Victoria Falls and Safari - Zimbabwe Peace Boat 116

Mainly photos

Zimbabwe

We took a 6:00am flight  from Cape Town to Johannesburg (8:00am) and then from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls, arriving in the afternoon. <<I was already excited to see the mist of the falls from the plane>>

Three tour guides and the vans were already waiting for us at the airport. One of the tour guide was a young lady from China, and the other two were local who speak fluent Chinese <<The tour is a Chinese language tour>> 

Victoria Falls National Park

Victoria Falls is situated on the Zambesi River, at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is one of the largest waterfalls in the world with a width of 1708m and a height of 108m.

There is a well marked walking path with multiple viewpoints. The waterfalls has serverl sections: Devil's Cataract, Main Falls, Horseshoe Falls, Rainbow Falls and Eastern Cataract.

Victoria Falls is also called "Boiling Water", it could be seen from the first viewpoint with much mist and gushing of the water from the falls.

I was truly impressed by the sight of the main fall. It is the largest sheet of falling water based on its width.

Rainbows straddled across from the falls to the viewing points.

The sounds of water gushing from the top and crashing to the bottom got louder and it seemed that it has also started drizzling. Then, I quickly realised that the weather was still sunny and 'drizzle' came from the fall's water spray. I remembered that another name for the fall is "Thundering Smoke".😍.

The 'drizzles' got bigger, and I quickly put on the raincoat given by the tour guide. The spray typically reaches a height of over 400m and is visible from 50km away. As I got nearer to the edge, I was drenched by the "Inverted rain", the spray that shoots upwards!

A huge rainbow stretched across the the falls, and I could quite literally walked through it. <<Probably that's how the name rainbow falls came about?>>

Although I was wet by the 'rain', I really enjoyed this unique experience.

The view of the bridge that crossed to Zambia came into view, and the walking path also ended. I walked back to the entrance, immensely glad that I came to the falls. 😊

<<Victoria Falls is great! I'm glad that I changed my mind and booked the tour whlist on the boat>>

Zambezi National Park

The park is located upstream from the Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River. The game-viewer-vehicle picked us up from the hotel, and we arrived at the park early in the morning.

We saw a herd of Impala, a medium-sized antelope. They can reach a height of 70-92cm at the shoulder and a weight of 40-76kg.

The zebras at the park are usually Plains zebras, with habitat of treeless grassland and savanna grassland. They are highly social species, forming harems with a single male. 

African elephants comprise of two living elephants species, the African bush elephant and the smaller African forest elephant. We encountered the African forest elephant (I think? 😶).

The vehicle drove along the road looking out for more wildlife, and then we stopped for a break by the river. Simple snack and drink was provided. 

We also saw monkeys, turtles and a buffalo's skull.

We continued looking out for more wildlife, especially for giraffe <<Sadly, we did not encounter any 😔>>.

The weather was very hot <not really to my liking - 😬> but the safari was indeed an interesting experience. 

Zambezi River Safari

The river is the fourth-longest in Africa, and the longest east-flowing river with the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean. The river is broad, shallow and flow slowly but as it flows toward the border (Zambia and Zimbabwe), it reaches a chasm where the Victoria Falls plunge.

We arrived by the river side in the late afternoon to have our river safari, especially to view the Hippopotamus. There was snacks and free flow of liquor on the boat. 

Hippopotamus is classified as megaherbivore and can weigh about 1365-1480kb. Although chubby-looking, hippos have little fat. The eyes, eats and nostils are high on their skull, and these enable them to remain above the surface while the body is submerged. 😊

The hippo can open its mouth at almost 180 degree. One of them did it and I was very pleased to take a photo of it. 😊😊😊.

We also caught sight of an elephant by the river bank, interesting river boats, and different type of birds on the river. 

As the sun set, the river and the landscape turned a spectacular shades of golden hue. 

The beautiful panorama was well-worth the trip to come here. 

Others

Big Tree (Baobab tree) Visit

The Big Tree is a unusally large baobab tree measuring 22.4m in girth and 24 metre tall. The tree is possibly one of the oldest and biggest baobab in the world.

Souvenir market/store

There are stalls set-up outside the Victoria Falls National Park, and also near the Big Tree vicinity.

There is a craft market selling different types of souvenirs. 

The Pioneer Lodge 

The compound and hotel are comfortable and clean. 

Victoria Falls Hotel

We had our lunch at Victoria Falls hotel, and we came across wild boars and banded mongooses on its ground.

Departure from Zimbabwe

After we cleared immigration and waiting to board our flight, we were ordered to exit the airport. We realised that all the passengers and staff were also "evacuated" from the airport. 

There was no information forthcoming about what happened as all of us waited under the sweltering african heat. After about three hours, suddenly we were allowed to re-enter the airport. People rushed in to clear immigration and to board their flight. 

We boarded the Kenyan Airway flight for Cape Town. We got the news that the airport was evacuated because of a bomb threat. By the time we arrived in Cape Town, we had missed the flight for Port Elizabeth to board our boat....

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