March 25

Our trip almost ended before it began. The fog in Edmonton on Saturday morning grounded all the flights. Our flight got postponed and initially would have us missing our flight to Amsterdam. Because it was also spring break, all flights out were overbooked, and we would either have a two-day delay in getting out of Edmonton or pay $6000 each for the rebooked flights. However, at the last minute, WestJet pulled a rabbit out of a hat and got us to Calgary with little time to spare. The rest of the journey was uneventful.  8 hours of flying got us to Amsterdam. We had enough time for a quick latte, and we were off on our 11.5-hour flight to Johannesburg. My seatmates were delightful. One was an environmental activist who shared about the changing environment in South Africa and the other was a retired medical social worker who was a dual citizen of both the US and South Africa. We know about her citizenship because she misplaced her passports in the myriad of bags and coats she carried, and things were a little stressed until she found everything. She was a chatty character who had come with too much stuff, including a frying pan!

We spent the night at a hotel near the airport in Johannesburg and almost missed our flight because of the way the waiting room worked. We were sitting by our gate, our flight with lots of time to spare, or so we thought. There were no helpful announcements, just some guy yelling “Livingstone”. I thought to ask, and he informed me that there was a bus waiting to take us to our plane. We got on the bus and it left quite quickly afterwards. From then on, we were fine.

Arrival in Livingstone Zambia was interesting.  The landscape is flat with lots of scraggly bush, it reminds me of the prairies in many ways. In the distance we could see what looked like smoke on the horizon. It was the mist from Victoria Falls. We landed and stood in line for an hour to get a visa that would allow us to travel to Zimbabwe and Botswana should we choose. Then our cab driver, Ali took us into town. This community was much more European (read lots of strip malls on the main road) than Tanzania. We reached our hotel, which is in a protected park. The families of giraffe and zebra we passed as we entered the grounds ignored us. these guys greeted us with song and dance. After settling in, we set out to explore. The first thing we noticed was that our building was next to a small lake with a beware of crocodile sign by the path. A small herd of zebra were eating the well-watered grass on either side of the path we had to walk on. They were amazingly calm and beautiful close up. They reminded me of the Elk in Jasper hanging out in the townsite.

We booked all our adventures for the week and decided to take a walk to the falls. Our hotel allows us unlimited access to the park the falls are in. So, we set out. We started to follow the sign “this way to the best view of the falls” and chose to postpone taking the hike down to the basin where the rivers meet (10-minute hike down, according to the sign, 20 minutes back up). A young man stopped us and asked us if we were going to the falls. He said the gate guide noticed we were going the wrong way. We thanked him for getting us on the right path and expected him to leave us on our corrected way. However, Elvis, as he later introduced himself, was from the village and decided to become our tour guide to the falls. We realized after he continued to walk with us that this was his job, informal guide for tips. We have always loved local guided tours, so we went with the plan. He was great! He was able to share a lot of details about the geology of the falls and the meaning of the falls to the local communities.

The falls are 1.7 kilometers wide. Despite this being the time of year when the falls should be at their peak, the drought conditions were evident. We should not have been able to see the rocks at all but, as he pointed out, the rainy season hadn’t come as far inland as it needed to. The falls were breathtaking. We had been warned about the mist and the desk gave us plastic ponchos. I had left my camera in the hotel to be on the safe side. I was glad I had! The “mist” was like walking through a warm rain. We got soaked. Elvis was great at taking panorama pictures on iPhones and so, gave us free photography lessons too. As you can see from the pictures, the falls were amazing. The rainbows were circular at some points. We thought lovingly about my sisters (because they love heights sooo much!) as we walked across the Knife Edge bridge over the river.  The bridge was slimy from moss thriving in the misty conditions and bouncy as we walked over the gorge. The view of the falls changed with every turn of the path. Elvis told us we just missed the full moon over the falls and the ceremonies that occurred. He spoke of about Nyami Nyami, the spirit of the river. The spirit is usually seen as a snake and is considered a God by the local people and controls life in and around the river. The building of a hydroelectric dam in the 1960’s changed the way of life for the Zambian communities who had always lived close to the river. Elvis described some of the changes that had occurred.

Our journey to the falls took more than an hour and we were ready for refreshments. A live band was playing by the pool and we relaxed while we had supper. The Zebras joined us. I am writing this at 3:30 am here because jet lag is real! I tried writing this earlier this evening but kept falling asleep at the keyboard. We went to bed early because our safari to Botswana leaves bright and early tomorrow morning. I had a good three hours sleep before my brain decided it was time to be awake (its 7:30 pm back home). I am now going to try to get another nap in before morning.