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The Hotel Lobby and Sitting Room
One of 107 hotels, our hotel and its neighbor are the primary hotels that are home to adventure seekers The Adventure Continues!
Wednesday, July 2 Cont….
We arrived yesterday in Livingstone, Zambia - the locals call it, “The Real Africa”. Customs was a bit chaotic as everything is done by hand and they charge each nationality a different amount and they only accept cash. We thought we were smart and ran to the front of the line to bypass the hour wait however our driver was taking another couple as well, and they were at the end of the line (bummer!).
We had a nice drive through the town to The Royal Livingston Hotel where we were ready and waiting for all the adventures Zambia had to offer. The hotel was spectacular; a gem in the middle of African bush. We were in a rush to make sure our 2 day stay was going to be fun, so before going to the room we booked our first adventure; clay pigeon and clay rabbit shooting.
We were picked up from our hotel by a nice English gentleman named Darrel who was a pro when it came to shooting. Sean has been shooting before but as for me this was my first time with such
a large gun. Sean was quite a good gun slinger. I found out that I am left eye dominant and I am much better shooting left handed. Sean beat me 12 to 7 but hey it was my first time.
After shooting we went back to the hotel for a few sundowners right on the river. The river is the Zambezi river that flows right into the falls and then off to the Indian Ocean. From the deck drinking our sundowners (margarita martinis) we can see the spray of the Victoria falls which is only about 300 meters from our hotel. In the river are hippos, crocks and the drinking elephant. We saw 2 out of 3, thank goodness!
Around our hotel are gray monkeys that want to eat the vacationer’s food. They are quite cute however the staff at the hotel says they are naughty monkeys. We found them to be quite amusing and fun. One actually tried opening our sliding door to our hotel room to get our food. Luckily we had our door locked.
We went to bed pretty early as we had a lot of adventures planned for today. We awoke early to
go to the gorge swing. The sound of it is pleasant however don’t let this name trick you as it did me. The swing is actually a 150 ft free fall with the rope then swinging you high about the tress for another couple minutes. Sean and I planned on doing this tandem but as our turn came up, I chickened out. The thought of dropping for 4 seconds of free fall hundreds of feet above the ground attached to one little rope in the middle of Africa just wasn’t settling too well with me. Sean however was very excited to take the plunge. Although he screamed the whole way down he really loved it.
Right after the gorge swing we were off to lunch at Livingstone Island which is set right at the falls edge. This would be our first sighting of the falls. We were taken by boat to the Island which was named by the first white man to go to the island named David Livingstone. The island is very small with only a kitchen, a bathroom and a hut with a table on it. As we arrived at lunch our guide Alpha Omega took us
by the hand and helped us to the edge. This wonder of the world Victoria Falls also known as Musi-o-Tunya “The smoke that Thunders” is one of the world’s largest sheets of water with an average of 143 million gallons per minute of water cascading down to the Zambezi gorge that is 1.7 kilometers wide. We were only 2 feet from the edge taking pictures and enjoying the massive amounts of water and the beauty it holds. We were drenched by the time we got back to the lunch as the spray from the falls is so heavy. I am sure there is no such tour at Niagara as liability would not allow. We did have to sign a waver however to do this tour that if anything should happen the tour was not responsible.
Straight from lunch we went horse back riding through the African bush. If you’ve never gone through the bush on horses, one tip for you - horses are very brave when it comes to animals smaller than them (most anyway), and not so brave when it comes to those larger. Within 10 minutes we stumbled across some Giraffes’. My horse, “Happy” was not fond
of horses and took it upon herself to spin around without warning and high tail it the other way. Trotting was fun although a bit bouncy for me and the horse ride was complete with tourists who graciously took a picture of us next to the river and then wanted to purchase our camera - a weird one. We got back from our ride - Yippee-I-O, had some dinner, and hit the hay. We’re planning a helicopter tour over the falls for the morning and can’t wait to share it with you!
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Oliver J
non-member comment
Coming to Africa.
Did you play 'Chase the Monkey'?