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Thursday, January 11, 2007

Livingstone, Zambia and Victoria Falls

We woke up at 3:30am in Cape Town to catch a flight to Johanessburg and then another flight into Livingstone, Zambia, the home of Victoria Falls! Suds was excited because we flew there in a CRJ, the plane he flew in Canada at Jazz.

This was a bit of a spontaneuous trip so the only info we really had was what we read in old Lonely Planets the day before. We were under the impression that Canadians recieved an automatic free visa upon arrival. We were rather shocked then when the oh so nice customs agent wanted $55US from each of us! They had changed the rules 6 months ago!


It is much warmer here than Cape Town and after arriving at our hostel we immediatly headed for the pool!


We were in bed early and slept for nearly 12 hours!


We are staying in a hut where the entire bed is draped in mosquito netting all the way to the floor. There is malaria here!! I have been drinking G&T's to keep my quinine levels up :)

At 10am we were packed into a mini bus for a free transfer to the falls. The locals call them the Smoke That Thunders. It is a good time of year to see the falls b/c the water levels are not too high and the mist is not blocking the falls.










Half the falls are in Zambia and the half are on the Zimbabwe side with Mr Mugabe as our host :) We were planning on a day trip to the Zim side as well, but that is another $65US visa plus $20 (times two) into the park! The country is desperate for money becuase their president, Mugabe, is running the economy and country into the ground.




























































We met up with a local who offered to take us to the lip of the falls where the water tumbles over the edge. We walked for about an hour thru knee deep water with Felix our guide holding our hands the entire time.



You can see the Armchair in this pic, it is the mini waterfall in the center.



The rocks were slippery and the current swift at times. Soon we were peering over the edge up close and personal with the roar of the water.










Afterwards we walked to the Angel's Armchair, an big pool overlooking the falls.









This is a picture jumping in. Felix was there making sure we don't get swept over the edge by the current.

1 comments:

Ryan and Sarah Sutherland said...

We met 2 girls from Norway. The one girl got malaria in Tanzania and ended up being airlifted to a hospital in Dar el Salam where she was hours away from death. She spent 10 days in the hospital where there was no food for patients and the worst conditions imaginable.
We have mpw purchased the antimalarial treatment pills so at the first signs of fever we will take them!
We are only here for 3 more days and then back to malaria free South Africa!! Whew!