Last days in Vic Falls

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Sorry I've just made it to a place with decent internet and found that only part of my blog made it on so here's the full episode with a few pics :-)

Well not much, Kath and I have been spending very lazy days by the pool peppered with short walks to the supermarket or other shops. In retrospect 10 days in Vic Falls was probably a few days too many but it’s also kind of nice to get a good feel for the place and chat with same locals etc. Whenever we leave the rest camp we end up with a couple of guys approaching us trying sell carvings or any one of the ridiculous Zim notes in the billions and trillions of dollars, most of these guys have chosen “English” names for themselves….among the many that we’ve met there’s been Peter Pumpkin, Christopher Columbus, King George and Prince; all coming out with some pearler lines such as "I like the way you walk.......do you want an african boyfriend" or "My name is Peter Pumpkin Eater.....won't you come back to my village and watch me cook my pumpkins"....humour for young and old :-)

We made a trip across the border to Zambia or Zam as the locals call it, on Friday, quite strange to walk over a bridge and be in another country. The spray from the falls was really strong and it felt like it was raining as we walked along. There were a few people doing bungee jumps off the bridge so we watched them but decided that it definitely wasn't for us. As we walked up to the Zambian immigration building we saw 2 long distance buses loaded up trailers behind carrying god knows what - they were unpacking the whole bus and trailer for the customs guys to inspect, there were people and packages everywhere.

We spent the day in Livingstone wandering around and there was a good vibe in the town but decided that we much prefer sleepy little Victoria Falls. We found the local markets and were swamped with the sellers all wanting to trade our black hairbands for carvings, they wanted them for their sisters.....funny how in their world the worth of our hairbands equalled the value of their amazing hand carved work. We caught a taxi out to a The Waterfront Lodge on the Zambezi river for lunch and ended up wandering into a very upmarket lodge and got to see how the other half spend their African safaris on the riverside. Our taxi driver took us back to the border and we went through the whole process again of checking out of Zam and into Zim. It was nice to be back :-) Oh and as we left the Zambian immigration we spotted the same 12 buses still there loading all the packages back into the trailers....still there after 3 - 4 hours!

The last few days have been a mix of going for walks, planning our meals, memorising the menu at our camp restaurant "Indabelly", lying by the pool, reading, discussing our bizarre dreams that we seem to be having and visiting a village up the road with our friendly taxi driver; Dixon. Unfortunately when we got to the village the headman was not at home so we couldn't have a good look around but we got to see the huts they live in etc.

While we've been spending a bit of time lazing around camp we've seen a bit of the local wildlife.....a couple of warthogs made a vist to the poolside yesterday and had a graze on the sweet grass and we've had daily visits from baboons...our first visit involved an ugly one trying to get into our chalet through a wide open window, as I tried to close it the thing hissed at me and ran around to try an come in the door. We've learnt to keep our windows closed but they still sit at them and try to get in while hissing at us....quite scary really.

Tomorrow we leave Vic Falls to start our tour....we're both a little nervous about who else will be on the tour...fingers crossed it's a good group. We're ready to hit the road now and get moving.

I've tried to load some photos but have only had one success of our friendly camp dog who seems to know how to make himself comfortable :-) Will try to post more later.

Trace

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Comments

[Troy]

Hi.
Hi Tracey, Great to get the finish of this episode. Left me hanging for a while. I hope you have a great tour an I will as always be looking forward to hearing from you again soon. Take care, still freezing cold mid winter here in Adelaide. Has been coldest winter in years so seeing you in the sun makes me feel warm and jelous. TB XX