Zimbawe, the final stop in Africa

Day 54, 23 March 2011

After packing down camp we made our way to the Zimbabwe boarder. We didn’t have a great perspective on this crossing, as our guides mentioned that it may take hours and there may be a few police stops that could ‘take a while’. However after waiting about 20mins and having a few truck inspections (avoiding paying them bribes) we got through and zoomed down to Vic Falls. The scenery is much the same as Botswana, very green, and difficult to see much from the road, but soon enough we got to the outskirts of the town Vic Falls and saw the plume of smoke coming from the falls.

We got to camp, set up – well c and I moved into our room, went and found some $$$ and signed up for our activities. After our last tour lunch we walked down to the falls and were set free within the park. It was phenomenal. The amount of water rushing down was amazing. We went from being hot, to a bit wet, to absolutely soaking. The water is pushed down so hard that it creates a big rain mist that hits anyone standing on the other side. This is why it’s called the smoke that thunders. The waterproof camera held up well and C managed to stay partially dry from his waterproof jacket (except for the sweat). We wandered back through town and bought a funky wall hanging.

We headed off on our sunset cruise after 4 and had a great time chatting with everyone on our tour, while the rest of the people looked for hippos and animals (we’ve seen enough). There was way too much alcohol freely available, and after being limited to beer for too long, we indulged (Me in gin and Fanta and C with rum). By the time we finished we were both pretty greased (C a little more than others). We went back and changed and walked down to meet the rest of the tour group for dinner.

I had an interesting crocodile steak for diner which was better than we’d tried before, but still a bit tough. C hiccupped throughout dinner and when we got back to the campsite, relieved himself of the rum ( and dinner) on a tree outside our chalet.

Day 55, 24 March 2011

We were up early and packing today. Luckily our antics from the previous night didn’t hurt too much so we were able to get it done without too much pain. Although we’d bought another bag we decided to try to fit everything into our usual two big backpacks – we did well.

After breakfast we were picked up for our last African adventure – a helicopter ride over the falls. This was something that I was really looking forward to. It was awesome. Although there were very different safety ideas than home (no safety briefing or instructions here) we were soon whisked up into the sky and headed to the falls. It was only twelve minutes but I could be convinced it was a lot more. The pilot did about four long figure eights around the falls and it really helped us to see the enormity of it all. The only down fall is that C now wants a helicopter licence!

Wendy's camera 444

Exhilarated and beaming we made our way back to camp. C had made friends with a Canadian dentist who had a better camera so he downloaded the pics from his camera. I went to say my goodbyes to everyone on the tour and eventually we were picked up to be taken to the airport.

After spending a few more $ on a special ‘Shona stone’ sculpture and some presents we boarded our flight to J’burg. Once there we managed to scam our friend Dan into the lounge where we all lazed until our 8pm flight.

It’s strange that when you’re in Africa it doesn’t seem to be a big deal, but now (from South America), it’s unbelievable that we managed to see and experience co much. I suppose it is kind of bitter sweet that we don’t get to see more – but get to move onto a new continent.