Victoria Falls

VICTORIA FALLS

February 15

We were up early; I especially early because I wanted to get a shower before even the monkeys awoke. Why, you might ask? Well, because the ladies washroom was painted and when I tried to use it last night I was redirected out. I didn't think it would be a problem since the showers were tiled and avoiding wet painted walls was much less stressful than the alternative. The alternative was unisex washroom/showers. PASS on that! Thus, I was up the next morning even before the wildlife to be the one and only and first in the shower. It was glorious!!!!! 

Once on the road, we made good time. We crossed the border into Zimbabwe and now we have another beautiful visa and stamp in our passports. Its all good! Shortly after crossing the border we arrived at our final destination for a few nights: Victoria Falls. We set up our tents and scrambled to unpack our laundry and anything that had a hint of mildew smell. Here we come laundry service...... its cheaper to let somebody do the laundry for us than to buy the soap and pay for use of the machines. Wow! It just keeps getting better!  

Once we were all sorted, we headed to the Falls and hiked alongside of it, stopping at frequent look-out points at the spectacular views. We were lucky to have a clear day and many rainbow sitings. To give you perspective, Niagara Falls is 51 meters high and Victoria Falls is 107 metres high. The volume of water going over Niagara Falls is double that of Victoria Falls.

This was our last meal with the entire group since Victoria Falls is the end point for Scott, Sara, Gord, Sam, Liz and Sean. We went to the very posh Victoria Falls Hotel for the all-you-can-eat buffet. It was soooooo good and while we ate there were some dance performers, in costume doing some ceremonial song and dance right in front of us. We loved every minute of it! It was quite a contrast going back to camp. We went to sleep quickly dreaming of clean clothes in the morning.

February 16

It rained in the night again and since this was our chance to dry everything out and charge all our batteries, we decided to spend 22 dollars a night and upgrade to a hut with a concrete floor, bed and roof. We lucked out and have a ceiling fan too!!!! Today, Ed and Gord spent a lot of time chatting, chatting, and mooooore chatting so I plugged my net book into the wall at reception and enjoyed three hours of reading email, updating the blog and writing a few emails. 

We enjoyed the pool and poolside restaurant/refreshment station for most of the afternoon and apart from saying goodbye to different people in our group as they were picked up by taxi drivers en route to the airport, it was a pretty relaxing day. For dinner we went to a restaurant called Mama Africa. The food was delicious and the culture of Africa was present. Part way through dinner the live music started; another memorable mealtime!

February 17

I woke up this morning very hopeful for a shower. Since there is a big repair going on in town with a main pipe, there hasn't been water in the showers, at least not at the times when I have tried. Water comes from the tap in the sink in a trickle. On my way to the shower block two different women signalled to me from their doorways asking where I had found water. Oh,oh, not a good sign. Still hopeful that maybe I knew of the one place where water would flow from the shower, I raced forward. I turned on the shower and a trickle of water came through. Okay, I thought, this may take some time but eventually my shower will be complete. Once the shampoo was lathered in my hair the water went completely dry. “Nooooooooo!” I scooted from shower stall to shower stall like Peter Rabbit scurrying around Mr. McGregors's veggie garden, hoping not to be seen in my birthday suit, but no luck; no water. I resorted to a sponge bath, so to speak, got dressed and then proceeded to find an outside tap at one of the campsites to rinse the shampoo out of my hair. Third try was magic and met with success. Turns out that there are two lines of water; one with treated water for drinking and one with Zambezi River water. Only one of the lines was broken and honestly I don't want to know which one. 

We had breakfast by the pool; very peaceful. Ed couldn't resist the Indabelly Breakfast and I gobbled down an omelet at the restaurant named Garden of Eat'n. Over our free coffee we planned our day. After taking one last bag of a few laundry pieces to the reception, and trading a couple of books in town, we said our good byes to Gord and Sam and took a taxi to the launch pad. It was a beautiful, clear day, so we took a helicopter ride over the falls. Ed wanted to do a micro-flight but the opportunity is only offered in Zambia and we have single entry visas for Zimbabwe, so it didn't work out. The good part of that result is that we could go together in the helicopter and witness the Falls. Ed sat in the front seat and had a 360 degree view out the windshield that surrounded the chopper. I also had an awesome view. The pilot was very informative and a very friendly fellow, willing to answer questions. He circled around a few times in a figure 8 over the area. The sight left me speechless and brought a tears to my eyes. Powerful beauty!

We returned to camp and had a quick bite to eat before venturing across the bridge to watch the bungy jumpers. The bridge joins Zimbabwe with Zambia so we had to wait in line for a ticket allowing us to cross part way on the bridge. Truck traffic, diesel fumes and heat made the trek a bit of a challenge but the destination was well worth the effort. We watched a bungy jumper to a crazy stunt and were able to watch the falls for some time, isolating devil's pool at the very top. By the time we walked the 3 km back to camp, we were very heated so jumped in the pool and watched the steam rise from our bodies as we cooled down. LOL Water pipes were completely repaired so it was shower time followed by packing, charging cameras, collecting clean clothes and packing. Its amazing how long all that takes.

After dinner we bought another WIFI password and caught up on some emails. Ed read the Toronto Star on our net book and we were both happy campers.