Zimbabwe – Couple of Boots

August 7th, 2016

Day 129: Victoria Falls & Chobe National Park

Victoria Falls is a really expensive place to stay, so unfortunately 2 days was the max we could afford to stay, which meant we would have a jam-packed final day. Igor really wanted to fly a microlight aircraft (basically a 2-man kite with a lawn mower engine) over the falls, so we had the Gorges Lodge book the earliest available flight, so that we would have time to visit Victoria Falls (you know, the main reason we are here?).

The only microlight operators are on the Zambian side (along with Devil’s Pool and the helicopter rides that go into the gorge – we discovered that Zambia does all the *dangerous* stuff), which meant we would need to allow time to go through immigration before our flights. We woke up the poor kitchen staff at 5:30AM so that we could be on the road at 6AM, and at the border crossing by 7AM. Surprisingly, we were not the only ones at the border crossing that early in the morning, but luckily the wait wasn’t too long. After shelling out USD $50pp for our single entry visas, we had a new stamp in our passport and we were on our way.

Once we got to the Batoka Sky airstrip and paid for our 15min flights (USD $150pp), we had about an hour long wait while the three aircrafts took up one tourist after another. Their operation was crazy efficient – time is money (at USD $600/hour!!!) and they were not wasting a single second! Lindsay managed to snap a few pics of Igor as he boarded is aircraft before the ground crew told her to put away all her cameras (even the GoPro, as they want you to buy *their* GoPro pics at USD $20pp) so she could get ready for her flight. Was the experience worth it? Yes…but once is enough.

Crossing the bridge into Zambia – it’s a busy international crossing so they *try* to make to process “in & out”

Taking a Microlight Flight was high on Igor’s bucket list for Vic Falls, so we booked the earliest slot available

Igor taking off in a flying lawnmower!

Our first full view of Victoria Falls is in the air! We do a full loop, seeing it from both the Zimbabwe side and the Zambian side before returning to base

Lindsay was right on Igor’s heels, flying over the Falls

Riding the microlight wasn’t enough for Igor – he asked the pilot if he could steer! The pilot gave him the go-ahead to fly them back toward the airstrip, passing a herd of hippo along the way!

Once we crossed back to Zimbabwe, we made a beeline for the Victoria Falls National Park, where we had 2hrs. to walk the trail across the gorge from the falls, taking in the majesty of the 350ft high waterfall. As it was late morning by this time, the trail was quite crowded (hey – there are all the Chinese tourists! We’ve been missing them during our African adventure so far) – the falls are spectacular, don’t get me wrong, but Lindsay at least had a hard time appreciating Victoria Falls as a *wonder of nature* with so many people around. Perhaps the experience would have been better first thing in the morning, or right before it closes?

Last but not least – visiting the Victoria Falls National Park (Zimbabwe) to see the waterfall in all its glory

Gotta say, they aren’t trying too hard to keep people out of the river. I guess the attitude in Africa is, “if you are dumb enough to climb over the fence, you deserve to die”

The Devil’s Cataract

The many faces of Victoria Falls

The Main Falls – ‘nough said

Victoria Falls – (arguably) the biggest waterfall in the world

Igor crossing the limits for a fantastic photo of Vic Falls – luckily Lindsay was there to pull him back from the brink

Once we said, “Good bye!” to Victoria Falls, we had a 2hr. drive to the Kasungula border crossing, where we walked across into Botswana. Our hotel transfer was waiting for us and returned us to the Chobe Safari Lodge (hey – our rental car is still there – yay!). Somehow we arrived ahead of schedule, so we were able to check-in and freshen up before our sunset river cruise. Unlike the Vic Fall cruise the day before, drinks were not included, but at least we didn’t have assigned seating and could move about the boat to view the wildlife (and since we were technically inside the Chobe National Park, there was *a lot* of wildlife).

One rant about this experience – and please, no offense to all of our friends with kids – but WHY would anyone bring a baby and a toddler on a sunset river cruise? (BTW – the lodge offers babysitting service) For over two hours, two children were crying on and off, ruining the peace and tranquility for all the other guests – and it’s not like the parents were having a good time either as they were obviously stressed out trying to calm their kids down. I get that they want to have a family vacation, but why pick a location and activity that is not child-friendly? Given how insanely expensive it is to fly your family to Africa and staying in this resort, it would make more sense to wait until your kids are old enough to behave (and *remember* the experience! You think that toddler is going to remember his family trip to Botswana?! NO!!!). There was another family on the boat with kids that were around 8 & 10 years old – they all looked like they were having a great time! Hey, maybe we’ll be in the same boat (no pun intended) someday, but until we are, we apologize if we are a grumpy childless couple.

The Big Baobab Tree! A quick photo-stop on our fall to the Botswana border

Checking into our nice room in the resort-y Chobe Safari Lodge, before a sundowner cruise through Chobe National Park (no free booze this time)

The warthog – part of the Ugly Five. Look at that face! It’s so ugly it’s cute!

The many birds of Chobe: a Darter, a pair of Fish Eagles and a Marabou Stork

No day in Botswana is complete without elephants!

The number of tourist boats that descended on this herd of elephants was ridiculous! No wonder this guy started swimming away…

Lots of hippos in Chobe – the poor guy on the right looks like he was nursing some injuries from a recent fight with the dominant male in the area

A wily croc – does he really think someone is just going to wander into his open mouth?

Ohhhh, myyyy! This bull elephant has noticed a female in estrus…and it got him very horny

Kinky elephant sex – I guess this guy likes an audience…

So. Many. Boats.

A local fisherman in a traditional mokoro

Ellies in the distance – could this sunset *be* any more Botswanan?

August 6th, 2016

Day 128: Zambezi River

So, while our lodge was super fancy and the food/accommodations/staff were awesome, there was one little problem which was out of their control. Last night we discovered that there is a nightclub at the bottom of the Batoka Gorge, which blared thumping techno music AT NIGHT LONG. Not even exaggerating – it was still going at sunrise. Worse, it was on the Zambian side of the river, so what could the owners do about it? Call a noise complaint with the cops? It’s another friggin’ country! You need a fucking visa just to go over there and complain! Oh well, we’re road-hardy travelers at this point. We popped in our earplugs and slept just fine.

Nightclub on the Zambian side of the river was still thumping techno at sunrise

We didn’t pre-book any of the activities at Victoria Falls, as many of them depend on the height of the river at the time. We really wanted to go swimming at the Devil’s Pool – a natural “infinity pool” at the edge of the waterfall, however, the water level was still too high and the pool wasn’t open yet (we were told we missed it by about 2 weeks). As an alternative, several people we met along our travels had recommended white water rafting. Igor and Lindsay had both been rafting once (Igor in upstate NY during a bachelor party, Lindsay in Montana during her bachelorette party), but neither had tackled Class 5 rapids. But we didn’t tell the tour operator that.

The trip was AWESOME! We went over 19 rapids – five were Class 5, most of the others were Class 3 and 4. The pace was perfect – we had plenty of time in between rapids to catch our breath and prepare for our next brush with Death. Our tour group was divided into two boats – we were paired with a couple of American girls from Las Vegas, both of whom had been rafting before. Our team had a great rapport and at the end of the day we boasted that none of us fell out of the boat. The other raft was made up of an Englishwoman and her daughter, and three Chinese guys. They did not seem to gel as well – when they hit Rapid #13 “The Mother”, three of them went overboard! Everyone was rescued safely, so it was very entertaining for us to watch. J

Getting ready to hit the water! Getting our safety briefing and gear at the top of the gorge

It’s a long, steep walk down the side of the gorge to the river

Below the Victoria Falls Railway Bridge – the border crossing between Zimbabwe and Zambia – about to set foot into the Zambezi River

The water level is low enough that we can start our tour at Rapid #1: The Boiling Pot

Thumbs up – ready to go!

Paddling fiercely toward a Class 5 rapid!

RAPID IMPACT! This photo is intense – let’s break it down, shall we?

Igor’s like, “Whoa!” Lindsay’s like, “Ugh!” Our guide is like, “Meh.”

High fives and thumbs up! Our team is killing it – we didn’t lose anyone to the river that day!

Walking around two rapids (#7 & #9) that are classed 6+ – Lindsay is barefoot, so she has to walk very carefully

A deicious BBQ lunch awaits us at the top of the gorge

AWESOME DAY with Shearwater Rafting! We chucked out the extra USD $50 for their thumb drive with video and photos, and we are so glad we did! Really impressed with the professionalism, quality and plain old fun of this company! Highly recommended.

The endpoint for the rafting tour was conveniently 5min away from the Gorges Lodge, so we got dropped off first and had about an hour to shower and change before hopping in the hotel shuttle to drive to our sundowner cruise at the top of the Victoria Falls. The boat was ridiculously crowded (actually, the whole river was crowded!), and all seating was communal (we were paired up with a very nice, older Australian couple), and while drinks were unlimited, we didn’t feel like chugging cheap wine and giving ourselves a hangover. But we did get a few nice shots of hippos and elephants, a pretty sunset, and some nice conversation, so not a terrible way to spend an afternoon. However, we were extreemly pleased when we returned to the Gorges Lodge and discovered we were the only guests for the night – we had the whole restaurant to ourselves! Feeling very VIP.

The Victoria Falls “Booze Cruise” – a sundowner boat ride at the top of the falls

Lots of hippos at the top of the falls

Look at those fangs! This guy will fucking kill you.

A group of elephants crossing the river in a herd for safety – probably scared of hippo attacks!

After our sunset on the Zambezi, our driver spots a herd of Cape Buffalo on the way back to the lodge!

Another fantastic dinner at Gorges Lodge!

August 5th, 2016

Day 127: Zimbabwe

Today was a LONG travel day. We rolled out of bed at 5AM and hit the road, eating Oreos as our breakfast on the way. It took us 3½ hours to drive down the Caprivi Strip to the Ngoma border crossing into Botswana (during which time, we did not see a *single* elephant or buffalo – kinda disappointed). Leaving Namibia was easy, but as this border crossing was busier than the Mohembo border (which is mostly tourists), it was a LONG wait. It was especially frustrating to see two open counters with border agents *doing nothing* who refused to let us complete our car registration until our passports had been stamped…or, you know, maybe help out the Immigrant agent as she has a line of about 20 people? There was a suggestion box in the office – we considered giving them our advice and entertained ourselves with other outrageous suggestions like a welcome drink – but since we would need to reenter the country one more time, we decided against it.

Once we were in Botswana, we drove a short distance through Chobe National Park to the town of Kasane, where we would be leaving our car while we got a transfer to Zimbabwe (apparently the traffic police in Zimbabwe are *really* corrupt and the hassle of bringing a rental car into the country is just not worth it). We made a quick stop at the Money Exchange office to get rid of all of our Namibian dollars for USD. Why USD? Because that is the *official currency* of Zimbabwe! If you go to any ATM in Zimbabwe, it will give you AMERICAN DOLLARS. How crazy is that? Apparently their inflation rate went so out of control that 350 TRILLION Zimbabwe dollars equals USD $1. We were approached several times by hawkers trying to sell us 3 Trillion Dollar notes as “souvenirs” during our stay.

We arrived at the Chobe Safari Lodge (where we would be parking our car for the next three days) at 12 noon on the dot – perfect timing as our transfer van had also just arrived and was looking for us. We grabbed our bags and locked the car, and finally sat back and let someone else do the driving for a change!

At the Zimbabwe border, we got double entry visas (since we would be visiting the Zambian side of Victoria Falls as well) for USD $45pp, then walked across the border where we switched vehicles. About 2hours later, we were finally dropped off at the Gorges Lodge – a luxurious paradise where we discovered we had another all-inclusive package! All drinks, transportation, and two activities! Yay!

Sunrise on the Caprivi Strip – we’re already 30min into our drive

Two border crossings in one day! Into Botswana, then directly on to Zimbabwe

Welcome drinks and a fantastic view at the Gorges Lodge are welcome luxuries after a LONG travel day

Another ultra-luxury safari tent! Africa is spoiling us! J

We were so comfortable when we arrived, we had a lazy afternoon, enjoying the Wifi *in our tent*. We finally decided we had to do at least one fun thing before the end of the day, so we asked for a ride into town to see the sunset. Since the Gorges Lodge is located a good 40min outside of Victoria Falls proper, our driver told us we didn’t have quite enough time to catch the sunset, but he knew of another hotel nearby that had a bar overlooking a waterhole which would be perfect for sundowners.