Mosi-oa-Tunya is the Zambezi’s main draw card (pictured during low water) but there are plenty of reasons to stay longer than it takes to see the falls at Royal Chundu
Having paid many visits to Royal Chundu over the years, I’ve always felt easily at home on this tucked away stretch of the river. Although luxury lodges are a guilty pleasure, they can also be a double-edged sword. With the word luxury being open to vast interpretation, it’s not always easy to know what end of the spectrum you’ll get. While for some it means pronouncing the starter in a foreign language, and sitting bolt upright at all times, I prefer the kind where I can kick back and rampage through the snacks while dissolving into a bath with a view. Thankfully, at Royal Chundu, it’s all about the latter - so it seemed only natural to spend my birthday gatecrashing the sleep out deck with a few friends.
Island Lodge from the water
Image credit: Royal Chundu
We were met by Aggie on arrival, who together with Hessah leads the dream team at Royal Chundu. Both Aggie and Hessah have an infectious excitement for showing off their patch of the Zambezi, and an uncanny talent for reading minds faster than most can finish a welcome drink.
Walking to the jetty, Aggie talked us through different ways we could explore the river, and mapped out the perfect plan for our stay before we’d even reached the water’s edge. All that was left for us to do was to jump aboard for island lodge, and we pushed off from the jetty with the river turning liquid mercury at sunset.
Following the Zambezi upstream, the river metamorphosed from wide-flowing water stretching to barely visible banks, into a series of channels that reached long fingers around palm-covered islands. After ten minutes, the golden light of hurricane lanterns burned out at us through the trees, enticing us off the water and into our new home at Island Lodge.
The rooms at Royal Chundu Island Lodge
Image credit: Royal Chundu
Burrowing our way into the island’s interior along a series of walkways, we found ourselves with nothing to do before dinner, other than get settled in. Since it was a birthday affair and all, my friends and I decided to make it a glorified slumber party, and bunk in together - so we headed to our room to see what lay in store.
On pushing open the door, the Zambezi River pulled our gaze straight out beyond the glass, where her water rushed past in the fading light, just beyond the edge of our beds. We folded back floor to ceiling windows letting the white noise of water burst into the room, and stepped out on a lantern-lit deck to find a bathtub brimming with bubbles.
Bubble baths galore at Royal Chundu Island Lodge
There was only one problem: three of us and only one bathtub.
After some quick mental arithmetic and a consensus that luxury doesn’t require decorum, we grabbed our bikinis and crammed in, detouring past the mini bar for cold beers to balance out a hot soak.
Three’s a crowd at island lodge bubble bath time
When the water eventually cooled, we untangled ourselves from the tub and presented for dinner, stuffing ourselves full of ten courses of Zambian-grown gone gourmet, and retired for the night.
The next morning, we boated ashore to drive upstream and take on the Zambezi by canoe. Weaving our way along dirt tracks past fishing villages, we reached our launch point where wooden mokoros (canoes) lay loaded with parrot fish - the spoils of fishermen who’d beat us out to the river.
Fishermen laying out traditional fishtraps on the Zambezi
Image credit: Royal Chundu
Climbing into our canoes, we pushed out through the reeds towards bigger water. As the early morning sun broke through the trees, drops of Zambezi traced their way down our paddles and into our laps – a refreshing wake-up call for drifting amongst tiny rapids, past trap-laying fishermen, and out to what waited beyond.
As the current picked up, there was no work to do other than light steering. With the guides keeping us on course, we sat back while the Zambezi sent us slingshotting under canopies of waterberry trees, with patches of water throwing out sparkles where sunlight broke through the branches.
Cruising under the waterberries with a canoe at Royal Chundu
After an hour or so, we emerged from the tunnels of green to find a sandy beach by an island’s edge, where colourful rugs lay out in the sun. Pulling ashore, we were fed mimosas and directed into hammocks strung under the trees as the lodge chef cooked up brunch at an al fresco kitchen by the sand.
The perfect spot to hang out and wait for brunch to be served during the Royal Chundu signature canoe experience
If we thought a day on the water had showed us everything the Zambezi was capable of, the best was yet to come. Once the day wore on and sunset approached, we prepped our overnight bags and walked out through the trees for our sleep out at the island’s end.
The sun was setting as we arrived to a long staircase which climbed up above the canopy. Clamouring up the stairs we found a deck laid out with lounge chairs, and never-ending gin & tonics which commanded a view into a sunset worth celebrating.
A view to sleep out to at Royal Chundu
We sat above the trees and clinked glasses as the light changed, leaving only once we got the call to indulge in a birthday dinner below deck, laid out with candelabras and cake.
As it came time to retire, the roar of the river rose above all else, and we spent the night above the swaying of water, with the river whispering into our ears. With our senses too alive to sleep, pinpricks of light from the milky way twinkled to the rhythm of the rapids below. With the sounds of the Zambezi flowing around us like a blanket, the noise filtered into layers in the night. The heavy rush of the currents bumping their way from rock to river bank; the smooth pattering hiss of clouds being thrown from the spray below.
Birthday bush dinners beneath the Royal Chundu sleep out deck
Image credit: Melanie van Zyl
I’d lived on the intersection of the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers for years, but never had I truly tuned in to how all-consuming this river could be at nightfall. With the tang of humidity giving weight to the air and the boisterous waves flowing past below, I abandoned sleep completely to attend nature’s all-night show.
With all the times I’d stood staring at Victoria Falls, showered in spray and flitting between viewpoints, I’d never really just sat in the presence of this river while it flowed by. Sure, I’d stayed in plenty of incredible riverside lodges where I could spy the Zambezi from bed, but the walls had still somehow kept the majesty of the river out.
It’s anyone’s guess how long I slept in the end. It could’ve been an hour, or maybe even five. Perhaps I’d been out longer than I thought, while the river threaded itself into my dreams, convincing me I was awake. The line had blurred constantly that night, and I never figured out exactly what side of it I was on at any given time.
Daybreak at the sleep out
When the morning finally broke, the sun began to stir up the soft mist that had fallen with the night below. Through the white haze, three fishermen drifted along on the dawn – heading for a day in the rapids, where they’d be looking to pull a fresh catch from the water.
Daybreak above the Zambezi
The sound of wooden stairs creaking below alerted us to fresh cups of coffee on their way to wake us up, and we stretched ourselves out with the rising sun.
Peering over the edge of the deck, I could see a wooden swing hanging from waterberry branches over slow tumbling rapids.
Once I had hot coffee to hand, I clambered below deck in my dressing gown and swung out from the trees to dangle over the water. As I swayed back and forth, the only dilemma I was left with was deciding if I wanted to wake up from an all-nighter that even the least inclined to disco are guaranteed to enjoy.
Swinging underneath the sleep out deck and above the Zambezi with a morning coffee in hand
Image credit: Melanie van Zyl