Trip to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and a little Zambia

Found this photo online, good depiction of the falls

This past weekend Mark and I had the rare opportunity to go on vacation by ourselves without the kids thanks for Mark's parents for babysitting.  We decided to visit Victoria Falls and the Chobe National Park as we are unable to do this with kids due to the malaria risk and I am finally not pregnant or nursing.  We knew it would be a short trip, only 4 days, as we did not want to leave the grandparents with the kids in a foreign country while we were in another foreign country for too long.

Customs line at the tiny airport

On the first day we flew out that morning to Zimbabwe to see the falls first. Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in the world, twice the size of Niagara Falls.   We stayed at Victoria Falls Safari Lodge and really enjoyed the accommodation.  They had a free shuttle to the falls so 10 minutes after arriving we hopped on board and 10 minutes later we were at the falls.  Paid our $30 US to get into the area and made our trek along the 16 viewpoints to see the falls from all angles.  August is approaching upon the dry season so it was nice that we did not get soaked needing a poncho for any of the viewpoints.  A light mist was all we felt at some spots thankfully.





I was surprised that it only took about 2 hours to see the falls from each viewpoint and then back again.  The last few viewpoints did not have a railing (not that the ones that had railings looked so safe) but being able to get right up to the edge was actually kind of terrifying.

this was the "fence" that protected you from falling into the Falls

 I guess my fears of death have increased over the years and I am not as adventurous as I used to be.  We took some gorgeous pictures of the falls and the many rainbows that appeared.  It was an enjoyable walk through the rain forest and I am glad we made the trip up to see it.



We had some extra time so we made sure to cross the bridge from Zimbabwe into Zambia  to see the bungee jumpers and take a look at the view from the bridge.  Before making it into customs to get our free "bridge pass" in Zimbabwe Mark was accosted with men trying to sell all sort of carved goods and no longer used Zimbabwe currency.


 I would just trail behind and laugh as none of them would approach me until they realized Mark was not going to buy anything from them.  I just pretended not to speak English and that worked pretty well.




It took about 15 minutes to walk over the bridge and we enjoyed a drink at the cafe on the Zambia side.  There were very few tourist in general but most of them were actually Americans.  It was nice to hear the American accent and I was able to help a few understand the locals who's accent is not as thick to me as it once was.  We did not take part in any of the adrenaline packed activities but there was a steady stream of people lining up to bungee jump.

Evening was approaching so we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed a quiet dinner that was not at 5pm for once.  We enjoyed vacation without the kids and being able to do what we wanted when we wanted to do it.  No need to consider nap times, eating routines or whether the activities were child friendly.

The next morning we checked out and went from Zimbabwe into Botswana and back out again to Namibia, all on the next blog.