Tourist Information Centre and Observation Point. From here visitors are able to look down on the gorge and wall joining Zimbabwe and Zambia. Attendants will be able to explain CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources) which has a project in Nyaminyami/Ume Communal lands.

Look out for the sculpture of the Batonka River God Nyaminyami, (nyami = meat) a legendary amphibious creature having the head of a fish and the body of a snake endowed with supernatural powers. Being a benevolent god it would allow the Batonka people to slice pieces of meat from its back when food was scarce.

The parking area has become a favourite place for women to sell attractive crochet garments, beadwork and carvings.

Zimbabwe Border Post is another point from which to view the wall. Visitors may secure a pass here to proceed to the wall.

Church of St Barbara in Kariba town is dedicated to Italians who died while constructing the wall. In all there were 86 deaths.

Kariba Heights affords a panoramic view of the Lake and is the residential area.

Wildlife and Environment Information Centre and Museum is well worth a visit. It is located on the main Makuti/ Kariba road near the airport. Here visitors may view a relief model of the Lake, buy books on wildlife and craft goods.

General Interest

Lake Kariba opened on 17th May 1960, is one of the most impressive engineering achievements of last century. Built to provide hydroelectric power for Zimbabwe and Zambia at a cost of Pounds sterling 122 million, the wall with 6 floodgates is 122 meters high and 617 metres wide, the dimension needed to stem the flow of the mighty Zambezi River. It holds back over 175,000,000,000 cubic meters of water covering an area of 5180 square km. The Lake is 282 km long and as wide as 30 km in places.

The Lake is a fisherman's paradise. More than fifty varieties are now thought to breed in its waters. Those include Bream, Chessa, Nkupe, Cornish Jack, Bottlenose, Kapenta, Vundu and last but not least the fighting Tiger fish.

Boat Captains are instructed to make sure all refuse and litter is stored for disposal on return to harbour and also to ensure that visitors disembark only at permitted points.

Canoeing safaris, yachting and water skiing are sports available to visitors.

Kariba covers fertile plains once inhabited by the Batonka people. In 1957 they were re-settled on higher ground out of danger from flooding. They had to adapt their lifestyle from a fishing culture to that of agriculture. The Roman Catholic Church has published a book of recollections on the resettlement exercise written by a number of elderly Tonga people.

While the Lake was filling a dramatic rescue operation was born - "Operation Noah". Wild animals were herded by rising water levels onto higher ground; the higher ground then became multitude of islands. Game rangers worked tirelessly to rescue stranded animals, or worse still those whose islands were now submerged and were swimming for dry land. Fothergill Island is named after the ranger who initiated the rescue of approximately 5 000 animals and snakes. Books on the exercise are available. Tel. 263-4-747111 / 747123

In the Matusadona National Park a half-submerged Mopane forest reaches its bare branches to the sky providing handy perches for kingfishers, cormorants and fish-eagles. The Matusadona Mountains provide a backdrop of different moods. Sometimes shrouded in haze or smoke, sometimes they stand out clear in blues and purples against the sky, and most dramatic are the nights when lightening illuminates their outline against rain clouds.