Day 13 - Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

We got up, showered and went to the lodge for breakfast at 7:30.  Breakfast at the Elephant Camp consists of an impressive cold bar of fresh fruit, some meats and cheeses, croissant, muffins, bread, and cereal and muesli with yogurt, honey and other accompaniments.  As if that isn’t enough, the staff comes over to take your coffee/tea orders, and also offers you a selection of eggs, sausage, bacon and toast.

We ate quickly and then met Sipho shortly after 8 am at the circle drive in front of the lodge to head to Victoria Falls.  On the way to Victoria Falls National Park, Sipho provided us with a background on the Falls and Dr. David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary, turned explorer, who, with the help of two native guides that are largely forgotten in history, navigated thousands of miles of the Southern African continent over several expeditions during his life (which spanned 1813 to 1873) and, toward the end of his life, was a passionate abolitionist. Contrary to popular belief, Dr. Livingstone did not “discover” Victoria Falls.  Rather, he traversed the land very close to it on many occasions but was only introduced to the falls by the local natives after they offered to take him to their special place of healing to the cleanse him of the bad luck of his expeditions (which were tainted with malaria and death).  Blown away by the beauty of the falls, he named them “Victoria,” after the reigning queen of Britain at the time (who was allegedly also beautiful).  On one of his final expeditions, Dr. Livingstone had largely cut ties with his homeland due to disagreements as to the veracity of his claims on the continuance of the slave trade, which led to Henry Morton Stanley being tasked with leading an expedition to find the lost Dr.  When Stanley successfully did so, on the banks of Lake Tanganyika, he is reputed to have first said the phrase of lore: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

Victoria Falls is insane.  Before we got to the main part of the park, we pulled over and looked at one of the largest baobab trees in the area, dating back roughly 1500 years.

Sipho acted as our photog for the day. As you will see, there are tons of pictures with the two of us. I particularly liked this pose he insisted we do.

A bit further into the park, Sipho pulled over and led us past a sign that threatened prosecution for walking past it, then out onto the flat stone bed of the river (the river being at low tide).  We stood in the Zambezi River, just a few dozen meters from where it pours approximately 100 meters over the side of a cliff. 

We got back in the car and went to the traditional point of disembarkation for viewing the Falls.  It’s a beautiful park that is well maintained and set up for even rather immobile folks to enjoy this majestic geological spectacle.  There are more than a dozen points at which you can stop and take photos – each seemingly more incredible than the previous. 

Sipho is pointing to where we were standing in the previous picture.

This is the fall we were standing on top of in the previous picture.

Double Rainbow

Sitting at "Danger Point". The rocks were quite slippery, and I was quite nervous of my klutzy tendancies.

During high water season (August is mid-depth) the entire width of the Falls is pouring over water.  For the truly psychotic, this time of year offers the opportunity to be boated out to an island in the middle of the river, then swim about 10 yards to a rocky outcrop, at which point a local “guide” helps you climb into a bowl-like rock formation in the cliff that rather passively fills with water forming what’s known as “Devil’s Pool.”  From there, you can lean over the side and look down 330 feet below.  We could barely watch people doing this – it was almost nauseating. (Sipho said that last year one of the guide’s slipped off the edge and, not surprisingly, died.  When we asked Sipho if he had ever done the pool, his response was an emphatic “Hell no!  I don’t do drugs!”).

Devil's Pool

Looking closely you can see a group of people in the pool on the left and another group of people walking to the pool on the right.

After our walking tour, we met up with two other guests of the lodge who were at the Falls – Oleg and Isabelle, tour guides from Los Angeles.  Sipho shuttled the four of us over to the helipad for the Zambezi Helicopter Company, which not-so-reassuringly uses the tag line “Flight of the Angels.” 

The four of us were scheduled to do a ride over the Falls at 11:15.  The company has three helicopters and does 12-13 minutes rides all day, every day for $150/person.  Unfortunately, before the ride starts you are weighed for positioning in the helicopter – let’s just say that Jen got to ride in front with the pilot and ol’ Jackster needs to shed a few l-bs.

The helicopter ride was very cool – it really offered a perspective of the falls that you didn’t quite get from the ground.  It looks as though a giant set of hands millions of years ago dug into the Zambezi River and pulled the earth apart, creating a massive chasm into which the river had no choice but to drop.

After the helicopter ride we went back to the lodge for some lunch and then relaxed a bit (i.e., did a blog entry).  At 3:15, we had to meet back at the circle drive of the lodge to head to a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River.  Some other lodge guests, Georgie and Tony from Colorado, were transported along with us to an adjacent dinner cruise (there are many dinner cruise outfits on the river).  It was great to meet them and chat a bit with some Americans – they seemed like lovely people.  Sipho's van had finally fully kicked out on him, so the four of us rode in open-air stadium seating in the back of a pickup truck that would be more typically reserved for safari drives and not the two-lane highway on the way to the boat cruise, but beggars can't be choosers and we got there in once piece.

The sunset cruise was lovely.  We were paired at a table with three folks from Belgium (a husband and wife and their young daughter) who are driving all over the country on their own, taking a lot of wildlife pictures and keeping a master list of all bird and mammal species they have seen (which is getting quite large).  

It's interesting when you ask the person sitting across from you to take your picture with your iPhone and he happens to  be a pro photographer. This was the first of many shots that wasn't quite good enough for his professional eye. I like the river view in the background.

We floated around on the river, with the captain pointing out some crocodiles, hippos and several species of bird. 

Later in the cruise we saw a herd of elephants coming down to the river to drink and a group of more nervous giraffes in the background.  One young bull elephant came down close to the boat and put on quite a show, acting a bit aggressive, digging out mud and shaking his ears in a way that probably would not be permitted to the dominant elephants in his herd.

The crew of the boat came around intermittently and offered us cocktails from their menu of offerings – a younger guy stood back at the bar ready to make anything that was ordered.  Little bites were served as well: grilled crocodile, fried mushrooms, samosas, chicken wings, vegetable quiche, and beef meatballs.  

We relaxed, with our feet up on the side of the boat, floating down the powerful, yet docile, Zambezi River, then watched the sun go from bright orange to ruby red in color until it finally dropped below the horizon. 

We headed back to dock and were met by Sipho.  Per his recommendation earlier in the day, we went to The Boma Place of Eating, which is an admittedly touristy venue but which serves very traditional African bush food.  We asked Sipho to join us for dinner, which he took us up on.  Before dinner the three of us grabbed a drink at the bar - Sipho noting his preference for Windhoek Draught, and Jen and I each having a Bohlinger Lager (another Zimbabwe beer that Sipho said was quite good).

It was cool to hear his perspective on growing up in Zimbabwe – lots of unemployment, alcoholism, and general frustration among the people because there is little economic opportunity.  He also described their family structures and relationships between people that come from different sections of the country.  The food was terrific and we left completely stuffed.  I ate a little bit of everything (vegetarians, look away): eland meatballs (excellent), impala stew (not good), guinea fowl stew (pretty good), warthog steak (excellent), and rice with peanut butter (weird, but good).  

Lamb roasting over an open fire

I even got a certificate for eating a mopani worm (which wasn’t that bad).  (Preceded by Ron Libby – sorry, inside joke with Jen).  

Notice the African robes they made us wear upon arrival. Call up Zimbabwe's Fashion Police - Jack's prints are a bit clashy!

They even had local, traditional beer served out of a gourd, which was a bit sweet and almost nectar-like and had a milky opaqueness to it.  One guy roamed the restaurant offering face painting (we didn’t do that), another traditional fortune teller in tribal garb offered to tell your future (we didn’t do that either), and a third guy roamed around holding a tray offering to make local cocktail recipes (we didn’t do that either, believe it or not).  At approximately 8:30, a bunch of the staff started running around handing out drums, and then around 9 p.m. a drumming show and restaurant-wide drumming session commenced.  It was cool – a little too touristy – but cool.  We left a bit early, having had our fill of drumming, and Sipho drove us the few kilometers back to camp to sleep for the night, pointing out areas along the side of the road that are common points of elephant crossing.  (Think about that for a second).

It was a very packed day, but a great last day for our trip.  Tomorrow is our long sojourn back home to Kemble (and work).