Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Heather and I were up at 6am (we went to bed at 8:30pm, so that's actually a long time to sleep!) so went down to the main lodge for breakfast at 7am. Mornings have been the best time of the day so far, before the sun heats up the day.

Our taxi picked us up just before 9am to go to the curio markets. According to the Lonely Planet, it's one of better places for souvenirs.

Our driver gave us an extra cell phone so we could call him to pick us up when we were done. We thought it was a great idea, as the driver basically doubles his business. Although we did feel like we were a character on The Wire carrying a burner.

There were both shops with marked prices that accepted credit cards, and a curio market which was the opposite. We went through the priced stores first to get ballpark prices, and then checked out the stalls. It's low season and so we spent more time trying to fend off vendors than actually looking at the stuff for sale. We were more interested in the stuff in the real stores, so went back. Ended up buying a couple large-ish masks that we have to get through our flight tomorrow.

We couldn't figure out how to turn on the burner phone (we would make terrible drug dealers). We took another taxi back to the hotel and had them call our driver to explain. We needed another drive at 3pm so we could get return his phone then.

Had grilled cheese again cause we liked it so much. We lazed about until 3pm, and then headed out into heat.

Our driver dropped us off at the park entrance. (We made sure we knew how to use the burner this time). We started off at the Lookout Cafe, overlooking a bend in the gorge. We had Malawi shandies, a mix of bitters, ginger beer and lemonade. Very refreshing.

At 4pm we paid our $30 USD entrance fee and toured the Falls, this time from the Zimbabwe side. The pathway was in excellent shape and well marked. There's 16 lookout points spread across the width of the Falls. The mist blows towards the Zimbabwe side and the humidity and fauna was very different from our first day on the Zambia side. I had to wipe my camera lens every time I took off the cap - there was a constant fine mist. In high flow months you get soaked and can only use waterproof cameras. You probably couldn't see much either.

There's a 1.2km walk back to the entrance gate after the last lookout. It winds through the rainforest and was like a mini safari - we saw guinea fowls, bush backs, vervet monkeys, and a few others.

We had now visited the Falls for three days straight and hadn't got out-waterfalled. The Zim and Zam sides were very different views at low flow, and the swim in Devils Pool a different experience. I preferred the Zambia side because you can see right down the gorge. From the Zimbabwe side for the most part you don't get a view of the full drop. Heather liked them equally.

Compared to other waterfalls, Angel Falls is my favourite just because it's sooo tall (980m). (By comparison Victoria Falls is about 108m). I also liked Iguazu Falls better because you can get a fuller view. Maybe if I saw Victoria Falls at high flow I might re-rank but right now it's 3rd on my waterfall list.

We didn't do the helicopter ride because at low flow it would just look like an extension of the gorge. At high flow I would definitively go up in either a helicopter or ultralight.

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