17 August Victoria Falls by sky and river (not over the top in a barrel)

 

Last night we met with our tour group. We are a group of 16 made up of us 3 Kiwis, 4 Italian ladies, 1 Canadian guy and 8 Aussies. Our tour leader is Richard, born and bred in Zimbabwe and reminds me of Lenny Henry. He has a lovely deep mellow voice and every now and then he cracks a joke and a gorgeous high pitch laugh bursts out.

One of our members was late to the meeting, and he said to Richard, “I think we met at the airport.”

Richard replied, “No, that wasn’t me, but all us black people…” Oh no we all thought, he’s not really going to say this is he “Look the same to you!” And he burst into laughter.

I think we are going to enjoy him. Also he really made it clear that good time keeping will be essential and almost that he will not tolerate being tardy. Right up our alley! 

This morning after a lovely breakfast we were picked up for our Helicopter ride over the falls. There has been a constant him of helicopters since we have been here, it is obviously a lucrative business. It cost us $152 USD plus $15 park fee and $10 fuel charge.

Currency has been easy in Zimbabwe as every thing is in US dollars. In Zambia they use kwacha but at the National Park they did take US dollars for water with no problem. 

Our pick up for the helicopter fight was ready before time and off we went. I know that the flight had been booked and that we needed to pay when we got her. On arrival we found that we were ment to pay at the Wild Horizon tourist office at our hotel and bring the voucher. Also they only had 2 of us and not three! No problem, he just added another and said to pay when we got back to the hotel and give the voucher to our driver, and that is exactly what we did. How lovely was that!

I can’t describe the flight, the pictures say it all!

It was well worth the money and it was good to have done the falls on foot the day before because it all felt familiar from the air.

We did see elephants from the air! No photos though, we were just in awe of seeing them huddled under the trees seeking some shade.

Hard to see, but these are trucks lined up waiting to cross from Zambia to Zimbabwe

After we had returned and paid for our flights we got the driver to drop us at the Look Out Cafe which is situated down a long dusty road near the Victoria Falls National Park entrance. The restaurant is perched over the canyon on the other side of the falls and bridge and was a really nice place to lunch. Very modern and clean and once again brilliant service. And the toilets were sparkling!

I particularly liked the second pasta choice on the menu:

Late in the afternoon we boarded our sunset cruise. at our table we were joined by a couple from Dallas, Texas and we enjoyed their company.

The flat vessel had maybe 25 max on board and our captain pointed out different animals, like a Nile crocodile and some hippos. And then, over a gin and tonic, elephants appeared on an island close by! And hippos rose and fell with their whiskery snouts.

I was overwhelmed at seeing African elephants n the wild. and then once we were dropped off and being driven home we had to stop in the dark and let a couple of elephants cross in front of us!

We are truely in Africa!

Tomorrow we begin our safari into Botswana, and wifi may be patchy, so until my next blog goodbye for now.