Africa 2017-Day 18

Day 18- Victoria Falls

We left early this morning for Victoria Falls,

but not before one last stop to the gift shop.  

All of the carvings here are done by the staff and since it helps supplement their income, we all (some more than others) bought memories to bring home.  Jeri and I got a mini-Big Five carving (still good sized but it did not require shipping as Rick and Harriet’s from our last Africa outing), and Lee Ann and Ken went home with an almost life-sized wart hog!

After saddling up one last time, we took the Land Rovers for the 45 minute drive, complete with African massage to the Hwange Park entrance.  We asked Elliot to stop briefly for photos of a giraffe skull,

and a particularly beautiful baobab tree that I had been admiring each time we passed it.  I thought it might make a good book cover.

At the entrance we transferred to a small bus for the remaining 2 hour drive to Victoria Falls and the Rainbow hotel.

The Rainbow Hotel was just outside of the town, an easy walking distance, but a bit worn. Upon arrival, after the much needed trip to the bathrooms, the entire group reconnected to the internet for email and Trump news.  We had been in a connectivity blackout for about a week- believe it or not, we all survived.  My biggest concern was not being able to get the blog out.

After check in, we drove to the Rainbow Café for lunch, God forbid we should skip a meal. The café is not related to the hotel- everything here is “Rainbow something”.  We soon found out that the epithet is well deserved.  The falls create rainbows everywhere.

We felt a bit silly donning raingear donning raingear, considering it was a beautiful sunny day in the 80’s, but Mandela assured us we would need it.  

It was about a ten minute walk to the trail along the waterfall.  

By the time we got to the beginning of the trail, the air was filled with a light mist that began to soak my camera.  Our ponchos were great keeping us and the camera dry, but aerated.  

Most of the rest of the group wore supplied raincoats which did not breathe and were stifling.  The trail had 16 viewpoints each getting progressively wetter. The walk took us through a rainforest that was fairly dense in some areas and included some up close and personal game viewing. 

Victoria Falls was discovered by Europeans in the mid 1800’s, but was well known to the local indigenous people as Mosi oa Tunya, or “The smoke that thunders” (aptly named for both the sound of the falls, and the mist that spews above the gorge to a height of 1200 feet which can be seen for 50 miles).  David Livingstone (more about him tomorrow) ran into the falls in 1855 in an attempt to find a route from the Upper Zambezi River to the east coast of Africa.

 He camped for several months on an island right at the top of the falls which he named for himself, Livingstone island.  The falls because of their grandeur needed a much more impressive title which he found in naming them after his queen, Victoria.  Vic Falls is considered the largest curtain of water in the world.  It is twice the height of Niagra Falls and 1 ½ times s wide.  It is just over one mile long and  325 feet high.  It is considered one of the natural seven wonders of the world and has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The area surrounding the falls has been inhabited for over 2 million years.

 Jeri and I had seen the falls from the Zambia side 4 years ago and were underwhelmed.  People had told us that the Zimbabwe side was much better, but we had no idea about just how much better that was.  Each viewpoint was amazing.  

We were fortunate in that the wind was not blowing in our direction, which could make the viewing marginal.  The mist as I mentioned before got progressively heavier, until the last 2 viewpoints where the light rain turned into a deluge.  The last stop was called “the danger zone” because of the combination of heavy downpour, mossy slippery rocks, and no fencing.  I assume there are no lawyers in Zimbabwe.  After surviving the danger zone a short walk took us to a nice view of the bridge and then back to the bus for the return to the hotel.

That evening we had a special dinner at the hotel that gave us a choice of chicken or warthog!  I figured that the likelihood of ever finding warthog at the Co-Op was pretty slim, so I gave it a try.  It was actually, excellent!  Jeri and I, as usual split our dinners, we figured that way, if there was a problem, we would go together  (I had forgotten to mention that we also had crocodile and eland for lunch).

Lunch of Croc and Eland

Crocodile and Eland

 During dinner, we had some local entertainment.  Unfortunately, the acoustics in the room were terrible, but it was a lot of fun, just the same.

When we got back to the room, we checked our time for our flight to Namibia, and noticed that it was for the day after this portion of the trip ended.  We had given our travel agent here in South Africa, Sandi Bird, the wrong dates.  Ouch! First thing in the morning, we have to do some creative scrambling.