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Published: July 27th 2010
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Zim ladies
Ladies making their way over the bridge to Zambia. Since my last blog, and after 4 days, Tracey has now been reunited with her backpack and everything is in order! We were expecting it to arrive in Vic Falls on day 3 however after several emails from Tracey to J'burg lost property we received a reply to expect it the following day. Success at last. Just knowing that it has been located was enough for us to celebrate. So the next day we were picked up by our "taxi" driver (a local) by the name of Dickson to take us to the airport. We were both very surprised when Dickson suddenly pulled up to halt and turned the taxi around as to our astonishment there were at least 3 elephants right on the side of the road grazing on acacia. Only in Africa! Dickson turned off the car engine and we sat and watched the elephants in awe. They were rather weary of us and at one point stopped eating and took to staring us down so that was our cue to move on! So the backpack has now been returned to Tracey and the rightful owner has clean clothes once more...
The other day we decided to go
View from bridge
View looking down Zambezi river and in the distance is the famous Victoria Falls Hotel. over the bridge and visit Livingstone...Zambia. We got up early and we walked over the bridge that separates Zambia and Zimbabwe or as the locals call it....... Zim and Zam. On the way over we stopped to watch several daring tourists doing the famous bungy jump off the bridge over the mighty Zambezi river. There are also other activities over the river like flying fox whereby you simply run out over the endge of the shear cliff and off you fly over the gorge. So after paying for our 24 hour Zambia visa (US$20) we found a taxi to take us to the town of Livingstone. Livingstone is a colonial town and the present capital of the southern province of Zambia.
Already we could see a difference with the amount of shops and supermarkets in the town. It just seemed more established than Vic Falls however we felt it did not cater for tourism as much as Vic Falls town. We are glad we have decided to stay in Vic Falls rather than Livingstone as the town of Vic Falls is smaller and better suited to tourists as such. There really was not allot to do in Livingstone town.
Lunch in Zambia
Tracey and me having lunch at the Waterfront with the Zambezi river in the background. We visited a local market and our favourite past time is checking out the goods in the local SPAR supermarkets.... (allot more vairety of grocercies than Zim by the way). I was all set to purchase some items but they do not except US$'s! We went to a tourist market and saw the same items (hand carved wooden hippo's, elephants etc ) in every small market shop. Every shop owner wanted you to visit their shop and can offer "best price". The shop owners are very willing to trade and they were wanting to trade my hair band I happened to have around my wrist for a carved wooden hippo that clearly looked like it would have taken someone a long time to carve and polish....I did decide not to trade as there is no way I could carry the hippo in my already packed backpack!
After the tourist market we decided to have lunch at a local rest camp / lodge called the Waterfront which as the name suggests right on the waterfront of the Zambezi river. We were very pleased with ourselves as we bargained down a taxi driver from US$10 to US$5 to take us to
Crossing the bridge
We walked over the bridge to cross from Zimbabwe to Zambia. the camp. We had a very pleasant but basic lunch. (I had a toasted cheese and tomoto sandwich with salad and fries -only option really for vegetarians!). The view was great as again you can see the spray of the falls in the distance. We decided to go for a walk after lunch as our taxi driver was picking us up in an hour to take us back to the border. The next door lodge was just amazing with a pool right on the edge of the water and a day spa and lovely restaurant...clearly out of our price range. We headed back over the border to Zim and felt at home once more.
We have also been to the lookout which is right on the edge of the Zambezi river. The lookout is a short walk from Vic Falls. At the lookout tourists can fly accross the gorge via flying fox. We stayed and watched a few people doing it. Basically you run as fast as you can over the gorge and then you slide right over to the other side of the gorge. We decided....NO...not for us. We then decided to treat ourselves and we walked to
View of Zambezi river
Sitting in a deck chair overlooking the river... the Victoria Falls Hotel again and treated ourselves to a lovely hot cappaccino with the view of the bridge / falls in the background...we both miss our coffee.
The only other recent activity we have done is to visit the local village just out of Vic Falls. We found our taxi driver ..Dickson..and asked him to take us and show us around. we turned off to a dirt road and travelled inland for a couple of kms. We arrived at the village but the head of the village was no where to be seen. There was evidence of people living there but we were told they were out farming. The village where the head lives was small but for us to visit the larger village we had to first meet the head of smaller village and be invited to visit the larger village. We waited around and met his wife but we were then told he was at a meeting and would not be back for some time. We were a bit disappointed. On the way back we made a detour where the locals hang out and there is a really nice view over the valley towards the zambezi
Flying fox
Daring tourist flying over the gorge from Zim to Zam. so that kind of made up for it.
Having spent 10 days in Vic Falls we are both ready to start our next adventure.... our overland tour which ends in Nairobi early August. We then will make our way to Uganda where we will volunteer at the Sanyu Babies Home in Kampala.
Enjoy the photos I have uploaded..
cheers
Kath
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Tania
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hi
Hi kath- looks like you're having a great time...so jealous!! enjoy. and love the pics...