Victoria Falls

The Zambezi River Bridge
View from our Hotel Porch

Victoria Falls is on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. We thought about staying on Zambia side because we don't want to support the government of Robert Mugabe.  However, this time of year the water flow is low and the falls that can be viewed from the Zambia side are dry.  So we rationalized that we're helping the desperately poor people of Zimbabwe by staying on this side.  The town of Vic Falls, the friendly people and the lovely hotels here give no hint of the destitute economy or politics of the country.  Tourist police keep the streets safe.  Even the inevitable street sellers will go away if you firmly say, "No".

It's the beginning of their much needed rainy season so we've had sporadic showers.  We were determined to get photos of the falls with sunshine and rainbows in the mists so we postponed our walk to the falls for two days due to rain showers and overcast skies.  We didn't waste our time while waiting for sunshine.  The first day we walked across the bridge over the Zambezi River to Zambia.  We were befriended by two well spoken young street vendors who entertained us with their stories and encouraged us to try bungee jumping.  We resisted that offer as well as their sales pitch for the jewelry they claimed to make.  We did give them a tip for their "companionship" and went on our way.  That evening we took the sunset cruise on the Zambezi River above the falls.  We enjoyed a beautiful cruise, some interesting wildlife spotting and Italian table mates.  They encouraged us to visit Sicily - hmmm...  another trip?

Red Leswe, water antelope

Saturday we had the day free so we did a day safari to Chobe Park in Botswana.  You'd think we'd had enough of animals, but off we went anyway.  What a delightful surprise!  The park surrounds the Chobe River where we enjoyed close up views of crocs, hippos and elephants from a boat.  We had an exciting moment when we approached too close to an elephant and it moved quickly toward us.  I can't use the term "charged us" because he couldn't move very fast through the water, but made he made it clear we needed to back off.  After lunch we boarded a Land Rover for a land tour through the park.  We encountered more elephants, hippos (out of the water for the first time), red leshwe (water antelope), 7 lions, sable antelope and many more...  The influence of the river and the swamps around it gave us a very different safari experience than we'd had in Tanzania and South Africa.

Despite clouds and scattered showers we visited the falls on Sunday.  Even at low water flow they are magnificent!  Unfortunately due to the weather we don't have trophy photos to bring home with us.  We do have trophy memories of 6+ wonderful weeks in Africa however.  We sat on the porch of the Victoria Falls Hotel last evening and toasted a great trip.  We board the plane this AM for our long trip home.  Farewell Africa!

Chobe River, Botswana