Botswana and Beyond!
Victoria
Falls in Zimbabwe
July
16 - July 17, 2001
Can't believe its not on the
map, but Victoria Falls is located north west, where the bit
of Zimbabwe is very close to both Zamiba, Botswana & Namibia.
One side of the falls is in Zimbabwe and the other is in Zambia.
It took only 1 hour to drive
from Kasane, Botswana to Victoria Falls. Getting across the border
into Zimbabwe turned out to be trouble because of currency issues.
We had U.S. dollars, South African Rand, Namibian Dollars, Botswana
Pula, and we didn't want Zimbabwe Dollars. The customs guy was
not going to give us a break and we couldn't use Pula coins.
No one likes coins, paper only please. So we had to use our precious
dollars and the guy had no change, so our driver got a little
baksheesh, as he was coming back through the border & could
pick up our change. I had to tell Laura to put away her shakti,
that our driver was worth a few Rand in change.
We had only 24 hours in Victoria Falls and we made the most of it. Getting into Zimbabwe was expensive, getting into the Victoria Falls park and see the falls was expensive, and getting out of Zimbabwe was expensive; we had to pay the airport tax, in U.S. dollars, baby. But I must say, the Falls were amazing, and we chatted with a nice couple from Botswana who were there as tourists, and that was nice to see. We ate a casino's Spurs restaurant, and the place was dead. Zimbabwe was not doing well, but the people were still so nice. Zimbabwe was probably the most troubled, politically, of all the places we'd visited, and yet we only saw one beggar and the shopkeepers were all very polite and most vendors needed only one no to understand we weren't going to buy from then. We did a little shopping and didn't bargain all that much, it was too heart-breaking. For every one tourist, there were ten sellers. Usually, Victoria Falls is packed, but not that summer. And now we hear that Mugabe is getting even more vociferous against the white farmers, and the people are starving in the streets. Crazy. After unsuccessful email at the local library, I had to do email out our evening braii and farewell dinner to Mark and April at the Victoria Falls Hotel. It was a dollar a minute for email, but I HAD to get a message to Steve Jankowski about our computer! HAD TO! Fourteen dollars later, I sat with Mark and April on the veranda of the Victoria Falls Hotel, the mist from the falls rising in the distant sunset, sipping drinks and talking like colonials. We ate at the braii, the food was great, the bill was even greater, and we bid adieu to our Canadian travel companions.
The next morning we got up early and
went to the airport. We had booked ourselves on a plane flight
around the falls, and at first, I was okay. The falls were long
and beautiful, and from the air you could really see them. We
then started doing circles around the falls, and I was about
to die. Laura had her eyes closed, and we were both counting
down the minutes. I think my days of small planes are over before
they even began. We paid for thirty minutes of flying, but I
would have paid him to stop it early! We got back to the airport,
paid the 20 UDS each Airport Bribe, as Laura likes to call it,
and then flew in a much bigger plane on to Durban, South Africa.
Mark, April, & us enjoying the colonial
life at the Victoria Falls hotel. We ate the buffet from heaven,
what a treat!
Walking along the edge of the falls
Oh, look at those falls! To the right is Zambia, to the left Zimbabwe.
Take me to the Durban, South Africa