Vic Falls, my favourite town. Small, sunny (28 degrees), friendly and unchanged, 10 years later. Early this morning a blood red sun over the Zambezi, a hippo grunting and outside our room a nonchalant warthog with enormous balls.
Sally and i are staying on the banks of the glorious Zambezi at The Illala Lodge a typical thatch and render affair. We have hired scooters the better to visit the stately old Victoria Falls for lunch and sundowner drinks at the Safari Lodge where elephants appeared after sundown as silent great reflections in the distant waterhole. Always amazed at how light their tread and the quietness of their movements.
The Falls are recovering from the recent political turmoil and tourist numbers are quite small which suits us fine. Touts sell the old million plus bank notes for $1 and things are no longer especially cheap.
Sally saw a traffic sign outside the VF hotel : Dead Slow. Sums up VF perfectly.
But delights are never far behind and today i was richly rewarded in my purchase of a very fine local newspaper which had the following breaking news gems :
"2 cm organ worries boys family"
"Suspected murderer caught at police station trying to bewitch police officer investigating his case"
" A man from Vumbachikwe mine in Gwanda learnt to respect each others property (sic) the hard way as he allegedly turned blind when he was having an erotic night with a married woman whose privates also miraculously "closed up" during the act." This last story was written by a journalist whose byline was Marvelous Moyo.
Tonight we go on a night safari which is a rare treat as most parks close at 6. The park is a private 3500 hectare game reserve which also has tame elephants for riding and an anti-poaching unit to protect the small family of recently imported black rhinos. A bit of a glorified zoo experience but the only way to see rhinos in the African bush these days. Lucky enough to see a small pride of Iions right by the side of the road just as it grew dark. Also an elegant little Genet Cat, Kudu, Waterbuck and jackal. Our companions in the crowded 4WHD were a noisy and exceptionaly well-travelled Texan lawyer and a taciturn Oklahoma farmer and his extended family. All had come from extensive and exorbitantly expensive safaris in Kruger and Okavango. Absolutely f***ing freezing on the long night drive back to town.

Day 3.A day drifting down the Zambezi in inflatable canoes along with 3 Aus families and a very friendly American/German family with 2 impecably behaved early teen sons. Vultures, Lilac Breasted Rollers, Beeaters and storks in the trees along the banks and pods of watchful hippos and the occasional croc on the banks. A cruisy few hours in the bright sunshine and 28 degree heat with a little adrenalin rush of some mild rapids at end. Breakfast and lunch thrown in. Not bad.
Evening sitting by the river drinking gin and tonics (suitably colonial) Sally and I meet a loud, gregarious Canadian family of one well-paid Toronto lawyer, his high school teacher wife, 4 white-toothed 20 something daughters and 2 grandmothers, all travelling family troupe of loud opinions and much merriment. Like walking into a cage of Macaws. A very entertaining evening in which the delightfully dotty 81 year old granma declared that her best experience of her African trip was seing Kangeroos (she meant Giraffes) and then losing one of her false teeth during dinner eventually found by the South African couple at an adjoining table. Finished the evening around a log fire going in the fire pit (i'm getting one when I get back).
Tomorrow to Zambia.