When you live close to nature, as we do on the Zambezi River, you find yourself taking on a few rather peculiar practices. Obsessive pattern-searching in the clouds and leaves. Potato bush scent-trailing. And, a Royal Chundu favourite… moongazing. As with birdwatching, you find your gaze turning skyward as the light of day starts to dim and the moon shows itself. Time passes quickly as you mindlessly lose yourself trying to discern the shapes in its opaqueness, as though it were a Rorschach test.

One day, the moon looks down upon you like the alert eye of a stalking cat; on another, its eye is sleepy. You imagine the cat purring happily, dreamily, in the dark, waiting for you to go to sleep so that it might do the same.

There are days too, but far and few between, when that eye looks a little less familiar, quite foreign in fact, an exotic creature from another planet.

This week past saw a moon like no other, one red and fiery like the crater of an active volcano. The Mini Pink Moon, astronomers dubbed it. The smallest full moon of the year, on account of the Earth being the farthest away from the moon that it will be all year.

It doesn’t actually take on a pink hue, but rather the name is thought to have originated from the Native Americans, who were likely referencing the pink phlox flowers that bloom this time of year, according to Slooh, a space broadcasting site.

It captivated us all night as we sat on the banks of our river, gazing skyward as moonwatchers are wont to do, a camera the only things to interrupt our line of sight.

Did you see it? Did it mesmerise you too? In case you missed it, here are a few photos below…

The full moon is one of great beauty in this corner of the globe, with the lunar rainbow spectacle that lights up the Victoria Falls just downstream from our lodge. While rainbows usually appear through direct sunlight, the Lunar Rainbow is a rare event that occurs at full moon as a result of the light reflected from the moon’s surface.

You can experience this phenomena for three days during full moon, from around the month of March to July, from the vantage point of Victoria Falls as the spray from the water going over the edge casts a beautiful moonbow over the chasm.

To find out more about planning a trip to witness the lunar rainbow during your stay with us, please feel free to contact us here.