Welcome to Zambia! (and Zimbabwe)

Our first view of Victoria Falls.
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Africa is such a beautiful, amazing place.  It is definitely worth the effort to get here.  We left New York on an evening flight to Frankfurt (6-7 hours), had a 10 hour layover there, and then another 10 1/2 hour flight to Johannesburg.  We decided to stay there overnight in an attempt to catch up on sleep - a plan that backfired!  We were able to take lovely naps in the afternoon but when night came we were completely sleepless due to the time change.  It was pretty annoying not to be able to sleep when we are so tired.  The next morning we flew to Livingstone, Zambia, about 2 hours away.

Zebras right behind the hotel.
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Zambia is a wonderful place - it is very green and lush.  We stayed at the Zambezi Sun for three nights.  Talk about a fancy place!  The Sun is on the same property as the Royal Livingstone and they are sister hotels.  As our welcome video said, guests are free to use the facilities of both resorts.  If we had more time we would have loved to hang out at the posh Royal Livingstone, but our time went fast as there is much to do!  The Zambezi Sun has an excellent location - it is actually in the park (Mosi-oa-Tunya) that contains the great Victoria Falls.  From our room it was only a 5-10 minute walk to the falls.

The Knife's Edge.
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After we arrived on our first day, we walked down to the falls and passed by zebra on the way - they must have been used to tourists as they barely twitched when we walked by!  The views of the falls on the Zambian side are limited to what you can see from the walkways.  We thought the views were great - the trail winds down the cliff side directly opposite the falls and there is a little bridge to cross before you come to the end of the ridge.  You get hosed with spray from the falls but it is so hot that getting wet feels good!

On our second day in Zambia, we once again went to the falls.  You can also follow a trail above the falls for a view of the river before it drops off the cliff.  We went on an elephant back safari in the afternoon.  I rode Bob, the largest elephant of the herd, and Jubie rode a mommy elephant that had her little 2 year old elephant following behind her.  The baby elephant could only carry his trainer, but the larger elephants can carry three people!  Riding an elephant is surprisingly comfortable, more so than a horse or camel in my opinion!  We went out for about an hour and saw monkeys, wild elephants, and giraffe.  It was really fun to go on safari by elephant, I would recommend it to anyone, and remember to bring a hat!  Sadly I did not, and I also didn't drink enough water in all that heat - later in the evening I got sick and I'm not sure whether to blame it on motion sickness from the bumpy car ride, the dehydration, lack of sleep, heat, or the malaria pills!

On our last full day we decided to take it easy, since I was still feeling sick.  We chose to walk across the Zimbabwe border to view the falls from that side - a choice people working at our hotel told us was safe.  They were right, but it was still by far the bravest thing I have done!  I was so nervous I didn't have time to feel sick.  We had to pass through Zambia passport control, walk across a bridge (where men followed us trying to sell jewelry), go through Zimbabwe customs (Americans, pay $30!), and walk some more before getting to the park entrance ($20 for non-Zimbabwe residents).  The walk was definitely interesting - it was just alongside a road, but it was nothing like the safe, clean atmosphere of the hotel grounds!  Luckily nobody really bothered us and all the border guards were friendly (even though we were scared by one who grabbed his rifle before coming to talk to us).  The road we were walking by was barely paved and full of potholes, and there were as many people walking on both sides of the road as you would find on a crowded city street!  It was just a really different experience.

The Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls is longer than the Zambia side - while in Zambia you can view perhaps 25% of the falls, in Zimbabwe you get to see the other 75%!  The walkways there are also on flat land (unlike the Zambia side), though in sections you still get soaked by spray.  Needless to say, we thought the views were worth the journey!  The walk back was less scary once we knew what to expect, though we did have a panic moment at the Zimbabwe border fence where the guard kept asking us for some non-existant receipt for our visas.

We also took a river cruise that day, which was a fun chance to see the river up-close plus see the ever-present monkeys.  We saw lots of hippos and very far away glimpsed some rhinos - too bad there was no way I could get a picture!  The cruise staff was really friendly, everyone is very eager to talk and find out where you are from, what you do, what our life is like.  Zambians are very friendly and intelligent people, they speak more languages than Americans would ever hope to learn.  We are really glad we got to visit this country!