Heidi in Africa - Victoria Falls - Day 4

6/15/09-6/16/09

Leave it to me to get sick at the very tail-end of a trip! Thankfully, just on our plane ride home. Again, thankfully, our seats are right next to the bathroom, so I’ve just been going every hour or so on this incredibly LONG 18 hour trip from Jo’burg to DC. Some kind of intestinal bug attack, probably from the water at the lodge.

I’m so tired - I can’t really sleep much on the plane despite being exhausted. South African Air seats were clearly designed by men, for men, as there is absolutely NO back support whatsoever! The first half of the trip, to Dakar, there was a French guy sitting next to me, he was actually headed for Dakar, so he got off when we arrived there. So now I have both window & aisle seats to stretch out on. Trust me, the seats are still uncomfortable.

Africa already seems so far away. Yesterday, on the 15th, we got up early & showered & were ready to go at 7:15. Not too much breakfast for either of us, me because I can’t eat a big breakfast first thing in the morning, Joyce because she’s still suffering from whatever intestinal bug she got over the weekend.

Kamli, our game drive guide from the other day, drove us through the Zambian border over to the Zimbabwe side. There we met up with a guy named Casper, he works with the Saf Par Excellence Zimbabwe office. He took us through the Zimbabwe border and into the town called Victoria Falls, where we paid for a 1-day visa, and then he took us to the Saf-Par office, where we paid for our transfers. Joyce and I opted to skip the guided tour of the Falls from the Zim side, we decided we could walk it ourselves. We paid our $20 entrance fee to the Victoria Falls National Park, and a nice guard showed us a map of the trails to the various lookout points. Casper had loaned us raincoats, we needed them as we got very wet.

We started on the furthest left end of the falls, which has a fantastic view of just how fast the Zambezi is pouring over the sides. There was a “cataract” view, with 73 stone steps leading down the side of the gorge, so you could really get a sense of the massive scale of the falls. Then a series of paths and lookouts that got progressively wetter & more difficult to see through the thick kick-back spray which coats the area right now, due to the high water levels. We walked the whole way, grateful for the rain gear. At some points, it was like being in a pea-soup fog, the spray was that thick, it blocked out the sunlight!

Got a few pictures of the falls, and my final wildlife - some Wagtail birds near the falls. Back to Casper, who drove us about 20 minutes to the Victoria Falls Airport in Zimbabwe. The scenery here is quite beautiful - very lush & full of a variety of trees and shrubs. That started our trip home. The Zim-Jo’burg flight was less then two hours, and we re-checked our bags all the way to RDU.

Unfortunately, I missed seeing my friend Sean at the Jo’burg airport. We looked and looked for him, for about 2 hours, but we couldn’t find him. The Jo’burg airport is much much bigger than when I was here in 2000 and 2001. There were tons of people, so I don’t even know if he was here, but we couldn’t find him. I was very sad about that.

Now on this epic flight, where I’ve drowsily watched two movies, Slumdog Millionaire and The Reader, both of which were very good. Visiting the toilet every hour! Don’t know how much could still be in my intestines anymore. Thank you, Zambezi River, for your bon voyage gift to me!

Now I must dream and plan for my next trip. I have to see Africa again. I never get tired of it. I’m thinking Zambia or Serengeti. Someplace that’s still a little wild, maybe a lot wild, with more wildlife and BIRDS. I’m hooked on birds, I can tell!

Anyone want to join me in 2012?

---

Part of trip: Heidi in Africa

---