This morning we were woken at 6am
with tea and coffee brought to our room and after a quick breakfast we were
ready to leave at 7am to drive into Livingstone for our helicopter ride over
Victoria Falls. As the water level in the Falls is so low the lodge were offering a nett price for the trips, so instead
of the 15 mins Falls only trip we had booked, we upgraded to a 22 min including
flying through the gorge as it was only $20 more.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to have the front seat in the ‘copter (unlike Las Vegas with Sue & David) but nevertheless the view from the back/side was adequate and it was nice to see the Falls from the air. It was totally uninspiring though due to the lack of water but I would imagine very good during the wet season. The fly though the gorge was however amazing, twisting and turning and skipping sideways at one point to avoid a bird – we bought the video so we can re-live the view from the front seat.
I do think all hideous masts
should be camouflaged to look like trees (even if not too successful in this
case)
After the ride Christopher our
driver took us to Victoria Falls Bridge, part of Cecil Rhodes’s plan to build a
rail route from Cape Town to Cairo as getting over the falls was one of the
major hurdles, however he died before it was completed in 1905. At the time it was the largest bridge in
terms of both span and height. The
placement of the bridge was in accordance with Rhodes’s idea that the spray
from the falls would land on the train as it passed over. It’s considered one of the man-made 7 Wonders
of the World.
Small vehicles are allowed
to cross in convoy but only one large truck at a time and all vehicles have to
stop when there is a train to cross. We
had to pass through immigration out of Zambia as the bridge is part owned by
Zimbabwe and considered no-man's-land.
Christopher then took us the short
drive to the Zambian Victoria Falls National Park entrance (literally round the
corner, I just about had time to put my seat belt on). He then proceeded to scrabble around in the
back of the vehicle and produced a catapult – apparently baboons are a problem,
especially if you’re carrying a bag as they think there is food, but if one
comes near you and you show your catapult, they leave you alone. Ian duly carried this thing around with us
but we’re not really sure if Christopher was taking the mickey as we only saw
one baboon the whole time and he didn’t pay any attention to us or our bag.
David Livingstone, I presume
We wandered around for a bit,
admiring what little water there was on offer, then a kind Japanese man took
our photo and when I offered to return the favour it got totally out of hand
and ended up with his guide taking a photo of us with his family.
After that we headed to Boiling
Pot Point and had a rest whilst watching these rafts plunging the rapids, they
eventually got through having faffed around for ages.
We had a quick look around the
“tat” stalls and as it was still quite early in the day they were very few
tourists around so they were all very keen for our custom. One particular chap gave us less of the
chat-up so we agreed to look at his wares (!) We’d learnt in Burma that the first sale of
the day is very important to sellers as they think it’ll bring them luck and
more sales, so
Me: “Have you sold anything yet today?”
Him: “No, you are my first customers”
Me: “Okay then, please
give me your best price as we do not barter - we will just walk away if we
don’t think you’re asking a fair price”
With that he said what he wanted
for the wooden hippo Ian had his eye on and it was reasonable (we’d already
bought a smaller one in the lodge so knew roughly what it was worth).
On reflection, I’d like to have looked for a
few more bits and pieces on other stalls but didn’t have the strength to take
on so many keen sellers, so we wandered off to find Christopher who was
chatting to this old guy. I was more
than happy to give him a $ for a few photos as he’s the first character face
I’ve come across.
Back at Waterberry we headed to
the terrace for lunch but whilst we were sitting having a quick apéro Ian
noticed this little fellow making his way across the bench. He wasn’t sure what it was but I’d seen
pictures of a Praying Mantis before and was absolutely thrilled to see one in
real life. Lunch was somewhat delayed as
I spent the next hour trying for the perfect shot – naturally he wanted to move
around but I kept repositioning him where I thought he’d be easiest to
photograph, but I never did get anything I was really happy with.
After lunch we had a few hours to
relax around the pool and have a swim (only Ian swam as apparently it was very
cold) followed by packing and another delicious dinner on the terrace overlooking the Zambezi and listening to the grunting hippos.