Zimbabwe: Victoria Falls
Thursday, August 18th: After arriving back to Sedia Lodge for a quick shower, we were on our way to Nata. On the way we encountered one of many veterinarian gates, and they made us get out of our car and step in some pesticide. We also had to drive through it. The drive was only four hours, and we stayed at Nata Lodge that night. It was really nice, and it had internet, a restaurant and a pool.
Friday, August 19th: The next day we left Nata Lodge and headed to Kasane. This was the well-known pot-hole-ridden road that we were hoping was somewhat passable with our Picanto. We were about 20 km into the drive when we were detoured onto a make-shift road that was arguably worse than the potholes. This road was un-grated, barely tarred and already beginning to fall apart. It was not pleasant to pass the numerous semi-trucks that went by. At one point they detoured us back onto the main road that was still needing one final layer of asphalt. Once detoured back to the make-shift road, we had to drive pretty slowly to avoid the sharp rocks and bumps that could possibly give us a flat tire. Some other tourists that had travelled down this road a week or so before us thought it would be done by the end of August, but we were thinking it would be mid-September (at least) before the whole construction area was finished. Once in Kasane, we drove around to find a campsite. We ended up staying at the Thebe River Restcamp. Since we intended to go into Zimbabwe the next day for a two day trip to Victoria Falls, we headed to Chobe River Lodge to book a sunset river cruise into Chobe National Park for that night, as well as a hotel transfer the next morning for Victoria Falls. Since we hadn’t done laundry for a few weeks (gross, I know), we went in search of laundry. There was a place right in town that was pretty reasonable and quick. Most hotels and restcamps have laundry facilities, but they usually charge per item, which can add up very quickly.
The river cruise was amazing! Even though we had already seen a lot of animals, it was nice to just sit in the boat and see such a variety in a small radius. We saw crocodiles, a large herd of buffalo, monitor lizards, tons of hippos (no pun intended ;), antelope and a large herd of elephants run down the hill to get to the water. The elephants ended up crossing the river right in front of our boat. It was quite impressive how the little ones just hold on for dear life and get pulled across the river.
We weren’t the only boat out on the river. There were several boats like ours that held about 40+ people, but then there were small private boats that only had 6-8 people in them. One boat was extremely obnoxious, because they had these huge stalker cameras (about 2 feet long lenses) and they would drive their boat really close to the animals and go right in front of everyone else. I was secretly hoping an elephant would charge them, because they were being so obnoxious about getting the best photos. Animal Sightings: Elephants, Buffalo, crocodiles, monitor lizards, hippos, giraffes, sable & antelopes.
Travel Tidbits: The road from Nata to Kasane has always been known for its potholes, but it should be repaved and pot-hole free by October or November of 2011. There is a temporary road, but it may be worse than the original road. Chobe River Lodge is nicer than the Thebe River Lodge, but they are usually booked by the afternoon each day, and they do not take reservations.
Saturday, August 20th: We caught our transfer bus from Chobe River Lodge to the Victoria Falls Restcamp in Zimbabwe. The border crossing into Zimbabwe took a little longer than expected, because everyone going into Zimbabwe needs a Visa put into their passport. Since they do it there, it takes awhile for them to fill out all the information. When they saw that I was from the United States, they decided to give me some “American trivia” by asking me to name one person of royalty that started with the letter “K”. Well, I explained to them that American does not have royalty, but they insisted that there was royalty that started with “K”. I took a chance and went with the Kennedy’s, and for some reason that was what they were looking for. It took about an hour after the border crossing to get to our restcamp. They dropped us off and someone met us to help plan our activities for the next couple of days. We decided to walk to the falls right away. After walking around, we found that the locals like to walk with you down the street trying to get you to buy whatever trinket they are selling. If you say no to their 2 for $1 deal, they offer to trade you the trinket for our shoes. I’m not sure they have a good concept of money, because my shoes are obviously worth more than $0.50.
We walked around Victoria Falls for about 3 ½ hours. It was so beautiful! There were so many lookout points, and we got misted on (more like rained on), several times as we were walking through. We sat and ate lunch by the falls and witnessed several rainbows. Also, we walked over to the lookout point of the bungee jumping bridge. At this point I was contemplating going bungee jumping with Jeff, but I wasn’t totally convinced it looked all that fun or just terrifying.
After seeing the falls, we headed to the pickup point for our 3:30pm zip-lining activity. I was really excited about it, because I had never been zip-lining before. Jeff and I were doing it tandem. We got to the place and were next up. I wasn’t nervous until they had us get up onto the platform. The worst part was stepping down this make-shift wooden ladder and then sitting there waiting for them to let go. It was a lot of fun, but I had a panic moment when I realized I never asked how we got back up. Jeff and I were trying to figure out the length of time it would take until we would plummet to our death when one of the workers started coming down the line to get us…
After zip-lining we both got a chance to talk on the phone with our moms, and then we headed to dinner at our restcamp. Jeff had crocodile steak and I had an ostrich burger. The crocodile tasted like chewy chicken and the ostrich burger was similar to venison. We stayed in a chalet both nights in Victoria Falls, and it was a nice break from camping. However, Jeff was eaten alive by mosquitoes both nights, due to the gaps in the windows and doors.
Travel Tidbits: We booked our activities through Wild Horizons in Zimbabwe, and their office is right by the Victoria Falls Restcamp.
Sunday, August 21st: Today was a scary day for me. We were going white-water-rafting. Although I was very excited, I am not a good swimmer and was nervous about tipping over, as well as the crocodiles in the Zambezi River. Or so they said…We loaded up and were dropped off at the top of the gorge. We grabbed our life-jackets, paddles and put our personal belongings in a secured box. We had to hike down the gorge to the river. It wasn’t too bad, but that was because it was downhill and in the morning. When we got to the bottom, we met our guide “Hippo”, who was a very large man. I was the only girl in our group of 7. We practiced paddling, falling out of the boat and getting back in, as well as turning. Then we were off. I was shaking so bad when we got up to the first rapid. By the third or fourth rapid, I was starting to enjoy myself. Since I was petrified of tipping over or falling out, I was paddling as hard as I possibly could, and was at times yelling at the guys on my side who were barely paddling (Jeff was one of the good paddlers on the other side). We went through about 12 rapids and our boat never tipped over. One girl fell out on the second to last rapid and we had to pull her into our boat until the end. I had such a great time, and I was so glad that we did it!
After we went by the last rapid, we had to hike up the gorge to the truck at the top. This was also where lunch was waiting for us, so there was some draw to hiking. It was a rough hike, because it was very hot at this point in the day and the gorge trail was very steep. The lunch was nice and it was a good way to end the day of rafting. We were driven back to our restcamp. We walked around the swanky Victoria Falls Lodge and then went in search of pizza! The next day we were headed back to Botswana…
Friday, August 19th: The next day we left Nata Lodge and headed to Kasane. This was the well-known pot-hole-ridden road that we were hoping was somewhat passable with our Picanto. We were about 20 km into the drive when we were detoured onto a make-shift road that was arguably worse than the potholes. This road was un-grated, barely tarred and already beginning to fall apart. It was not pleasant to pass the numerous semi-trucks that went by. At one point they detoured us back onto the main road that was still needing one final layer of asphalt. Once detoured back to the make-shift road, we had to drive pretty slowly to avoid the sharp rocks and bumps that could possibly give us a flat tire. Some other tourists that had travelled down this road a week or so before us thought it would be done by the end of August, but we were thinking it would be mid-September (at least) before the whole construction area was finished. Once in Kasane, we drove around to find a campsite. We ended up staying at the Thebe River Restcamp. Since we intended to go into Zimbabwe the next day for a two day trip to Victoria Falls, we headed to Chobe River Lodge to book a sunset river cruise into Chobe National Park for that night, as well as a hotel transfer the next morning for Victoria Falls. Since we hadn’t done laundry for a few weeks (gross, I know), we went in search of laundry. There was a place right in town that was pretty reasonable and quick. Most hotels and restcamps have laundry facilities, but they usually charge per item, which can add up very quickly.
The river cruise was amazing! Even though we had already seen a lot of animals, it was nice to just sit in the boat and see such a variety in a small radius. We saw crocodiles, a large herd of buffalo, monitor lizards, tons of hippos (no pun intended ;), antelope and a large herd of elephants run down the hill to get to the water. The elephants ended up crossing the river right in front of our boat. It was quite impressive how the little ones just hold on for dear life and get pulled across the river.
We weren’t the only boat out on the river. There were several boats like ours that held about 40+ people, but then there were small private boats that only had 6-8 people in them. One boat was extremely obnoxious, because they had these huge stalker cameras (about 2 feet long lenses) and they would drive their boat really close to the animals and go right in front of everyone else. I was secretly hoping an elephant would charge them, because they were being so obnoxious about getting the best photos. Animal Sightings: Elephants, Buffalo, crocodiles, monitor lizards, hippos, giraffes, sable & antelopes.
Travel Tidbits: The road from Nata to Kasane has always been known for its potholes, but it should be repaved and pot-hole free by October or November of 2011. There is a temporary road, but it may be worse than the original road. Chobe River Lodge is nicer than the Thebe River Lodge, but they are usually booked by the afternoon each day, and they do not take reservations.
Saturday, August 20th: We caught our transfer bus from Chobe River Lodge to the Victoria Falls Restcamp in Zimbabwe. The border crossing into Zimbabwe took a little longer than expected, because everyone going into Zimbabwe needs a Visa put into their passport. Since they do it there, it takes awhile for them to fill out all the information. When they saw that I was from the United States, they decided to give me some “American trivia” by asking me to name one person of royalty that started with the letter “K”. Well, I explained to them that American does not have royalty, but they insisted that there was royalty that started with “K”. I took a chance and went with the Kennedy’s, and for some reason that was what they were looking for. It took about an hour after the border crossing to get to our restcamp. They dropped us off and someone met us to help plan our activities for the next couple of days. We decided to walk to the falls right away. After walking around, we found that the locals like to walk with you down the street trying to get you to buy whatever trinket they are selling. If you say no to their 2 for $1 deal, they offer to trade you the trinket for our shoes. I’m not sure they have a good concept of money, because my shoes are obviously worth more than $0.50.
We walked around Victoria Falls for about 3 ½ hours. It was so beautiful! There were so many lookout points, and we got misted on (more like rained on), several times as we were walking through. We sat and ate lunch by the falls and witnessed several rainbows. Also, we walked over to the lookout point of the bungee jumping bridge. At this point I was contemplating going bungee jumping with Jeff, but I wasn’t totally convinced it looked all that fun or just terrifying.
After seeing the falls, we headed to the pickup point for our 3:30pm zip-lining activity. I was really excited about it, because I had never been zip-lining before. Jeff and I were doing it tandem. We got to the place and were next up. I wasn’t nervous until they had us get up onto the platform. The worst part was stepping down this make-shift wooden ladder and then sitting there waiting for them to let go. It was a lot of fun, but I had a panic moment when I realized I never asked how we got back up. Jeff and I were trying to figure out the length of time it would take until we would plummet to our death when one of the workers started coming down the line to get us…
After zip-lining we both got a chance to talk on the phone with our moms, and then we headed to dinner at our restcamp. Jeff had crocodile steak and I had an ostrich burger. The crocodile tasted like chewy chicken and the ostrich burger was similar to venison. We stayed in a chalet both nights in Victoria Falls, and it was a nice break from camping. However, Jeff was eaten alive by mosquitoes both nights, due to the gaps in the windows and doors.
Travel Tidbits: We booked our activities through Wild Horizons in Zimbabwe, and their office is right by the Victoria Falls Restcamp.
Sunday, August 21st: Today was a scary day for me. We were going white-water-rafting. Although I was very excited, I am not a good swimmer and was nervous about tipping over, as well as the crocodiles in the Zambezi River. Or so they said…We loaded up and were dropped off at the top of the gorge. We grabbed our life-jackets, paddles and put our personal belongings in a secured box. We had to hike down the gorge to the river. It wasn’t too bad, but that was because it was downhill and in the morning. When we got to the bottom, we met our guide “Hippo”, who was a very large man. I was the only girl in our group of 7. We practiced paddling, falling out of the boat and getting back in, as well as turning. Then we were off. I was shaking so bad when we got up to the first rapid. By the third or fourth rapid, I was starting to enjoy myself. Since I was petrified of tipping over or falling out, I was paddling as hard as I possibly could, and was at times yelling at the guys on my side who were barely paddling (Jeff was one of the good paddlers on the other side). We went through about 12 rapids and our boat never tipped over. One girl fell out on the second to last rapid and we had to pull her into our boat until the end. I had such a great time, and I was so glad that we did it!
After we went by the last rapid, we had to hike up the gorge to the truck at the top. This was also where lunch was waiting for us, so there was some draw to hiking. It was a rough hike, because it was very hot at this point in the day and the gorge trail was very steep. The lunch was nice and it was a good way to end the day of rafting. We were driven back to our restcamp. We walked around the swanky Victoria Falls Lodge and then went in search of pizza! The next day we were headed back to Botswana…
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