Victoria Falls

Hi All,

Sorry to take so long getting this to you. This first post is kind of wordy, but after this it will be more pics and less chat.


Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

After a short flight from Johannesburg we landed in the small airport at Victoria Falls and got a taxi to our hotel. We left our bags in our room and got the transfer to "Flight of Angels" helicopter for a flight over Victoria Falls. It was an amazing 13 minutes! The photos show how much more you can see from an angel's perspective.

There are a lot of comparisons with Niagra Falls. Victoria is wider and has greater drop but Niagra has a greater volume of water. So much mist rises into the air and the sound is so loud that the native name for it can means "the smoke that roars". Walking along the edge of the national park we sometimes got a good shower from all the mist that blows up from the gorge.

We were transported straight away to the Sundown Cruise up the Zambezi river which forms the border between Zambezi and Zimbabwe. Both sides of the river are national parks so there is no development and no hunting. During the "safety" orientation the captain pointed out the buckets at the corners of the boat and told us they were the boat's fire extinguishers. That reassured us.

We saw lots of water fowl, some familiar looking like egrets and herons and some not so familiar, types of geese and ducks with very different markings than North American birds. We also saw lots of hippos in the water near the banks but they weren't too cooperative and rarely raised their heads out of the water. Same for the crocodiles that we saw. In fact, sometimes all we could see was their two eyes above the water.

We bought some souvenir Zimbabwe ten trillion dollar bills for five U.S. dollars. Yes, $10,000,000,000,000. Zimbabwe had such bad inflation during the last decade that their currency ended up being worthless. Now they use U.S. Dollars as their currency but also accept South African Rand and Euros.

Our hotel looked like a safari park with a pond and river running through the center. Dinner featured native drummers, musicians and an a cappella group.