Zambia Victoria Falls

CLICK HERE: TODAY'S PHOTO ALBUM

From the bush to the falls - phew what a day.  We managed to get out of camp at around 6am. Fortunately, there were no elephant roadblocks - not sure what we would have done.  The ride to the airport was uneventful.  I was even able to turn on my data and download the blog for the last two days.  Everything was going very smoothly until we were on our way to the wrong airport.  Who knew that Nelspruit had two airports.  We were almost to Nelspruit Airport when I realized we had to be a the international airport - we were leaving the country.  We had passed the sign for the Kruger Airport a while ago.  Geoff turned the car around and we raced to get the car returned and check-in on time.  No problems with the car return.  Again, we didn't even refill the gas and the gauge said full. Great.  Not to mention the guy was thrilled to have an extra hubcap!

Flight from Nelspruit to Livingstone, Zambia was also uneventful until the pilot missed the runway  the first time.  He started landing and then all of a sudden we were climbing again.  He circled back and eventually touched to tires to the tarmac.  I said a quiet oy vey - or maybe I wasn't so quiet. We did get our first look at Victoria Falls from the plane - magnificent. Got to the terminal, got our univisas to visit Zimbabwe and Bostwana, found our driver and we were on our way to the hotel.  We have a woman driver, Brillan, who I really like and have no trouble understanding - which is important.  hate to keep saying "what?".  We set our plans for the next couple of day.  Yes, more activities - one of the being another game drive -- which we are going to try and change to something else if we can.

Got to our room, I quickly changed into a suit and I was in the pool in no time.  I met a very nice couple from Wellington, NZ in the pool.  We were chatting for a while and then Geoff joined in.  We will probably see them at breakfast.  They leave for Botswana tomorrow.  We hung out for a while and tried to enjoy the peace and quiet until the children came.  So much for that.  Victoria Falls is practically in the backyard of this hotel.  There is a path that goes to the gate to get in for free if you are at the hotel.  The gate closes at six.  The weather was perfect, the time was now, let's go!

Back to the room to collect what stuff we might need.  We wore our suits so we didn't care about getting wet.  I did mange to get these cheap plastic booties to keep our shoes dry.  Stuck those in the back along with the little umbrella to try to keep the camera dry. 

I cannot put into words the beauty and power of what we saw.  Shutter happy - I was clicking away like crazy.  And although some of the shots are good - nothing compares to what it feels like standing there soaking wet with the sun shining on you and staring into the biggest force of water on earth - not to mention the rainbows!  We trekked around some more and eventually ran out of steam. It was a very long day.  Walked back to our hotel.  Both the
Avani and Royal Livingstone Hotel are in a wildlife preserve so the animals have free reign here.  Zebras, impalas, monkeys, and all kinds of things walk roam the grounds.  Look but don't feed or touch.

Time for dinner.  The buffet dinner was included with our stay tonight.  That's great except for the fact there was no buffet tonight.  At reception they told us to go to the restaurant and just order. The buffet would have been about $35pp. That sound like quite a lot to us so we said fine.  Except the restaurant here has a very limited fish menu.  "Oh then you should go next door to our sister hotel, Royal Livingstone.  OK. Geoff had to change into long pants and a collared shirt.  I was just fine. Got on the shuttle that takes you across.  It is not as close as I was led to believe.

This hotel is twice the size of ours.  The restaurant was all outdoors under the stars with a quartet playing.  How great is that!  We had a beautiful meal and spent every penny of our $35pp budget..  We even got to take back what we couldn't finish so we now we have lunch tomorrow.  Much better than any buffet. For the next two nights here the agency has booked us into two different restaurants in town.  We had a long talk with our waiter about where to go.  Think we are going to change one of our reservations on his
recommendation of a local place. We talked spoke to the restaurant manager while we were waiting for the bill. She said that this was an excellent time to see the falls.  There are times when there is no water that all you see are rocks.  It is hard to imagine after what we saw this afternoon.

Took the shuttle back and here we are.  Looking forward to a good night's sleep and not having to get up at 5am.

CLICK HERE: TODAY'S PHOTO ALBUM

Next time...  Victoria Falls from Zimbabwe