We have now seen Victoria Falls, it really is an amazing sight to see.
Our day started off early in the morning with a taxi ride to the airport to catch our 1 hour flight from Lusaka to Livingstone. Security for the domestic 'terminal' of the airport consisted of one metal detector and one thing for bags to go through. There were no restrictions on what you could or couldn't bring through and the entire 'terminal' was one open room with 4 check in counters and about 50 seats. Being that it was only an hour flight and the airline we flew with was a Zambian airline only, our plane ended up being a 16 seater charter plane, 5 rows of 2 seats on one side and 7 rows of 1 seat on the other side (plus a seat for the flight attendant). Most of the Proflight pilots are westerners or from South Africa (in other words Mzungu) and we had a female co-pilot and male pilot for our plane, they also flew the entire hour with the cockpit door open so we were able to look in the whole trip which was pretty neat. Our flight attendant, Christofa (pronounced Christopher) gave us our safety lesson and passed out our snacks (a bag of chips) and our drinks (we were not expecting either so that was a nice surprise).
Once boarded (which took place on the runway) we started to move shortly after. We were driving straight and then took a turn at which point most planes would stop and wait for air traffic control, however being that we were the only moving plane on the runway we just kept going. Without losing speed, and only gaining more as we went, we took the turn and went straight into take off. For a small plane it was a fairly smooth take off, flight and landing which surprised us both. After about 50 minutes in the air Livingstone was in view and so was Victoria Falls, which looked just like a big smoke cloud in the sky. A few minutes later we were landed, our bags were off the plane and we were on the shuttle bus to the hostel.
The town of Livingstone is based off one main street with shops on one side and banks on the other. After getting to the hostel about 9:30am we checked in, put our bags in storage and were back on a hostel bus 30 minutes later for the free shuttle to the falls. We decided we would take today to walk across to the Zimbabwe side of the falls (which gives you a better view - and just to visit another country - plus we had paid for double entry into Zambia so we wanted to make it worth our while). It's a short walk to Zambian customs which took no time to get through, then a short walk across a bridge (where people bungee jump off of - crazy fools), a short walk to the Zimbabwe customs which took forever to get through (customer service is non-existent) and then another short walk to the Victoria Falls national park area. We went straight there, paid our fees, and were on our way to view the falls, we could see the mist and had a small glimpse from the bridge before we got there, but nothing can really prepare you for the magnitude of the falls in their entirety.
Victoria Falls as a whole is split into a smaller falls each of which has a name. The first one we saw was Devil's Cataract, the next is the Main Falls (the biggest), then Horseshoe Falls, then Rainbow Falls, then Armchair Falls,then the Eastern Cataract. This time of the year is considered high water which means the mist is at its peak. In the beginning we would get slightly wet when we went to the viewing points, nothing too terrible. We stopped at each point, took some photos and just still couldn't believe we were actually there. About 45 minutes later we come to a point with a break in the path and a sign that said something to the effect of "this path is dangerous, there is no barrier, path is slippery and high winds" but not wanting to miss out we decided to take it (other people were already out there). We got out the waterproof camera (and put up the good one) and started walking. Everything they said about the path was very true.
After 30 seconds of walking it was wet, slippery, rainy, windy and about 10 feet to the side was the edge of the cliff. It was fun though! By the time we finished we were soaked head to toe and couldn't stop laughing about how wet we were and the fact that we were there (still in amazement). We kept walking and came to a viewing point where you could see the bridge that stretches across the river (that we had walked over earlier) and sat for a few minutes walking people bungee off of it (still crazy fools). After sitting for a few minutes we started walking back to see the last few viewing points and to see the Dr. David Livingstone statue. It's amazing how calm the river is at the other end before it reaches the falls. After about 2 hours total in the park we decided to leave and walk into town and to find 'The Big Tree' - which we assumed was big.
There were two ways to get to 'The Big Tree', we could go into town first and walk around, or we could go through the back road (where no cars were) and cut the distance in half. After walking for a minute we came to a sign saying 'Only walk between these times, no dogs, stay on the road, there may be animals'. A little worried but thinking they wouldn't allow people to walk there if there were any dangerous animals we decided to keep walking. About five minutes later the road turns and Lisa looks to the left and sees two creatures sitting in the grass watching us. After quietly but very frantically telling Dave, we decided to not walk any further. Dave kept his cool, told Lisa to walk (even though she wanted to run) and we were on our way back to the main road (where the cars were). After knowing we were safe we decided to figure out what we saw, we both decided on warthogs, which aren't dangerous but can still cause serious damage with their tusks. We made it to the main road and decided to take the slightly longer route by going to town first and walking on the road where the cars were (felt 100 times safer). The walk into town wasn't too bad except for all the locals trying to sell us 100 Trillion Dollar Bills and wood carvings. They also kept trying to get us to trade our shoes and clothes, I guess they assumed we would be okay with walking around barefoot and naked. We stopped at a local super market to get some food and they actually sold 1 liter glass coke bottles there with screw top lids which neither of us had seen so we bought one (along with our food). We had to pay $.40 cents extra to take the bottle but we figured we'd keep it as a souvenir. After walking and eating and still getting bothered by locals we were back on our way to 'The Big Tree' via the other road this time.
We stopped to talk to some locals who worked at the bank to make sure we were going in the right direction (turns out we had missed our road) and asked them if it was safe to walk. They all said no lions, but watch out for elephants, buffalo's and warthogs as they all roamed the area (none of them dangerous per say - unless feeling threatened). A little more reassured than we were earlier we decided to keep walking as it was just 500 meters up the road. When we got there, it was clear that it was 'The Big Tree' - it was huge! We took some photos with it and were on our way back into town. We didn't end up seeing any animals in the area except for some impalas and some birds, which is probably a good thing. After getting into town we headed back down towards the border to cross back into Zambia - which turned into a very interesting walk.
Between both borders there are a ton of baboons, which were fine when we walked over to Zimbabwe so we didn't think anything of it. We crossed out of the Zimbabwe customs, walked back across the bridge (people were still bungee jumping and are still crazy fools!) and were walking on the road to the Zambian customs offices. The baboons from earlier were all still there, some of them quite large. The only difference between now and earlier is we were carrying our grocery bag with our 1 liter glass coke bottle and an unopened bag of Lays potato chips. The baboons that live in these areas know that those types of bags usually have food in them and then slowly started walking towards us. Dave was holding the bag and knew what they wanted so he put it behind his back and tried to yell at them (Lisa was beginning to walk away - very quickly). Next thing we know the baboon is going for the bag. Dave not wanting to get scratched or bitten quickly lets go of the bag and the baboons all go nuts as they have gotten what they wanted. They tear the bag in half and one grabs the unopened bag of chips. In the middle of all this we are both getting away from them as quick as we can, leaving behind our glass coke bottle worth $.40 and our bag of chips worth $.50. Those baboons got a total of $.90 off of us. As we were walking away the one that got the chips popped the bag to open it at which point all the smaller ones went running from the popping noise. We kept walking, laughing at the fact that we had just gotten robbed by baboons but pissed they had gotten our coke bottle. A few minutes later we got into customs to get back into Zambia and the lady asked us how we were liking our time in Zambia to which we responded "we just got robbed by the baboons", everyone back there started laughing so it must happen often.
After getting through and back to the Zambia side national park (where the taxi stands are) we were quickly in a taxi on our way back to town. We decided to have him drop us off at a different hostel where Kate and Lucy (from Lilongwe and Lusaka) were staying to see if they had room for us as we saw them earlier in the day. The hostel was booked and they weren't back yet so we decided to just walk back to the hostel we had booked into. On the way back we were quietly walking down the street, minding our own business when out of no where Lisa gets hit by a rock on the arm (a pretty large rock at that). Thinking it came from behind she turns around and yells "who threw that rock?". The man behind us points to the kids in front who are all laughing and running away. After walking faster and yelling at the kids (we were both pissed at this point) they are still laughing. We yelled at them some more, started running just to scare them and then finally just left it be as we were at our hostels road. We did find out what school they go to however but not like that will do any good. They probably throw rocks at Mzungus all the time purely because they can get away with it. Even when asking the hostel about it the two grown local women working the counter laughed. It's clear where the kids get it from. After a not so good impression of Zambia we decided to go to the grocery store and came back to cook some dinner. At least it can only get better from here as tomorrow (which we did today - we're a day late on the blogs) we leave bright and early for our white water rafting adventure and the next day (which is now tomorrow) we have our microlight flight which we heard was amazing (thanks Trish)! All in all Victoria Falls is definitely a natural wonder and was such an amazing sight to see! Next blog about white water rafting to come.
Our day started off early in the morning with a taxi ride to the airport to catch our 1 hour flight from Lusaka to Livingstone. Security for the domestic 'terminal' of the airport consisted of one metal detector and one thing for bags to go through. There were no restrictions on what you could or couldn't bring through and the entire 'terminal' was one open room with 4 check in counters and about 50 seats. Being that it was only an hour flight and the airline we flew with was a Zambian airline only, our plane ended up being a 16 seater charter plane, 5 rows of 2 seats on one side and 7 rows of 1 seat on the other side (plus a seat for the flight attendant). Most of the Proflight pilots are westerners or from South Africa (in other words Mzungu) and we had a female co-pilot and male pilot for our plane, they also flew the entire hour with the cockpit door open so we were able to look in the whole trip which was pretty neat. Our flight attendant, Christofa (pronounced Christopher) gave us our safety lesson and passed out our snacks (a bag of chips) and our drinks (we were not expecting either so that was a nice surprise).
Once boarded (which took place on the runway) we started to move shortly after. We were driving straight and then took a turn at which point most planes would stop and wait for air traffic control, however being that we were the only moving plane on the runway we just kept going. Without losing speed, and only gaining more as we went, we took the turn and went straight into take off. For a small plane it was a fairly smooth take off, flight and landing which surprised us both. After about 50 minutes in the air Livingstone was in view and so was Victoria Falls, which looked just like a big smoke cloud in the sky. A few minutes later we were landed, our bags were off the plane and we were on the shuttle bus to the hostel.
The town of Livingstone is based off one main street with shops on one side and banks on the other. After getting to the hostel about 9:30am we checked in, put our bags in storage and were back on a hostel bus 30 minutes later for the free shuttle to the falls. We decided we would take today to walk across to the Zimbabwe side of the falls (which gives you a better view - and just to visit another country - plus we had paid for double entry into Zambia so we wanted to make it worth our while). It's a short walk to Zambian customs which took no time to get through, then a short walk across a bridge (where people bungee jump off of - crazy fools), a short walk to the Zimbabwe customs which took forever to get through (customer service is non-existent) and then another short walk to the Victoria Falls national park area. We went straight there, paid our fees, and were on our way to view the falls, we could see the mist and had a small glimpse from the bridge before we got there, but nothing can really prepare you for the magnitude of the falls in their entirety.
Victoria Falls as a whole is split into a smaller falls each of which has a name. The first one we saw was Devil's Cataract, the next is the Main Falls (the biggest), then Horseshoe Falls, then Rainbow Falls, then Armchair Falls,then the Eastern Cataract. This time of the year is considered high water which means the mist is at its peak. In the beginning we would get slightly wet when we went to the viewing points, nothing too terrible. We stopped at each point, took some photos and just still couldn't believe we were actually there. About 45 minutes later we come to a point with a break in the path and a sign that said something to the effect of "this path is dangerous, there is no barrier, path is slippery and high winds" but not wanting to miss out we decided to take it (other people were already out there). We got out the waterproof camera (and put up the good one) and started walking. Everything they said about the path was very true.
After 30 seconds of walking it was wet, slippery, rainy, windy and about 10 feet to the side was the edge of the cliff. It was fun though! By the time we finished we were soaked head to toe and couldn't stop laughing about how wet we were and the fact that we were there (still in amazement). We kept walking and came to a viewing point where you could see the bridge that stretches across the river (that we had walked over earlier) and sat for a few minutes walking people bungee off of it (still crazy fools). After sitting for a few minutes we started walking back to see the last few viewing points and to see the Dr. David Livingstone statue. It's amazing how calm the river is at the other end before it reaches the falls. After about 2 hours total in the park we decided to leave and walk into town and to find 'The Big Tree' - which we assumed was big.
There were two ways to get to 'The Big Tree', we could go into town first and walk around, or we could go through the back road (where no cars were) and cut the distance in half. After walking for a minute we came to a sign saying 'Only walk between these times, no dogs, stay on the road, there may be animals'. A little worried but thinking they wouldn't allow people to walk there if there were any dangerous animals we decided to keep walking. About five minutes later the road turns and Lisa looks to the left and sees two creatures sitting in the grass watching us. After quietly but very frantically telling Dave, we decided to not walk any further. Dave kept his cool, told Lisa to walk (even though she wanted to run) and we were on our way back to the main road (where the cars were). After knowing we were safe we decided to figure out what we saw, we both decided on warthogs, which aren't dangerous but can still cause serious damage with their tusks. We made it to the main road and decided to take the slightly longer route by going to town first and walking on the road where the cars were (felt 100 times safer). The walk into town wasn't too bad except for all the locals trying to sell us 100 Trillion Dollar Bills and wood carvings. They also kept trying to get us to trade our shoes and clothes, I guess they assumed we would be okay with walking around barefoot and naked. We stopped at a local super market to get some food and they actually sold 1 liter glass coke bottles there with screw top lids which neither of us had seen so we bought one (along with our food). We had to pay $.40 cents extra to take the bottle but we figured we'd keep it as a souvenir. After walking and eating and still getting bothered by locals we were back on our way to 'The Big Tree' via the other road this time.
We stopped to talk to some locals who worked at the bank to make sure we were going in the right direction (turns out we had missed our road) and asked them if it was safe to walk. They all said no lions, but watch out for elephants, buffalo's and warthogs as they all roamed the area (none of them dangerous per say - unless feeling threatened). A little more reassured than we were earlier we decided to keep walking as it was just 500 meters up the road. When we got there, it was clear that it was 'The Big Tree' - it was huge! We took some photos with it and were on our way back into town. We didn't end up seeing any animals in the area except for some impalas and some birds, which is probably a good thing. After getting into town we headed back down towards the border to cross back into Zambia - which turned into a very interesting walk.
Between both borders there are a ton of baboons, which were fine when we walked over to Zimbabwe so we didn't think anything of it. We crossed out of the Zimbabwe customs, walked back across the bridge (people were still bungee jumping and are still crazy fools!) and were walking on the road to the Zambian customs offices. The baboons from earlier were all still there, some of them quite large. The only difference between now and earlier is we were carrying our grocery bag with our 1 liter glass coke bottle and an unopened bag of Lays potato chips. The baboons that live in these areas know that those types of bags usually have food in them and then slowly started walking towards us. Dave was holding the bag and knew what they wanted so he put it behind his back and tried to yell at them (Lisa was beginning to walk away - very quickly). Next thing we know the baboon is going for the bag. Dave not wanting to get scratched or bitten quickly lets go of the bag and the baboons all go nuts as they have gotten what they wanted. They tear the bag in half and one grabs the unopened bag of chips. In the middle of all this we are both getting away from them as quick as we can, leaving behind our glass coke bottle worth $.40 and our bag of chips worth $.50. Those baboons got a total of $.90 off of us. As we were walking away the one that got the chips popped the bag to open it at which point all the smaller ones went running from the popping noise. We kept walking, laughing at the fact that we had just gotten robbed by baboons but pissed they had gotten our coke bottle. A few minutes later we got into customs to get back into Zambia and the lady asked us how we were liking our time in Zambia to which we responded "we just got robbed by the baboons", everyone back there started laughing so it must happen often.
After getting through and back to the Zambia side national park (where the taxi stands are) we were quickly in a taxi on our way back to town. We decided to have him drop us off at a different hostel where Kate and Lucy (from Lilongwe and Lusaka) were staying to see if they had room for us as we saw them earlier in the day. The hostel was booked and they weren't back yet so we decided to just walk back to the hostel we had booked into. On the way back we were quietly walking down the street, minding our own business when out of no where Lisa gets hit by a rock on the arm (a pretty large rock at that). Thinking it came from behind she turns around and yells "who threw that rock?". The man behind us points to the kids in front who are all laughing and running away. After walking faster and yelling at the kids (we were both pissed at this point) they are still laughing. We yelled at them some more, started running just to scare them and then finally just left it be as we were at our hostels road. We did find out what school they go to however but not like that will do any good. They probably throw rocks at Mzungus all the time purely because they can get away with it. Even when asking the hostel about it the two grown local women working the counter laughed. It's clear where the kids get it from. After a not so good impression of Zambia we decided to go to the grocery store and came back to cook some dinner. At least it can only get better from here as tomorrow (which we did today - we're a day late on the blogs) we leave bright and early for our white water rafting adventure and the next day (which is now tomorrow) we have our microlight flight which we heard was amazing (thanks Trish)! All in all Victoria Falls is definitely a natural wonder and was such an amazing sight to see! Next blog about white water rafting to come.
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| Our awesome plane to Livingstone |
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| The smoke cloud in the background is Victoria Falls |
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| Dave at the Zimbabwe border |
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| Lisa at the Zimbabwe border |
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| Devil's Cataract |
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| The Main Falls |
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| Soaking wet but we made it! |
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| Still soaking wet |
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| With The Main Falls |
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| Double rainbow |
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| The Big Tree |
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