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Published: August 27th 2019
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Day off from driving today but we headed east into Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls. Nice later start, picked up by a guide at 7:30 before heading to the border. Another interesting experience and you realise that actually getting into Botswana wasn't as interesting as it felt at the time when you compare it to Zim. The visa fee for us is $55US each (ironically the only peolple who it's dearer for is the Candians but everyone else pays 30. I only had Pula so the conversation went along the lines of how much is that in Pula? The imigration guy thought about it, got out a calculator, chatted to two of his mates then looked blankly at me. So I merely "suggested" I could pay by credit card and his eyes lit up and said go to counter 1 where about 15 people were waiting. So we had another chat about it and he came up with BP310 each, so I handed him 650 expecting 30 change, he asks for a 20 note which I gave him then he tries to keep the extra 50 of mine he had. Normal service was resumed when I told him I'd have my
50 back thanks very much. The funniest thing about the whole process was after we were done and were waiting for the other members of our group I needed a wee so I asked where the toilets were, it transpired that I walked straight through the border gate with no passport or any documentation whatsoever as the border guards just pointed at the toilet block on the Zimbabwan side.
Away from the border and the 70km bus ride to the falls, Elephants and Giraffe en route to add some flavour arriving at the falls around 9:30. Paid our dues, less our $10 each discount for being RSA Permanent Residents and we're off. Once you get to the starting poiit words can't describe the falls and although the photos look great they simply do not do it justice. The scale is epic and this is in the winter (the dry season) where a lot of the Zambezi isn't running. It's probably actually a great time to see them thoiugh as having parts of it dry you get to see the vastness of the gorge. Quite simply it was epic, two and a half hours of looking at a
true wonder.
Back to the bus at 12 and off to a nice restaurant in town for lunch followed by a great trip into the Royal Victoria Hotel, colonialism on speed. Fabulous hotel with amazing view of the bridge over the Zambezi but way too pretentious for us so took a few snaps and got back to the bus.
We got back to the hotel around 4 and were a bit stuck what to do so we took a little drive down the A33, a normal A road! This A road however is far from normal. We ran out for about 30 minutes then turned back to get back before dark, so glad we did. Half way back we bumped into a georgeous Giraffe eating his dinner and then a little firther a herd of Elephant with a tiny baby in tow crossing the A33. Haviong marvelled at this for 10 minutes until they were gone we headed back to the hotel only to find the entrance blocked by another herd crossing the road right at the hotel entrance.
What an amazing day, we have been extremely blessed.
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