We had an overnight respite in Johannesburg for our next stop. Not much to mention as we stayed in a very comfortable guesthouse close to the airport, complete with a nice garden and a pool.
And a cigarette machine in the bar!
The following morning we were back at the airport on our way north. Spotted some interesting flavours of chips in one of the stores. The Caribbean onion and balsamic vinegar chips were pretty good.
Ellie called these “popcorn clouds”.
A couple of hours later we descended below the popcorn above the vast greenery of Zimbabwe.
Here we are in Victoria Falls!
Zimbabwe was going to be interesting. One of the peculiarities is that their local telecom providers have very few roaming agreements with companies abroad, so I had to buy a physical SIM card with cash at the airport to have service for our stay to avoid going broke on roaming fees. Here is the price list.
This was a typical arterial road in the town. It reminded us a lot of Jamaica, especially with the plants and trees flourishing in the rainy season.
Here’s home for the next 3 days – the Pamarah Lodge – which we can’t recommend enough.
We caught a taxi down to Baines Restaurant right beside the Zambezi River above the falls. You can see the mist rising in the near distance.
I treated myself to a flight of local gin and tonics at a very, very reasonable price.
Here’s the dining area at the Pamarah. Pretty deserted, they only had 3 rooms occupied in the place (including us) for the first two nights.
And the street right outside the gate. We were in a residential area of Victoria Falls.
The weather forecast was hard to judge as if you looked at it, you’d think it was going to be raining most of the time. So when we saw favourable skies, we headed down to Victoria Falls proper – in the national park on the Zimbabwe side.
Admission was quite expensive, almost $200 CAD for the three of us, but they do a great job of maintaining everything and keeping it all clean. I’m sure they don’t have a ton of sources of foreign revenue other than this.
The falls pathway had 15 scenic stops along the way, the last half of which were enveloped in moisture that ranged from heavy mist to a moderate, steady rain shower.
We were drenched long before we got to to viewpoint 15, and wondered if we should have rented the ponchos at the market across the street from the park gate. Oh well!
It’s definitely worth the price of admission to come and experience this.
Being “right in” the falls made it hard to take pics at the end, as the falling rain was quite heavy.
Wet Ellie, Wet Granny!
Here’s the famous Victoria Falls Bridge. Zambia on the left side, Zimbabwe on the right side.
Ellie’s favourite thieves – baboons.
We continued enjoying the scenery at the Lookout Cafe, a 10 minute walk from the falls down a dusty road that isn’t to be walked at night, with elephants roaming around. Actually, we were warned by quite a few people not to walk around anywhere at night simply because wild animals own the streets after dark. Sadly, the last night of our stay, a man was stomped to death by an elephant not far from where we were staying.
Anyway, back to the Lookout Cafe and its great view 120 metres above the Batoka Gorge, which carries the Zambezi River below the falls.
There were a few ziplines crisscrossing the gorge which provided some entertainment while we waited for our food.
The weather changed quickly as a tropical thunderstorm moved in with a heavy downpour that lasted about 20-30 minutes.
There were some interesting hot sauces!
Next morning, it was very nice again so we decided to walk the bridge over the gorge to Zambia. It was definitely a unique experience. First, we had a taxi drop us off at the Zimbabwe border post to get stamped out and exit the country. Then walk along the road which was lined with trucks waiting to cross into Zimbabwe. There were a number of touts selling souvenirs and tours that seemed to work in 3 distinct sections: Zimbabwe border post to the bridge approach; the bridge itself, and the Zambia bridge approach to the Zambia border post. It wasn’t the most pleasant thing to be badgered to buy stuff but that IS what these people have to do to make a buck. They weren’t too obnoxious or persistent if you said no thank you a few times and kept walking.
Here we are at the bridge, which carries a pedestrian sidewalk on either side, a roadway, and a rail line.
The views were awesome.
Here is a view from the middle of the bridge, right on the border, looking back towards Zimbabwe.
We made it! The border sign is still a bit before the actual border post where we had to go in and get stamped in. We had obtained a KAZA Univisa to allow entry to Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana in this touristic region at a lower cost than a single entry Zimbabwe visa, so entry formalities were no problem.
We stopped for a photo once inside Zambia, at the Mosi-Oa-Tunya (smoke that thunders) national park on the Zambia side of the falls. We weren’t sure about being drenched again and with the long walk back to town on the Zimbabwe side we did not venture into the park.
This is the Zambia Border Post – much nicer than the Zimbabwe side, but both of them had ghastly looking restrooms. The sign on the building here says “No matter how small your business is, you have a responsibility to pay tax!”
Even more trucks on the Zambia side of the border. It apparently takes them 4-5 hours to cross one border or another.
So that’s where the bike couriers come in. The bikes had such a heavy load but pushing/riding them was quicker to cover the 2 km between border posts than waiting for trucks to be cleared. It sounded like most of the bikes brought bags of cement to Zimbabwe, and returned with jugs of cooking oil to Zambia.
Another awesome view from the middle of the bridge – the Lookout Cafe is just visible perched on the right ledge.
We arrived hot and sweaty back in town; here’s the main services (banking, post office etc) strip.
Today’s lunch was at the Three Monkeys Restaurant which had a great covered patio – and right beside the rail line, where we saw a very tired looking / sounding locomotive billowing with smoke to pick up a load of coal cars. Not long after this pic was taken the heavens opened, just on schedule (nice morning, thunderstorm right after lunch) so were glad to be under cover.
We did a river cruise on the Zambezi River that evening. No sunset, which are supposed to be spectacular, but it was very relaxing and an excellent way to spend a couple of hours. We saw the landscape on both sides of the river, and plenty of hippos.
The Smoke That Thunders is visible in the distance.
For our final day, we took it easy – maybe a bit too easy, as we were notified mid day that our 6 PM flight was being delayed until 10 PM due to an air traffic control strike. We walked around town a bit more, but that was about it.
The owner of the Pamarah Lodge, Phil, chatted with us while we were lounging around and graciously offered us to stay and use the room as long as we’d like, which was very much appreciated seeing as we wouldn’t be leaving for the airport until 7:30 PM.
Did I mention that the Pamarah had a great selection of mocktails? Ellie has approved!
At 8 PM after an extremely interesting ride, we were back at the airport. The airport is about a 30 minute drive from town, and it was absolutely crazy to encounter numerous cars travelling at 15-20 km/h (it’s a 90 zone, I think) with absolutely no lights whatsoever! You’d just come over a hill and all of a sudden there’d be some junk box just a few metres in front of you! Our driver was used to this of course, so we made it in one piece and were back at the utterly deserted airport (all other flights have departed hours ago) to begin our journey to our final stop in Africa.
Ellie's Adventures 