Friday, January 29th - Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

We were up, packed, had breakfast and on the road at 8:30 - a bit of a later start which was nice.  The drive to Victoria Falls is 2 hours normally and we arrived about 11:30.  However, we did have a stop in town at the grocery store to get some lunch food and have another comfort stop.  As we are finished the main driving for this part of the trip we had to figure out who won the prize for the number of police checks.  The total over four days was 18 but I think the count should have been 16, in which case I would have won.  We actually counted one stop where we weren't even in the bus and Andrew wasn't driving and fewer than half of us were there as we were in two different safari vehicles.  That definitely should not have counted.  Then there was the time the cop waved us through but he was a friend of Andrew's so Andrew stopped to talk to him.  That shouldn't have counted either but the rule was if Andrew talked to them then it counted.  If they just waved him through it didn't count.  Anyway, it was all in good fun and no one got rich off the winnings.

By the time we got to the falls, paid the entrance fee and we're ready to go it was going on 12 noon and we had two hour to wander around.  The guide said we shouldn't need our jackets.  He even check with the ticket office and they too said the mist was not bad so rain coats weren't needed.  Well, they were right and the mist wasn't too bad at all.  The problem was the sudden downpour that caught us all off guard.  We were completely drenched.  Even my hiking boots were squishing after 30 minutes.  Luckily my camera is waterproof or I might not have been able to get pictures.  Oh, and because we were crossing the border later, I had my passport in my zippered pocket.  When it started getting wet I moved it to the inside of my belly bag but that didn't help a lot.  Everything got soaked.  I spent the rest of the day trying to dry out the pages and flatten them out again.  

My purple belt did not like being wet and it left purple all over the top of my capris.  My camera case, which is blue, green, tan and red, ran red all down the front of me.  My capris are now quite pink on the front of one leg and my underpants are pink in the front.  Even my socks were pink as the rain and pink dye just ran down the front of me. Everything in the case also turned red.  Everything was totally wet and it was the same for everyone.  Eventually we got to the exit point where we were to meet and we just all tried to dry off.  When the sun came out, our whole group and everyone else, was just standing around in the sun trying to dry off.  It was amazing and my boots are still not dry over a day later and after having had the blow dryer turned on them for quite a while.

The falls were spectacular, when you could see them.  They are long and when the water level is high there is a continuous falls over 1.7 km in length.  The drop is impressive too at 108 m but it's the length that makes them really impressive.  The water level is lower right now so it's more like a series of water falls than a continuous waterfall but they are still impressive.  You could get close to the river coming into the falls at one point and it looked very deep and clear and seemed to be running very fast.  The drop there was straight down from our vantage point and roar was quite amazing.  The falls we know as Victoria Falls, after the Queen, is known locally as Mosi-Oa-Tunya or something similar to Smoke That Thunders referring to the mist that looks like smoke and the sound of the falls.  I thought that name was very appropriate.

There is a path all along the Zimbabwe side of the falls for about 3 km from where we started and it has about ten lookouts along the way.  I had hoped to do all ten but in fact just completed about eight because of the rain and the fact I was so wet and I couldn't take pictures anyway.  The area we were walking through was literally a rain forest and it was thick with green vegetation.  Up until the point where it really started to pour rain, I got some great pictures so I was happy about that.

There is a statue of David Livingston, who discovered the falls in 1855, at the top of the falls and a couple of dug-out canoes.  I'm not sure if the implication was that Livingston used that type of canoe but if he did, it's a good thing he stopped before the falls.  The island right at the top of the falls is called Livingston Island and supposedly that is where he stopped.  With low water there are a lot of islands on the top but when the river is really full most of the islands disappear.  I guess he was lucky enough to have an actual island in front of him when he first saw or heard the falls.

After the falls we drove to our hotel for the night.  Our original hotel is under construction so we were switched to a different hotel.  The new one is 4 stare, which is a bit better than our normal hotel, and it's very nice.  It even comes complete with monkeys and baboons for added entertainment.  They were all over the place and they don't seem to mind having people around.  We spent quite a while just sitting on our step watching them.  One particular mom and baby were right beside us and the baby was very young, probably only about a month.  He was very cute to watch.  He'd wander away a few feet and then quickly run back.  Then he'd do it again.  Or he'd try to climb a tree or reach a branch and fall over and head back to mom.  Dad came along and the two of them had great fun playing around.  Then dad and mom decided to cuddle for a while so the little one had to get between them of course and try to break that nonsense up.  It was fun to watch.  And this was just one family.  There must have been 20 babies around playing with each other and the adults and they were all cute.  The baboons are not quite as cute but they keep you on your toes because they will grab anything you leave out or have in your hand.  One of the ladies in the group had her shoes out drying on the step and then had to fight to get them back.  I didn't see it but I guess she was swinging her handbag at them to get the shoe back and people thought it was pretty funny to watch.  No injuries on either side so everything ended well.

This was our last night with our tour guide so we all went downtown to the Cafe Zambia for dinner.  Everyone had a good meal and it was nice to have a chance to eat outside of a hotel and to say thank you and good by to Hardie.  It will be sad to see him go tomorrow as he has been excellent.  We also lose there members of our group tomorrow so we had to say our goodbyes to them too.  After dinner it was back to the hotel and an early bed time for those of us with 6:45 appointments in the morning.