Wednesday, 11 June 2025
As agreed last night, this morning we hit the road at 9.30am, riding for the last time in the trusty ISUZU truck, with less than 100 kilometres to the border between Botswana and Zimbabwe. As we drove through northern Botswana, Wian told us that we were surrounded by three other countries: Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He also told us that we had already left the Chobe River behind us, and now we were motoring alongside the mighty Zambezi River.
We arrived at the Botswanan immigration post where we disembarked, queued up at the counter and were duly stamped out of Botswana. We piled back into the bus for the (very) short drive across No Man’s Land and arrived just on 10.00am in our fourth country for the holiday, Zimbabwe. We stepped down from the truck to queue up at the Zimbabwean immigration post. There was a marked difference between the ‘offices’. In Botswana the border post was a substantial building with an air of permanence, in Zimbabwe, the immigration officers were working out of a structure that looked like little more than a shipping container.
Before we could proceed to immigration we had to line up at a shed for a health check. All of us had a temperature ‘gun’ pointed at our foreheads by a health official who was, apparently, screening us for monkey pox. At the immigration desk we had to fill in more paperwork and then pay USD30.00 (in cash) each to be stamped into the country.
We were surprised when a dot matrix printer clattered into life to print paperwork associated with our entry. Haven’t heard a dot matrix printer for … what? Decades?? A separate printer under the counter printed a QR code onto a sticky label that was stuck into our passports and the officer processing our entry counted our USD60.00 three times to make sure it was right?! Bernie told me that Wian had told him that until a couple of months ago, they didn’t have computers at the border, people entering and leaving the country were recorded in a ledger.
So, because we had plenty of time this morning, to allow for the bureaucratic process of crossing borders, we were done by about 10.15am! We had barely left the border post when an elephant crossed the road right in front of us. Nice to be welcomed into Zimbabwe with some wildlife.
By around a quarter past eleven we were arriving in Victoria Falls and being dropped off at the gorgeous Victoria Falls Hotel. Despite our rooms not being ready, we were taken to a conference room and welcomed to the hotel and briefed on the many facilities we can enjoy during our stay. After our briefing we headed out onto the Stanley Terrace where we were all excited by our first glimpse of the mesmerizing Victoria Falls, also known as
the ‘Smoke that Thunders’.
Our itinerary says that it is suggested to be the world’s biggest waterfall at 1.7-kilometres-wide and 110-metres-high. The noise of the falls can be heard from 40-kilometres away, while its spray and mist can be seen from 50-kilometres. The amount of spray lifting up into the air was incredible and the hotels lawn looks straight over to the falls and the Victoria Falls Bridge. Amazing!
Victoria Falls is located on the mighty Zambezi River, which forms the international border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. David Livingstone is believed to have been the first European to discover the waterfall in November 1855, and named it in honour of Queen Victoria. Its local name is Mosi-Oa-Tunya.
Now, about it being the world’s biggest. Measuring waterfalls is very subjective. Is it the height of the falls that makes it the biggest? Is it the width of the falls? Or, is it the volume of water that flows over the falls? What we do know is that we are ticking off the third of the so-called Big 3. We visited Niagara Falls in 1997, Iguazu Falls in 2016 and tomorrow we will venture right to the edge of our third BIG waterfall.
We retired to a lovely table on the Stanley Terrace and ordered our lunch while we looked out towards the falls and watched mongooses frolicking on the lawn. Wian reported to Bernie that the hotel has a hair salon and he could get a haircut for USD25.00. Since I usually clipper Bernie’s hair for nothing, he deemed that a bit pricey, just to be able to say that he had a haircut on the African continent. He has only started to really NEED a haircut during this final week and it has proved too difficult to organise it between time constraints and wild animals being between our accommodation and the town where there might be barbers. C’est la vie, it looks like I’ll be buzzing Bernie’s luxurious locks on Sunday some time after we arrive home, ha, ha.
Finally, at 2.00pm precisely, we were given the keys to our rooms. It was almost like they were determined not to give us a single extra minute in our rooms that we hadn’t paid for. We only had about an hour to settle into our rooms, before it was time to head out for a peaceful sunset cruise along the Zambezi River.
We met our boat driver on a traditionally styled boat based on the vessel that Livingstone used to explore the Zambezi River. Our boat driver, Trevor, welcomed us aboard and introduced us to his colleague, Kuda, who would be serving our drinks and finger food.
During our cruise we were treated to sightings of: a crocodile, open-billed storks, marabou storks, white-backed vultures and water thick-knees. We sailed to the widest point of the river, which is about 500-metres in width (it varies seasonally of course), where Trevor pointed out the islands that split the river into three channels, as it makes it final approach to the falls.
The islands are considered part of Zambia and it is the middle of the main channel, that runs closest to Zimbabwe, that denotes the border. He told us that traditionally one of the islands was used for the initiation ceremonies of young men and that the other is known as Love Island because weddings were celebrated there.
There were many boats on the river, small, traditionally-styles ones like ours, but we also saw modern boats and party boats and even one with a BBQ being cooked on board. The strangest (saddest?) sight though, was when we pulled alongside some elephants grazing in the shallows and there was a beautiful young thing on the party boat alongside us, all on her own in the stern of the boat (all the other passengers were on the side where the elephants were) making pouty faces at her smart phone. WTF? I mean, not even trying to get the elephants in the shot over her shoulder. It was all about her. I don’t get it.
Making our way back towards the dock, Trevor found us a couple of hippos, an ibis and another crocodile. And, this was our most substantial sundowner yet, with some delicious finger food (not just chips, nuts and biltong!) to enjoy with our beverages as we watched the sun go down on the second last day of our amazing holiday.
After our delicious sundowner food, we didn’t really feel like we needed a full meal for dinner, so we opted to have a lamb shawarma wrap and bowl of chips delivered to our room to share. And had a dessert of sweet biscuits that we have been toting around since Henties Bay waaay back on the coast of Namibia.
The internet was available in our room AND was a strong and reliable signal, so we spent the rest of the evening recording memories on our travelblog.
Steps: 6,113 (4.00kms)
