Victoria Falls from Zimbabwe and Zambia

Well, I had an awful sleep, was actually a little cold, and had a spotlight on me from an outside light... Whine whine whine! Haha! But I woke up around 630 to chirping birdies and watched the sunrise from my bed, so not bad. It was good I was awake too, as there was a knock at the door to inform us that our 9am your was actually starting at 730, please be ready thanks! So we all dashed around and for ready, and fortunately it all worked out fine with food etc! Only grumpy making thing was waiting at other hotels for other passengers who hadn't taken the change of timing to heart, wasting time. Anyway.

Today's goal was to study the Victoria Falls from both Zimbabwe and Zambia.  So, step one, drive 10 min down the road to the Zimbabwe boarder! The official boarder is on a bridge crossing a gorge, but of course they have passport control booths on both sides to make sure you get more stamps!  It was quite emotional for Mum in particular, going into Zim, as she was born there and due to conflicts, politics etc, is not allowed a passport to her birth country.  Neither parent had set foot there since 1976. I've grown up hearing so many stories... 

In light of all this, I was highly amused to find the parking lot for the Falls wasn't even 500m from the border. Talk about needing a 'duty free' zone or something!! Ah well, I got a cool visa an stamp, won't complain.

Zim has the better views of the falls, and our guide took us to probably 15 odd view points. It was lovely. I was impressed by their width, about 1.7kms. This is the dry season, so not nearly as much water was flowing as the wet season, but despite this, still lots of flow and mist! Plus I got to see a lot of the geology, and that was cool. It was crazy experiencing the flora/fauna shift as we walked between viewpoints- some was tropical rainforest, eventually drying to extremely dry grasslands. Saw a warthog and bush buck as we wandered. 

We then hoped back on the bus for 30 seconds to go back through the passport rigmarole. Quite amusing for 2 hours in a country (and $75 for the right to cross!!). 

Once back in Zambia we went to its Vic Falls viewing park. At this time it was high noon to 130.... Middle of day in Central Africa, perfect timing to be wandering around in the sun next to a humidity source! Suffice to say I really felt the 35 degrees today!! Lots of water, salt, etc.  whining aside, it was quite a different view on the Zambian side, I'm really pleased to have seen from both! Less volume of water, but you could really see what was happening. Very cool!!

We were dropped back at our lodge around 2 or so, and have the afternoon/evening to ourselves. It's nice to have a bit of time off to chill, wander, and say hi to the elephant having a meal across  the river from me!!