Thurs 28th May. Day 18
We left our camp near Chobe NP at 8am this morning and headed the short distance to the Botswana-Zimbabwe border. After paying the extortionate visa fee of US$55 for UK citizens and spending a long time faffing around getting the truck paperwork sorted, we were on our way to Victoria Falls.
Victoria Falls (known locally as Mosi-o-Tunya, the Smoke that Thunders) is a famous waterfall on the Zambezi River, which forms part of the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. David Livingstone is supposed to have been the first European to have seen the Falls, naming them after his Queen. He wrote of the Falls, "No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight". There are two towns which service tourism, Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwean side and Livingstone on the Zambian side. My research before the trip had concluded that the Zimbabwean side was by far the best way to see the entire Falls, and I chose this particular tour specifically because they were one of the few companies which stayed on the Zimbabwean side. Presumably, due to the media reporting on Zimbabwe, many tourists were wary about visiting the country which is why most companies tended to stay on the Zambian side. Obviously, writing this blog entry two years after the trip, things have improved somewhat in Zimbabwe and the country is now beginning to appear back on the tourist trail. Even when I was there, Zimbabwe had tried to improve tourism by adopting the US$ as their currency to stop the hyper-inflation of previous years. I would later find locals had wads of one hundred trillion dollar bills (that's 14 noughts!) they were trying to sell for a few US$ each, although with the massive wads they all seemed to have, even that seemed a rip-off to me.
We got into Victoria Falls town at ~11am and headed to Wild Frontiers HQ to book any optional activities we wanted to do over the next two days. I opted for the helicopter flight over the Falls, lion walk and got a free sunset cruise included for booking two things (which was even better as there was supposed to be a free bar). However, credit card facilities didn't appear to have made it to Zimbabwe yet so I had to pay with cash, US$225. Since ATMs also hadn't made it to Zimbabwe yet, this might leave me short for the few days remaining of the trip. Robert found out that his mum was ill in hospital so he had to leave the trip early. I gave him his tip. I might not have any money left to buy presents for people at home!
Those of us who were doing the helicopter flight were picked up at 2.15pm. The flight was only 15 minutes long but the Falls were stunning and the views of them equally so. I got the classic shot of the Falls and the border bridge and there were a series of beautiful rainbows along the Falls too.
I paid a visit to Victoria Falls NP after the chopper ride. The park had a 1 mile walking trail which ran along a cliff-edge on the other side of the Falls along pretty much the whole length. There were viewing points off the trail right up to the cliff-edge. My first close-up of the Falls was amazing. I'd seen them in pictures, seen them from the air, seen the spray and heard them as I approached, but nothing compared to the power of them when viewing them up close. The noise was deafening and the column of rising spray could be seen from miles away. At the start of trail, there was occasional light mist/spray off the Falls, but at the end of the trail, it was becoming like a tropical thunderstorm. I decided not to go right to the end of the trail as I didn't want to get my camera drenched and I only had shorts and a T-shirt on. I then headed off to the bridge which crossed the Zimbabwe-Zambia border, which didn't really give great views of the bridge but allowed me to cross over into another country without requiring a visa/passport as long as I stayed on the bridge.
We had chicken stew in the evening back at the campground. We were then treated to a show of what I presumed was some traditional tribal dancing. Afterwards, me and Doug decided to check out a local bar, Hunter's, we'd seen earlier near our camp. Doug wanted to sample some local brew but they didn't have any. However, we did see a poster advertising the fact that tonight it was "Ladies Night" and that piqued our interest. The barman told us it involved ladies dancing and "doing stuff" and to come back later. Now we were getting excited and thought it might be a strip show! We headed back to the campsite bar and had a few beers, I beat some holidaying brat at pool even though he was putting his balls down the pocket by hand and moving mine away from the pockets, and then we headed back to Hunter's Bar at 10pm. We found that we were the only non-locals (ie. non-blacks) there but decided to stay for a drink. Their "Ladies Night" consisted of women dancing and then picking men from the crowd to dance with. Of course, being the only tourists there, they picked us. I'm not sure if it was a trait of all African women but their dancing seemed to involve them grinding themselves into us. This encouraged us to get a few more beers and boogie some more! We were told that the place shut at midnight so decided to head back to the camp, although when were back, we could still hear loud music coming from somewhere - maybe there was a special "after-midnight show" at Hunters for the locals only!
Fri 29th May. Day 19
I got picked up this morning at 6.30am for my "lion walk", wishing I hadn't had so much to drink the previous night. The lions were part of a rehabilitation program set up by an organisation called ALERT and were on a private game reserve, Masuwe. I would be having an encounter with two lions, Sango and Swahili, who were brother and sister. They were only 18 months old and still classed as cubs but the male lion looked pretty big to me! They were just starting to hunt small, live game and would eventually be released into a bigger reserve and then the wild when their hunting skills improved and they could kill as much game as they needed to survive. I got the chance to sit with Sango, the male lion, and pat him, and walked along with both lions. It was an amazing experience!
In the afternoon, I visited the curio market. The poverty in Zimbabwe probably made this the worst market I'd ever been to in the world in terms of pressure selling, they were desperate for me to splash my cash. There must have been a few hundred stalls, the carvings they were selling were beautiful works of art, although most stalls had the same types of item. I also discovered that you could barter items for souvenirs, and by items, I mean clothes (used or not) or any old crap from your bag such as toothpaste, deodorant, shower gel, pills, pens. Since I didn't have that much money due to having to pay for my activities with cash when I hadn't expected to, I decided to go back the next day with a bag of stuff that I didn't want to take home.
In the evening, we had our last group meal. It was at a restaurant called Boma, the "Place of Eating", a carnivore's delight, pretty pricey at $30 but as it turned out, worth it. The main meal entailed you choosing your meat, as much as you wanted, and the chef would then cook it up to your taste. There was lots of entertainment there too - drumming with the crowd able to join in, song and dance numbers, face painting, and a fortune teller. Barbara managed to piss me off at the end of the meal by accusing me of not leaving a tip (even though I'd left more than my fair share and always did so) - I think she still had that "tip" argument in Etosha NP on her brain.
After the meal, me and Doug headed off to another bar in the town, Shoestrings', which was attached to a backpackers hostel. As such, it was full of many annoying backpackers in their own cliquey circles so we only stayed for a couple of beers before heading back to camp. We should have gone to Hunter's again.
Sat 30th May. Day 20
The last day of the tour! Doug and Soo had to leave early to get their flights back home. I headed off to the souvenir market with a bag full of stuff to barter for presents - gloves, sandals, a jumper, pair of trousers, socks, flu medicine, packet of crisps, and used shower gel, toothpaste and shaving foam. I even took a used pair of boxer shorts which someone decided to have! I managed to get some really nice carvings with my bag of stuff, although with the amount of such identical stuff that there was for sale, each piece couldn't have cost much to make and I was sure they were getting a very good deal. Still, if anyone really wanted a used pair of my boxer shorts, they were welcome to them!
At 11am, the rest of us got a taxi to the airport to catch our flights back home. I did note that Patricia and Barbara didn't invite me to pop in if I was ever in Switzerland! I'd run out of money to give Que a tip but I took his bank details down and am pleased to report that I didn't forget to wire a tip to him. I should also note (in fact no-one could fail to notice this) that the newsagents in Johannesburg airport interspersed their porn mags with all the other magazines, even the children's ones!
As my first experience of "black" Africa and as a wildlife safari, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. The camping became a pain after a while, particularly having to put up and take down your tent day after day and having to get out in the middle of the night for a piss, and the endless hours driving over what in many cases resembled the surface of the moon dragged on. However, the locals were very friendly (although by the nature of the tour, the main interaction with them came through the campsites), our two guides were great people who couldn't do enough for us and cooked up some great food, the wildlife was superb even though I didn't see all the animals I wanted to, and I'd got a new found interest in birds to boot!
I've become much more interested in wildlife during the last two years since the trip and learned that mammals aren't the only wildlife worth seeing. I've now become very interested in spotting, photographing and trying to identify birds, insects, reptiles, snakes, etc. I can't believe I'd spent so much time doing nothing when no organised activities were on the agenda when I could have been wandering around the campsites carrying out my own mini-safaris. Still, that's the beauty of hindsight and indeed, on my recent Borneo trip, I did spend spare time during the afternoon heat when the bigger wildlife would not be so active trying to spot smaller wildlife.
Roll on my next trip to Africa!
The Smoke that Thunders!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
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2025-02-15