Room for the Whole Group: Family, Friends and Fishing on the Lower Zambezi
There is a particular pleasure in bringing the people you love somewhere genuinely wild. There is also a particular worry: that someone gets lost in the shuffle, that the trip bends to one person’s idea of a good time and quietly disappoints the rest. Baines’ River Camp is small enough that this does not happen. Eight suites and a family suite, up to twenty guests in all, mean a group can take over a good part of the camp and settle into one shared rhythm, while the guides tailor each day around who wants what. The river is wide enough for everyone.
A place built with families in mind
Our Family Suite was created for exactly this. Separate bedrooms, a private veranda, and easy access to the main lodge mean grandparents, parents and/or children can share the adventure without living on top of one another. Days are planned to suit every age: a gentle stretch of canoeing at water level, an unhurried game drive, an afternoon by the pool while the river slides past. And as if the surrounds aren’t magical enough, the guides have a gift for folding younger explorers into the story, turning a spider’s web or a fish eagle’s call into the best lesson of the trip.
For friends chasing the safari they have talked about for years
When the group is a handful of friends who have promised each other a trip to Africa for a decade, the Lower Zambezi delivers on the promise. Game drives run morning and night in open vehicles, with lion, leopard and wild dog all in the area. On foot, a walking safari brings the smaller wonders into focus. On the water, a canoe carries you silently past elephant and hippo, and a late cruise hands you the river at its softest, with sundowners on a river island as the light goes. Back at camp, the fire is lit and the conversations carry well into the night.
For the anglers, and everyone who comes with them
Tiger fishing is what Baines’ has built its name on: more than twenty-five years of specialisation, guides who have spent whole careers reading this water, and a fish that fights like almost nothing else. The take is sudden. The run is savage. Every fish goes back to the river, on a strict catch-and-release basis.
A fishing trip here need not be only for the rod-holders. While some of the group work the channels for Tiger fish, others take a game drive, a canoe trip, or relax quietly on the deck, and everyone meets again at lunch with a story to trade. Fly fishers are well looked after too. It is a trip that keeps the anglers happy without asking the rest of the group to simply wait for them.
One rhythm, one rate, and a legacy left behind
Whatever shape your group takes, the plan is the same and refreshingly simple: enquire, choose the journey that suits you, and arrive. One all-inclusive rate covers accommodation, meals, drinks and activities, so there is nothing to tally up around the table at the end of the night.
