We're really living the lifestyle of the rich and famous now (on the outside anyway). It took about 2hrs to make our way back to Livingstone, crossing numerous borders once again. Something I didn't note last time, when we cross the river from Botswana to Zambia it is where the Chobe & Zambezi Rivers meet and it is also the meeting point for 4 countries - Botswana, Zambia, Namibia & Zimbabwe!!

We arrived at The Royal Livingstone, our hotel for 3 nights. As we entered through the front gates, there was a roundabout and sitting down in it was a giraffe. I thought it was a statue at first but then we noticed 2 others eating. The hotel is in the grounds of a national park. We were ushered out of the van and past reception and into the lounge where they do check in. Handed iced tea and cold towels we were then offered a complimentary hand massage each which is part of check in. After filling in our forms we were advised it would be a few minutes before our room would be ready. Had a quick look around, the hotel is on the banks of the Zambezi river and you can see the spray of the falls a little further down. Next door is the Zambezi Sun Hotel which is a sister hotel and the entrance to the falls is from there - we get free entry as guests of the hotel.

Once our room was ready, we were escorted to our room in a golf cart with our luggage and shown around. The room is nice enough, nothing fancy, the bathroom is nice but our room at House of Waine was much larger. Mum had a quick look in the bar fridge - a 50ml bottle of Johnny Walker Black is $29 and Jack Daniels $16. If you want laundry done, a pair of underpants is $3.50. We were afraid to touch anything in case we got a bill for it. We did have a complimentary tray of dried apricots, walnuts & fruit skewer on our bedside table which we enjoyed. I asked about internet and was told there was a business centre with computers you could use for free but if you wanted Wi-Fi, it was $10 for 30mins, $50 for 4hrs. I won't be using the Wi-Fi here that is for sure.

There are lots of vervet monkeys hanging around outside so went out to take a photo. Took my camera out and found out my lens was smashed. It is my longer lens that is better for wildlife at a distance so pretty gutted about that. Hopefully it will be covered by travel insurance. Still have my smaller lens and luckily the camera is OK. When we were driving here, it had fallen on the ground while it was in the case and I assumed it was OK. What can you do!!! When we left our room, we met our personal Butler, Kakwisa. He would be at our beck and call (supposedly) for anything we needed while we were here. I'm thinking we will be his easiest clients.

We were booked on a sunset cruise on The African Queen and I advised mum this would probably be pretty disappointing after our few days on the Chobe River but it was relaxing enough. Drinks were included and some nibblies as well so at least that did us for dinner. We saw some hippos & elephants but nothing like past couple of days.

Back at the hotel, we got a free shuttle over to the Zambezi Sun to have a look around - it looks a lot more relaxed. We had an early night, tucked into bed and watched TV. When we got back to the room, our beds had been turned down, rose petals on the bed, robe laid out on the bed and slippers on the floor.

This morning after a lovely breakfast we were collected for a tour of the Zambia side of the falls. Zambia has the longest section of the falls but in the dry season, hardly any water running over the falls. All the water is currently on the Zimbabwe side. However, he told us some interesting facts and there were some good views.

We were then taken over the border to Zimbabwe for a tour of the falls on that side. It was just like I remembered but it was good for mum to see them, they are definitely more spectacular on this side. At one of the viewpoints, there was a group of school kids. A couple came over and started chatting to us. They asked if we had any spare batteries for our camera but I said unfortunately not. It was their first time to the falls and they asked lots of questions of us. One of the young girls then asked if she could have a photo with me with her own camera. I spoke with their teacher and she said they had 60 students with them. They were so excited to be there. We had put some extra pens in our bag to trade when we went to the markets but instead I gave them to the teacher to take to the school, nothing big but something they can use as people are always asking for them.

We then went to the craft markets, ready to trade with some shirts we had bought along. We were pretty popular when they heard we had t-shirts to trade. We made a lap of the stalls but I really liked something in the very first 'shop' we walked past so went back there and started with the negotiations. When you wander around these type of markets, you are constantly hounded to buy something, to help them out, just something for 10 rand so I can buy food tonight, etc, etc. It's something you have to learn to put up with but it can drive you crazy. They also asked for our socks, mum's sunglasses and our shoes.

We bought a few items from different vendors and traded 2 shirts plus some cash. I had asked Adam before we left if he had any shirts he was getting rid of and he gave these two to me. I hadn't even really looked at them, but when one of the guys put on one of the shirts, it had 'The Man' written on it with an arrow pointing upwards and then 'The Legend' underneath it with an arrow pointing downwards. Mum and I had a good chuckle at that.

Back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon. This time on our drive in, there were zebras on the helipad!! I lay by the pool for a while and then mum and I treated ourselves to High Tea which comprised of a huge spread of quiches, sandwiches, cakes, tarts, tortes, pastries, scones and more. No need for dinner for us. I went back to the pool while mum sat in the lounge reading the paper. Next thing I looked up and there was a small herd of zebras walking across the lawns. Ran to the bar quickly and called out 'Mum, quick, the zebras are crossing'. There was also a giraffe further behind. Magic.

We watched the sunset on the deck overlooking the river with a drink each and after it set, headed back to our room for another quiet night, big party animals we are!!