Blogs from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Africa - page 19

We flew into the Okavango Delta in a five seater plane with Bruce, a pilot who grew up in Devon, spent years as a mining surveyor, then somehow got into flying planes in Botswana. "Right, where are we going then?" asked Bruce as we got on board. "God, these controls look ancient. Probably date from World War Two. Still, much more fun than flying a commercial airliner - much more to do." More fun from a pilot's point of view, perhaps - from a passenger's point of view I wasn't so sure. Bruce offered me the controls mid-flight, keeping up the making-it-up-as-I-go-along feel. The flight was spectacular, looking down as the semi-desert gave way to the lush green wetlands of the Delta; so too another flight a few days later (coincidentally also with Bruce) to Kasane, ... read more

Hello to everyone, it's me AGAIN from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. We arrived here on Thursday morning in a pretty crappy campsite in Victoria Falls Town. On our first afternoon, we were haunted by people who were trying to make us do all kinds of crazy stuff: climbing down the gorge, jumping off a bridge, and so forth. As i am quite cheap and a bit of a coward i said no to all of that, and spent Friday on my own in the campsite. A day off i truly deserved and needed, while everybody else was rafting down the Zambezi river. On Saturday morning we went to see the Victoria Falls. It is possible to see the falls from the Zimbabwean and the Zambian side, but at the moment the waterlevels are low, and they ... read more

Since the Falls cover a total lenght of 1.7 km, and only 700 meters are in Zambia, we ( Christine, a nurse from Germany working in Congo with Doctors without borders) and Ahmed (Pakistani U.N. peacekeeper in Congo who I also met at the Jollyboy hostel and I ) decided to cross the bridge to walk over to Zimbabwe to check out the falls from that side... well, like most things easier said then done... well actually it was quite easy... i needed to get a new re-entry visa for Zambia so that i could come back into the country, so i walked to the immigration office in town to get that. (quite an interesting place), then we took our hostle shuttle to the falls, walked over the Zambian border post, where we got a bunch ... read more

As we approached the Vic Falls area in the truck, we could see a huge misty cloud of spray rising from the falls. On our first night we stayed in a cell-like room in the Rest Camp, but it was better than freezing in the tent. We treated ourselves to a Wimpy then went to a local bar called Hunters, that we affectionately renamed Munters. It was only 25p a bottle of beer! That evening everyone else seemed to get wrecked on cheap plonk and they all ended up pushing each other into the swimming pool at Shoestrings Backpackers. So made a sharp exit as we were saving ourselves for the booze cruise the following night. Walking around the Falls The falls were totally awesome! We walked along the front of the falls, progressively becoming ... read more

Zimbabwe was hard. As sson as we crossed the border, planted fields and grazing gave way to abandoned, dusty plots; seed was too expensive this year. I was followed for blocks by able bodied young men whose only income is crafts and hounded by carvers desperate to trade for my used clothes and shoes. The government pays police to escort tourists to Victoria Falls past these illicit hawkers. Zimbabwe is a closed, collapsing economy, imploding under its own restrictions, with unimaginably drastic impacts on its citizens. I had that old time China feeling; no one will talk publicly about the government or the economy; too many are watching, listening. Mixing with ordinary citizens in shops and eateries is nearly impossible. But beyond the desperation and the police state the citizens are warm and hospitable. Unofficial ... read more