Days 6-8 Victoria Falls

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Having my alarm wake me at 05:30 is never something that makes a good start to the day, it got worse soon after as I had to climb over the fence of the hostel as they had locked the gates. It was just like prison break:-) Then I had an argument with the taxi driver when he dropped me off at the bus station as he didn’t have any change. At one point he even tried to include the 20 pula note that I had given him in the change, he obviously didn’t realise who he was dealing with. Instead of the 40 pula I ended up giving him 25 – just over £2.00 Then followed a 3 and a half hour bus journey to Nata, where I enjoyed a brunch of veggie soup and rice with some coleslaw thrown in, it was actually quite nice. I then waited on the wrong side of the road to catch the bus to Kasane, even though 3 people had advised me that the bus would stop here. I wasn’t convinced as I noticed that the road to Kasane was on the other side of the road so I asked again and they confirmed I was on the wrong side. A mini-bus was ready and waiting for me but was full but generously made me the offer of standing for the 4 hour journey, which I politefully declined.

I then had to wait a further 45 mins for the next minibus to arrive and it was packed so I had to squeeze into a seat with no leg room which meant that for the whole journey I had to twist in my seat and stretch my legs out in the aisle. Half way through the journey an overhead bag dropped on my head and yes it was heavy!! It was stifling in the bus and obviously there was no air conditioning.

Thankfully the journey came to an end at the junction of the road to Zimbabwe where I hitchhiked a lift to the border and got chatting with a guide who offered to take me into Victoria Falls (for a small fee of course). After splashing out on a visa I then had to wait 1.5 hours for the rest of the tour group to arrive. The company is Wide horizons and they run most of the tours out of Vic Falls so if you book an activity with your hostel you will probably end up with them. The rest of the tour group then got dropped and of course I was the last one, finally arriving at my hostel at 18:30 – 13 hours after my journey started.

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Day 7 - Vic Falls, so today I visited Vic Falls, it was during the low water season (October) so they weren’t as impressive when they were in Full Force (May I believe). Netherleless they were amazing, from the Zim side you can see the falls in all their glory, whereas the falls are actually on the Zambian side, so you can get up close and peer over the lodge but the view is not as good. There is a pool right on the edge of the falls where you can lounge in, which looked quite popular, it’s called Devil’s pool.

There is plenty of wildlife throughout the park, vervet monkeys and warthogs and plenty of birdlife.

That night we played a novel board game that had been created by the hostel owner, and I even got given a Jaegerbomb, it tasted foul but hey it was free!

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Boring bits – I found out too late that there is an Air Zim flight from Vic falls to Joburg for $180, which saves 22 hours on the bus!

Hostel – Victoria Falls Backpackers, the original owners have taken back over the hostel and are undertaking extensive renovations smartening the place up. The place was a lot quieter than the shoestrings backpackers, but I loved it and the hosts were really helpful.

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Photos

Vervet Monkey
With blue balls