Robert and I are now alone as we make our way to Zambia! It’s been so wonderful but it’s hard too…We are both fully aware that we have only 2 1/2 days left to go. We start off with very little cash (kind of like when we first got married…hmm, full circle:). Barely enough money to pay the visa fee to Zambia. We will be transported four times before we get to the hotel. Someone picks us up at the lodge and then takes us to the airport where someone else picks us up to take us to the Zambian Border. They never leave us until we are secure with the next transportation which is nice because we have absolutely no idea what we are doing:) I ask the 2nd driver if she would mind taking us to an ATM so we could get cash. The visa fee (or extortion fee as I like to call it;) is $50 US per person plus tips etc. Our transportation had already been paid. The funny thing is that they won’t accept Zambian or Botswana money, only US dollars so I then have to go to the bank to exchange the ATM Botswana money I just got for US dollars…I just thought that was so weird. Anyway next stop is a little boat at the border. Right before we get there, we stop and get our exit stamp from Botswana. Next ride is a tiny boat that we throw our luggage on to travel across the river…this little boat takes less than 10 minutes and bam, we’re in Zambia! The van picks us up and drives a few feet then stops. The vendors are still following from when we docked the boat and I stay in the van while Robert goes inside with our new driver (this is driver #4:) The vendors stare into the window and beg me to buy stuff…I pretend like I’m reading and am deaf:) I know, I’m so mean now. Anyway Robert and driver #4 returns and we drive the hour into Livingstone and finally reach our very nice hotel that is about a 5 minute walk from the Falls.
The falls are incredible! Victoria Falls is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. It’s easy to understand why when you are in front of them. The beauty and power of these falls is apparent. Almost a little scary (fear of heights:). As we first caught a brief glimpse, we thought they were beautiful but then we kept walking and realized we hadn’t even scratched the surface. Luckily I had my pancho and Robert had his all weather jacket because in no time you get soaking wet. The falls go on and on and on. The water sprays up on the other side and it’s quite a sight. The spray is where they get the saying, “Smoke that Thunders.” Rainbows seem to magically appear. One minute you see all the falls and then a whole section is covered in mist and fog as if it has magically disappeared. Really stunning! The other really great thing was that Devil’s pool was closed due to high water:) For those that have not heard of it, it is a pool that sits atop the falls and you can only go in with a guide and they tie your feet. You can go right to the edge…YIKES! I’m so glad it was closed because of course I would have had to do it and it would have scared me to death…next time Warren:) They also have a statue of Dr. Livingstone. He first saw the falls on November 16th (my little sister’s birthday:) in 1857 (a hundred years before I was born)…yeah, I know who cares:) Steph and I…that’s who and Dr. Livingstone I presume:) After seeing the falls he wrote, “No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.” Bet y’all wish I could write like that:)
The hotel we’re staying at is really nice with a humungous swimming pool and large lawn etc. The coolest part is that zebras graze on the lawn at all hours of the day, supposedly giraffes too, though we never saw them there. And of course we can’t forget about the monkeys:) The day we were leaving I got to see my first live albino monkey. I kept showing the photos to people to make sure that’s what it was. One guy told us he had lived there his whole 28 years and had only seen two albino monkey’s. Of course this thrilled me. We made lots of friends at the hotel. It was fairly deserted…they told us next week it would be packed….but we had a lot of the place to ourselves and they treated us great. One of the people we met worked at the restaurant where we ate breakfast each morning. Her name was Memory and she was beautiful. We got to chat with her each day and the last day we took photos with her. So far in Africa we have met someone named Remember and now Memory. Each with an interesting story related to their names. The other thing Robert and I loved about the Zambians was the way they said, “Yeessss.” They drew the word out and went down at the end of the word and would draw out the s for a long time. They were just lovely people.
We just kind of hung out and enjoyed each other’s company while we had it:( So our last morning we make our way to the Livingstone airport to get to Johannesburg to catch our separate flights…we spent the day together and parted ways about 6:30pm…Extremely hard, extremely sad…but we are making it work:) Robert is back home and I’m in Kenya now…missing him a lot.
From Zambia, home of the famous Victoria Falls…Make your own thunder!
You are so right. I do care! You, me and Livingstone. It sounds beautiful. AND another , different monkey to add to your list.