Out of Africa 3 - Victoria Falls

We arrived at the Victoria Falls hotel, in Zimbabwe, to discover we were so close to the falls, we could see the plumes of vapour rising from them. The African name for the falls is The Smoke that Thunders. 

A rainbow effect from the late afternoon sun.

Our hotel was build in the early twentieth century and had a strong colonial feel to it.  The gardens were beautiful. Most days we were greeted by wild Warthogs, monkeys and Mongoose running around. The Mongoose were hilarious, very much like Meercats.

The mongoose gave a comedy show every day!

 The next day we had a guided tour of the falls. They are stunning. The falls are roughly twice the height of Niagara and nearly two kilometres wide. I found Niagara very commercialised but not so here. You go through a gate into the park and then the place is as nature intended.

About to get very wet

We were given capes to wear but still got totally drenched.



The following day we went on a short cruise on the Zambezi. We were hoping for a stunning sunset but it was too cloudy. However it was interesting to be on the river. We saw lots of Hippos and a couple of crocodiles.  We didn't get close enough to them for me to be able to take a decent photo. The boat took us to within 800 metres of the actual falls - definitely a wobble moment!

Hippo eyes popping up

We found Zimbabwe an intriguing place. On the whole the people we met we optimistic and cheerful, looking forward to a better future. They have very little and over the three days we were there, we watched many of them waiting outside the banks in the hope they would open - they didn't.
The American dollar is their base currency now and they were so grateful for cash tips in that currency.

The border between Zimbabwe and Zambia

At the end of the visit we were bused across the Zambezi into Zambia to catch our flight back to South Africa and into the Kruger National Park to go on safari...more of that soon.