We spent two nights in Victoria Falls and on our full day there, we did three optional tours. We did the walk with the lions and the elephant ride in the morning and we did the sunset cruise on the Zambezi river in the afternoon. We had our included tour of the falls in the early afternoon. So it was a nonstop day. The walk with the lions was the first thing we did and we had to get up very early in the morning to do that. There were 4 lions-two that were 22 months old and two that were less than a year old. When the lions reach 2 years, they send them away from this preserve back into the wild. It was fascinating to be with the lions though. They were so playful with each other and it was fun to watch the interaction between the four lions. We got to pet them and even let them lick our hands-they like the salt. The trainer got me to hold the lion's tail at one point! Then we went from that to our elephant ride. In Thailand, we had ridden an elephant and they had a seat for us to sit on. Here, they just had a blanket and we had a rope to hold on to and stirrups to put our feet in to help us balance. But it was actually pretty comfortable and very enjoyable. We did a big circle through the preserve. We saw waterbucks and impala on the ride and it was fun. We were back at the hotel in plenty of time to go shopping for a little while and to check and see if the internet was up working. It had been off in the entire town when we arrived. By lunchtime, we found an internet working and were able to send email. After lunch, we headed to the falls and had a pleasant walk to all the viewing points. This is the time of the year when the falls are at their lowest so it was not as impressive as some of the postcards show it is at full season. But it was still pretty and there were pretty flowers blooming along the way as well. We got back from that just barely in time to get on the bus to go to the sunset cruise. That was very pleasant and the sunset was beautiful. We saw hippos, crocs, monitor lizards, birds, and other assorted things along the shores. When the cruise was over, it was time to go back to the hotel for our farewell dinner together. We had a great meal and we toasted the end of a wonderful trip.
The next day we got up early and Ntando took Jim, me and Rosanne in his car to the bridge that spans the Zambezi between Zimbabwe and Zambia. We had wanted to go to Zambia and they just changed the day visas so that we could go for $20 instead of about $130 each. So we paid the fee and went though the passport control for each country and walked over to the Livingston hotel where we could see the falls from the Zambia side. It is a beautiful hotel and we enjoyed seeing it. There were vervet monkeys all over the hotel grounds which was fun to see. At one point I looked up and there was a guy on the roof of the hotel with a slingshot shooting at the monkeys to keep them away from the area where they were serving breakfast! We enjoyed our stroll there and we retraced our steps and drove back to our hotel in Victoria Falls in time for a good breakfast and some last minute trading before we went to catch our plane. The people here are not able to get so many things like clothing so they want to trade their carvings and such for your shoes or socks or shirts. We took a sack down to the market and made some trades which was a very interesting experience.
We left the hotel for the airport but stopped by the local hospital first to see how it is run. It was a very sad situation because there are no doctors since they were not being paid. And there was no xray film so the xray lab was closed. They were doing the best they could with what they had but it really tore our hearts and we wished there was more that we could do than just make the donations that we did.
At the airport, we said our goodbyes to Ntando and went through security and caught our plane to Johannesburg. There we said goodbye to our tripmates as they went on to fly to London and fly home from there. We had gotten our own airfare so we got on the hotel shuttle and went back to the hotel for a night. It was good to have that time to rest and repack and get ready for the long flight home. The next day we checked out and went to the airport and shopped and read our books and killed time until our overnight flight to Atlanta. It was as easy a 18 hour flight as we could have and we were so thankful that we had done it this way. Going by London was a 38 hour trip for at least some of the group, counting layovers and that is a LONG time.
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