The Majestic Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe Side)

  Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Saturday, September 30, 2006

GPS Coordinates:
S 17°55'33.2"
E 025°50'16.6"

Temperature: 31.3°C
Humidity: 29.7 %
Pressure: 90.9 kPa
Altitude: 897 m

Me and the Americans took a transfer and walked across the Botswana / Zimbabwe border.
 

Victoria Falls #1 (Main Falls)

The Devil's Cataract

It's very hot and humid here. We then took a taxi to a rest camp where we would experience Vic Falls. We each booked a few "exciting" activities to do the following day. We then took a walk to the original Victoria Falls hotel which was (and still is!) a posh place for people to stay, just like the affluent British society of the late 1800's. The following day we went walking around Vic Falls. It is AMAZING! even in low water season. You could say it is even better because there is less water spray so you actually can see the falls. However, only a few of the main falls (approx. 100 meters high) are still spewing water, some others are running dry. No matter, this is really amazing (See pics). You can't really compare it to Niagara Falls.

Victoria Falls Bridge

We then moved on to our hair-raising afternoon activities... My fellow American travellers had a nice helicopter ride over the falls but I opted for a white water rafting trip on the mighty Zambezi River the next day. After their ride we left to go BUNGEE jumping under Victoria Falls Bridge (one of the highest bungee jumps in the world at 111 meters). YES! I know it's crazy but HEY! like I said earlier you live only once. The Americans convinced me to go... it's all their fault... Just kidding! HA! HA! No really it's a lot more fun experiencing it together, so me and Lauren decided to overcome this slight obstacle. OK! Maybe it was bigger for Lauren since she screamed like a banshee and made her throat raw... (Here's to you Lauren... We're all proud of you ;-) ). I have to admit that it was nice but watching the video and thinking about how I felt, I was strangely not very anxious or scared? Maybe I tempted fate so often during this trip that I have become complacent about something possibly happening to me... OH! Well... 

Sunset on the Zambezi River (#1)

Sunset on the Zambezi River (#2)

Straight after this we had to rush over to our included and "all-inclusive" booze cruise on the Zambezi River. The weather was amazing and we took great pictures. We partied the night away while the other tourists were getting scared because of our laughter and rowdiness... Didn't care, we met a very nice couple from South Africa to party with (Hi! to Johann and Elsja).

The Mighty Zambezi River

The next day the Americans were leaving to go back to Botswana and continue their respective journey's down to the south. I left to go white water rafting on the raging Zambezi River which has 6 level 5 rapids... OH! Well so much for learning to being careful! It was excellent and we had a great day. Wait till you see the video and pictures. In my boat I met nice couples from Florida and Australia (Hi! to Kevin, Dawn, Nick, Lucy). We then decided (Thanks for the excellent idea Dawn!) to all go eat out at a COOL restaurant with live entertainment and crazy foods such as warthog, kudu, ostrich, impala and YES! Worms...! Again, braving death... (I guess I just don't care anymore...!) I tried them all. The worms unfortunately don't taste like chicken but more like dried sardines with a crunchy aftertaste of insects scales... MMHHH!!! MMMHHH!! Good...! HA! HA! The restaurant actually issues little certificates to show that you did taste them! The evening was punctuated with a drumming session were we all learned to play the traditional African drum. The lesson is going to come handy since I actually bought one awhile back...

During all this time I found another place to stay (WITH A CEILING FAN!). It was a
little more expensive but the crowd around the backpackers bar was interesting and
unusual to say the least. I also met interesting people here, most notably Maaike and Ann Sophie from Belgium (Bonjour! You guys!). We went to dinner and it was fun, especially when we saw an errant elephant eating the trees in the downtown core / park area, SURREAL!. Back in Canada you're lucky to see a stray dog or cat, let alone a raccoon!

This is nice and all but I have to leave someday to continue my travels. Well this is
where it becomes tricky! Underneath it all ZIMBABWE is a screwed up country made by weird government policies. I won't expand too much on that since I don't want Mr. MUGA.. (You might have heard of him???) to hunt me down. You have to pay for accommodation in US funds only, however you can't get US funds at banks. You pay everything else in ZIM dollars which is converted from US funds at ridiculous rates. However, if you are not a ZIM resident, you sometimes cannot use or exchange US or ZIM currency... and by the way they don't accept credit cards anywhere... WHAT???? AND THEN... there are no easy flight out of here. I basically will have to do the Toronto to go to Montreal detour... I will have to do Vic Falls to Jo'berg (down south) to come back up north to Dares Salaam. No choice! At this point I want to get going. I spent 5 days where I was supposed to spend only 3. Also, people are friendly and well intentioned but slow to understand simple concepts (miscommunication?)

As an aside note: I observed that it is frequent to see men holding hands in Botswana /
Zimbabwe when they meet and talk for a bit. I guess here it is a sign of friendship. I
am sure it would may be perceived very differently back in North America.

Next entry: Small side trip to Zambia.

Signing out and still alive!

Martin