May 25 - 27 - Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
We flew from the Hwange airstrip to Victoria Falls. We have seen several wildfires burning in the wilderness in Zambia and Zimbabwe. We saw the VF power plant and the mist from the falls from the plane.
Mist from Victoria Falls
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Our hotel, VF Safari Lodge, is a nice hotel outside of town. Our room overlooks a water hole with birds and some animals.
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For dinner in the open but roofed dining room we had marinated warthog with prunes, etc. Warthog is a tender lean red meat and was delicious. Too bad we can't buy it at Safeway and eat it at home!
We slept in until 7 AM this morning - what a treat! We did not opt for any of the "optional" tours today. They were all extremely expensive and "Disneyesque" after our 16 days on safari. We had a wonderful breakfast at our hotel and took the hotel shuttle bus to the fancy old Victoria Falls Hotel that is listed as one of the "1000 things to see in the world before you die." It reminded us very much of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. We walked through to the garden and looked out to the VF bridge, the Zambezi River Gorge below it, and to the mist rising from the falls. The lawns were manicured. The base of the flagpole had a sign pointing south to Cape Town, 1647 miles and 5165 miles north to Cairo.
The Victoria Falls Hotel
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Interesting sign, given our travels this year |
Mist from the falls and the bridge across the Zambezi River |
Statue of Livingstone - at the VF airport |
We walked back to "town" and browsed through the Elephant Walk shops. Local "security" men kept an eye on us. It seemed overkill in the bright sunlight but maybe it was necessary to keep the poor locals away from the tourists. The shops had fixed prices and had many very nice African crafts - alligator belts, wood and stone carvings, bowls, fabrics, etc. We found a runner of a perfect size for our buffet or my dresser and returned in the afternoon (with the rug samples and measurements I always carry) and bought it. Marge bought 80 billion Zimbabwe dollars from a kid on the street for $3 US. (The computer money exchange says 80 billion is worth about $2.21 US if you could find anyone to cash it!). This country stopped using inflated local currency and now uses either US dollars or South African Rands. We enjoyed browsing and walking on such a beautiful day. We caught the hotel shuttle bus back to the hotel for lunch.
Back at the hotel, we changed into rain pants, sandals, and grabbed our ponchos for a walk in the National Park to see the falls.
We did stop to see the vulture feeding frenzy outside the restaurant. The hotel puts out meat and live mice, and 50 to 100 vultures descend to get a share. I guess this is the garbage detail! |
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At Victoria Falls National Park.
This time of year the wet season is over but there is still a huge amount of water that flows over the mile long falls. The surrounding landscape is flat as a pancake and the falls drop into a tectonic plate rift and flow out of a gorge. From upstream you would have no idea that the land would open up and the water drop 330 feet. The resulting spray can be seen 20 miles away. We were lucky today that there was enough wind to clear the spray from the view for several good looks at the falls. There were many rainbows and many viewpoints where the spray fell like a heavy rainstorm. We were glad to have our ponchos, but it was fun getting soaked.
Victoria Falls from the bridge over the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe
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Zambezi River down river from the Falls - If you look carefully in the center of the picture you can see a person on the zip line which goes across the river.
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Explanatory signs below - a LOT of water flows over these falls. The setting is very interesting in that the Zambezi River literally falls into a deep, narrow gorge. Seeing all of the falls simultaneously, except from the air, is impossible. Seeing them either from the air or on foot is very difficult at many times of the year (while we were there) because of the amount of mist. We were fortunate and were able to see quite a bit when the mist blew away.
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This was just like walking in a heavy rainstorm!
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