Days 31 thru 33

(Dan’s comments are italicized)

Because of our sublime experience at Chobe game park, we decided anything else would be disappointing so we left early the next morning for Zimbabwe. Again, we asked Tefo if he knew someone who did Kasane to Vic Falls transfers and, lo and behold, we found out his uncle does!

The border crossing was fast and painless…but only because we had cash to pay for the visa (rather than credit card). However, we suspect that the cash never made it to the government coffers! 😲

Our goal in Vic Falls was to just get our washing done and rent a car for the rest of our time in Zimbabwe. Oh, if only things were that simple 😵‍💫 This is where the good news/bad news experiences started.

In terms of accommodations, we chose to stay at the Shoestring Backpackers Lodge; the good news is that the grounds are beautiful …

…the bad news is that the rooms left a bit to be desired…

… especially for the princely sum of $80 per night!!!

But the good news is that they have a washing machine we can use…the bad news is that it costs $10 to do so!!

Zimbabwe introduced its new currency, the ZIG, last year. Businesses have not accepted it so they use any other foreign money, but, good news, especially the US dollar. The bad news is that they don’t have an abundance of US$, so we either have to buy more stuff, buy less stuff, or accept another currency as change 😄. However, we’re in Zimbabwe and I can’t expect prices to be the same as they were in the 1980s so we wandered around to see what was here.I quickly realized that some things never change…

Other things do change, however; the railway station is in the background. There’s a beautiful train there but it only runs once a week to Pretoria, S Africa! In the 1980s, trains ran everywhere, including a steam train that ran between Vic Falls and Bulawayo that gave its passengers an Olde World experience.

Although the town has grown into a big, expensive tourist trap, animals still roam around…

And vendors are still thriving and are quite aggressive (though they now have stalls rather than towels on the ground!) I feel that there is an underlying desperation in their sales tactics. One woman got on her knees, begging for us to buy something...but she was drunk, so that could have been part of it!

The people here are still very helpful and interesting. We had a wonderful , entertaining conversation with a 24 year old safari guide today (when we were looking for a rental car). Most people are stunned when I tell them I was teaching in Zambia in the mid- to late-eighties. They then tend to comment that I’m older than their grandmother; it’s funny how quickly you can go off people sometimes! I’m

On the subject of a rental car, the good news is that there are rental car companies here (very expensive) but everyone I asked has a family member/friend who rents out cars. BUT you can only drive them around Vic Falls. The bad news is that the road from Vic Falls to Bulawayo is so bad with potholes that you’re not allowed to drive it in a rental car. Our only options are to fly (sounds a bit too posh for us) or take an overnight bus. We may regret this decision, but we’ve opted for the latter. 🤞🤞🤞

We paid the exorbitant price of $50 each last year to see the falls so this year, I took a photo of a photo at one of the places selling Vic Falls experiences 😂 When I worked in Zambia in the 80s, I used to come here often; there was no town here at the time, elephants wandered the dirt paths, locals sold their wares on towels on the floor, and the view of the falls wasn’t walled off with a steep admission price. I’m extremely glad to have seen so much of the world in those simpler, pre-tourist times.

As our bus doesn’t leave until 8pm we decided to spend the money we saved by not entering into the Vic Falls park on a couple of lovely elephant carvings and a nice lunch at a beautiful  restaurant at the top of the falls.

The food was delicious. Our first meals in Vic Falls were pretty basic, fast food type experiences. Shoestrings Backpackers Lodge has a food service of breakfast, burgers or pizza which is alright. Our second experience was Nando’s, which is a tasty chicken chain which is internationally available in Southern Africa.

For our final food experience, we chose to dine at Baine’s Restaurant, located on the Zambezi River, right atop the falls.

But, more impressive, was the restaurant itself…and the view! You can certainly travel in style in Africa; we just choose to do it on the cheap so we can travel for 4 months rather than 4 weeks. We took a taxi to the big tree…

Then we walked to the restaurant; it was only about 1km but we had to be careful as the path is covered in elephant poop. We didn’t see any elephants but we walked past another big baobab. Dan stood by it to give some perspective!

The restaurant was beautiful and the view was divine. My thoughts were with all those I’ve lost; they would have loved it here.

On the walk back to our guest house, we passed by a troop of monkeys and walked through the market again. Boy, there are talented carvers in this part of the world!

It was then back to the guesthouse to wait for the bus. We’re just hoping that the journey goes well 🤞 Unfortunately, Victoria Falls has fallen into the category of tourist trap. I fear that Kasane may be trending in the same direction. It will be exciting to be travelling into the interior of Zimbabwe and leave the tourists behind, at least to some degree.