Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

We traveled from our camp by bus to Victoria Falls.  We first stopped by St. Mary's school for a visit with the headmistress and a fifth grade class.

Their Mission Statement
Students came out to greet us with songs.

 The Headmistress.
The 5th grade class we visited....

I visited with these 2 young boys..
...and Terry visited with 2 boys and a girl.
The school is supported in part by the Grand Circle Foundation, which is the parent company of Overseas Adventure Travel.


After our visit, we headed to the city of Victoria Falls, where we will be staying in a hotel for 2 nights.

Champion is always giving us "Learning and Discovery" moments.  Today we stopped by a carving center.  Saw the carvings from beginning stage to the end product and then had an opportunity to purchase items at prices better than the stores.



This gentleman carved this huge crocodile...
We made a small purchase from this man.
Next we stopped at this cultural center for a traditional African lunch.
 ...with entertainment




After checking into hotel Champion took us on a walk through the rain forest where we could see the falls.  The falls is actually on the Zambia side; the view of it and the rainforest is on the Zimbabwe side.

We saw the statue of David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary and explorer, who is believed to have been the first European to view Victoria Falls on November 16, 1855.  He named his discovery in honor of Queen Victoria of Great Britain.


And we had our group photo taken by the statue.
And then we saw it...
Victoria Falls is the largest curtain of water in the world based on its combined width and height....and one of the world's Seven Natural Wonders.  It is nearly twice as high as Niagara and about a mile wide.  At peak flood times, 1.4 billion gallons of water per minute pass over its edge.
 The African name of the falls is Mosi-oa Tunya, which means "the smoke that thunders".

We enjoyed walking the rainforest trail and stopping at lookout points...



...and we got wetter and wetter from the mist



Dan, Linda and us at Danger Point.  We had to be very careful out at this point as the rocks were really slippery and the mist was coming down on us like rain.

Seeing the falls from here was great, but you can't see the whole falls at any point.  So....tomorrow we will see the falls from high above, which is the best way to see the magnitude of the falls.

The next morning we did a microlight flight.
Our safety briefing...on a sign.
 Here I am boarding the microlight.
 And off I go....

A go-pro camera was attached to the wing, which took photos along the way...


And here is a photo of the falls without the microlight in it, the way we saw it...
It was amazing to see the falls from high above and feel like a bird flying through the air.
Terry did the same flight and we have a video of that ride.  We had a blast!

In the afternoon, we walked to the local market.  On the way we found some of our fellow travelers.

At the market we were bombarded by vendors the whole time.  They all have pretty much the same carvings, bowls, etc.  Terry bartered his walking shoes for a Big 5 Africa carving.  A nice souvenir for shoes he no longer wanted.   This is one place where bartering is appropriate, often expected.  American goods like T-shirts, sweatshirts, shoes, and baseball caps with designer logos can be good "currency" here.

That evening, we enjoyed our Farewell Dinner while cruising along the Zambezi River above the falls with our new friends from the trip....

...and our good friends, Dan and Linda.  It was so much fun to travel with them.

Back at the hotel after dinner, Champion arranged for a young lady named Noreen to visit with just the ladies in our group.  She talked about being a female growing up in Africa, and also about the practice of polygamy.  From many a woman's point of view, it is not the ideal marriage arrangement that Mufuka told us.  There can be a lot of resentment between the women and not a happy life.

The next morning we had to pack and check out of the hotel.  But first we had a very interesting "Learning and Discovery" lesson on the life of David Livingstone, by an author of a book on Dr. Livingstone.

Then we headed to the airport for a flight to Johannesburg.  After arriving there, it was time to say goodbye to all our fellow travelers and board the international flight to return home via Atlanta.

The blog on this Ultimate Africa adventure ended up much longer than I had anticipated.  It is hard to put into words exactly how exciting and wonderful this trip was.  Every day and every camp was a wonderful and varied experience.

It was also hard to select photos from the 3000 that we had taken on this trip....believe me what you have seen are just a few of the many I had to choose from.

If you stayed with me through all the postings, thank you.  I do this blog for Terry and I so that we can look back and remember the wonderful experiences we had on our many travels, and I know we have friends who travel along with us vicariously through the blog.

Our next big adventure will be coming up in early 2018 when we travel with OAT again to Patagonia in South America.....so stay tuned!



3 comments:

  1. Amazing blig, Mom! Africa is officially on our bucket list. You saw so many incredible creatures. I am sure it was an adventure of a lifetime!

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  2. I loved the blog and enjoyed every picture and word written, thanks for sharing now we want to go back. terry you put poop in your mouth:(

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  3. Wow! Are you going to be able to top this trip. Your blog and pictures were amazing. Enjoyed reading it so much.

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