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Published: August 18th 2012
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After our last truck day we arrived in our final destination in Africa, the mighty Victoria Falls. We enjoyed our last three nights in our tent camping at Shoe Strings Backpackers before moving to Rest Camp where we spent another four nights. Our days were packed with all of the adrenaline activities on offer. I kicked off our first day by doing a flying fox across the gorge. I was extremely nervous about running and throwing myself off the cliff face, however once I was suspended over the gorge the feeling was amazing and the view extremely beautiful. Aaron was extremely supportive standing at the viewing deck giving me the thumbs up. I loved it so much that I did it again, this time really running up and throwing myself off the edge.
After the mornings excitement which left me tingling all day we entered the mighty Victoria Falls park. It was around 10 am at this point and the view was quite foggy which gave quite a mysterious feeling, we walked the length of the falls, which isn't a large walk, then decided to stay for lunch and walk around a second time which turned out to be the
right decision. The falls in the afternoon where much clearer and we were able to see the famous rainbow. We were also thankful at this point that we hired rain jackets when we entered the falls as we got soaked!
The following day Aaron went white water rafting along the Zambezi where they saw small crocodiles in the water, while many of the rapids had been downgraded from a 5 there were still some and his group did come out of the raft at least once. They had a fantastic day and came home exhausted. Meanwhile I tried my hand at trading in the markets, I was quite successful especially at the open markets, I was able to trade worn clothes, batteries and shampoo for purses, bags and jewelry. I even traded in our blankets we bought from the markets and pillows we had acquired on our last flight. In the late afternoon we decided to do "high tea" at The Victoria Falls Hotel
(which is recommended as a don't miss by lonely planet). It was a lovely afternoon sitting on the lawn of the hotel overlooking the gauge where people where bungee jumping.
Our nights at Victoria
Falls were lively especially at Shoe Strings which had a fantastic atmosphere, cheap drinks and food. One night our entire group went to dinner at "Boma's" an African restaurant that specialises in game meat. We had a great night where we were dressed in African dress and tried lots of different meat, which was raw and once chosen was cooked in front of you. We tried crocodile tail which was absolutely awful, Kudu which was quite tough, impala and guineafowl were quite nice, Buffalo was really nice however the clear winner was wart hog which was delicious! Along with all the meat we had lots of salads, vegetables and desserts. We were entertained which singing, dancing and were involved in a full restaurant drum circle.
On the last morning with our group we crossed the boarder to Zambia where I did a microlight flight over the falls and national park. The flight was not at all scary and the views were stunning, we were even able to see hippos and crocodiles in the water and scooped low to see an elephant family. It was a great way to see the falls from both sides and definitely worth the money!
Once our group had left we spent some time resting, washing and organising. On our second last day we decided to cross the boarder into Botswana to visit Chobe National Park. In the morning we did a river cruise along the river which cuts between Botswana and Namibia. It was quite relaxing drifting along and we were able to get very close to elephants, spot hippos swimming, crocs and buffalo. After lunch we did a game drive which turned out to be quite disappointing as we did not see the elusive cheetah which we were so eagerly told that we would. We did see large herd of elephants, elephants bathing in mud and elephants fighting which was interesting however after seeing some of the best game parks in Tanzania, Chobe just didn't match up. After another visa, we crossed back into Zimbabwe extremely tired and ready for bed.
After sending off a package with my African purchases I was able to pack my bag
(only weighing 15kg) ready to get back to Europe and our first stop, Berlin!
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
WHAT WE MISSED...YOU GOT IN SPADES
When we arrived at Vic Falls...all cashed up to do all the adrenalin rushes on offer...our cook relieved me of my passport and all my cash...so rafting, zip-line, microlyte, Zim, Botswana...have been left for others. Fantastic you took the plunge...sounds & looks fantastic.