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A day trip to Victoria Falls
Being a person driven by high moral principles (you will be aware of that by now of course), I thought long and hard about whether we should visit the socialist paradise of Robert "Uncle Bob" Mugabe otherwise known as Zimbabwe.
Ten years ago Zimbabwe was our first ever experience of Africa and flying in a seaplane over herds of elephant along the edge of Lake Kariba remains one of my all time great memories (along with my wedding day of course, he adds quickly in case Angela has learnt to read). The troubles of current Zimbabwe are well recorded so I won't dwell on them here but we eventually decided to go for the purely selfish reasons that
1) April/May are the peak flow months for water over the falls and thanks to exceptional rains in Angola this year, the Falls are the best they've been for 25 years.
2) Going to the Falls on the Zambian side at Livingstone would have cost around US$450 for us and the car thanks to the Zambian philosophy of milking you for any tax they can dream up!
It turned out cheaper to go on an organised day trip to Vic Falls with Chobe Safari Lodge than to take our car and trailer. Even so we parted with US$55 each for a visa, US citizens with us paid US$30 but spare a thought for Canadians, who have to pay US$65 each, their government must have annoyed Mugabe even more than the British!
The most dangerous part of the day turned out to on the drive to Victoria Falls when, 2 kilometres past the border, our driver just managed to stop the minibus before we piled in to a herd of elephants crossing the road!
Victoria Falls town was just how we remembered it except there were far less tourists and the police presence was evident everywhere, mainly to stop the locals hassling the tourists for black market money changing.
The location of the Falls is obvious thanks to the huge plumes of spray rising in to the blue sky and the noise, hence the native name of 'the smoke that thunders'. We had been warned that the spray would actually obscure much of the view and that proved to be the case, but the noise and atmosphere is awesome. My English is not good enough to describe the beauty and sheer scale of the Falls, suffice to say this is a place you should see before you die.
Getting decent photos proved impossible (the album will attest to that), an underwater camera would have helped! We got absolutely soaked by the spray as it turned in to heavy downpours of rain and many visitors (particularly overlanders) used the opportunity to shower and cool down. The sight of tattooed and sunburnt beer bellied lads strolling around the scenic viewpoints in shorts felt less off putting than the hordes of Japanese in yellow waterproofs and face masks (don't ask!) virtually walking in their guide's footsteps!
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