We woke up early Wednesday morning to get to Chobe and begin looking for animals. There was no queue at the park gate, and soon enough we were in (with no map). Our early wake up was wasted however, and it soon became obvious we would not be seeing all that much. With trying to spot animals its all about luck and about being in the right place at the right time. We had no such thing.
For the rest of the morning we spotted a few giraffe, some monkeys, kudu, lots of impala and lots of safari vehicles filled with tourists. It was a bit disappointing, especially as I had been building Chobe up and expecting it to be as good as Kruger. I guess it just wasn’t our day.
In the afternoon we headed back to our accommodation in Kasane to meet a man who was going to help us get through to Zimbabwe the following day. For Zim we would both need to buy visas for $30usd each, and pay $105usd to bring the car in – third party insurance, a car fee and, wait for it, a carbon tax. I couldn’t help but laugh at the last one, a $15usd carbon tax for all foreign vehicles entering Zimbabwe??
The man never showed up however and we waited around 1.5 hours before deciding that we would just attempt to get through by ourselves the following day. How difficult could it be?
The rest of the afternoon was spent back out at Chobe, where we saw a large herd of buffalo, some ostriches, a lone zebra and a lone elephant. The driving was nice, albeit bumpy - the roads in Chobe are difficult and definitely need a 4x4 to access some of the more sandier bits. As the day ended we headed back to Kasane for dinner before going to bed and getting ready for another border crossing the following day.
(One of the monkeys that stole my breakfast...)
Victoria Falls is a about 87km from Kasane, and we had been told to allow 1.5 hours for the border crossing depending on queues, so we packed up and left early that morning (not before a cheeky monkey stole the mango I was going to eat for breakfast!). Because we had pre-booked a helicopter trip for that afternoon, we needed to make sure we could get into the country, so we wouldn't miss it! Stamping out of Botswana was easy (always the easiest bit about borders), and we drove to the chaotic Zimbabwe side where trucks were parked everywhere.
As we walked in we were met with a “hello George?”. It turns out that although we hadn’t met with the guy the day before to sort out our visa things, he has still made arrangements for us to get through the border. This man seemed to take care of getting the car into Zimbabwe, while we bought our visas. We had a bit of a shortage of USD, but you are able to pay in Pula (and Rand) for the visa and car. We were very lucky because as as soon as we had handed our passports in, a massive group of tourists in a bus had just arrived and begun a very long queue.
Our passports were returned to us with our new Zimbabwe visas and soon enough we were able to drive off into my 15th country. The drive from the border post went through the Zambezi National Park and we managed to spot an elephant, amongst other animals, on the side of the road as we drove through. However, it wasn’t long before we had reached the Victoria Falls Town and made it to the Victoria Falls Rest Camp. My dad and I each had a chalet to ourselves for the night, although still shared bathrooms, and it was the first accomodation in a while where we had properly decent internet.
As we were checking in I enquired about bungee jumping off of Victoria Falls. Having gone sky diving a few months ago it seemed like a good time to try out bungee jumping?? It’s something I had wanted to do at some point in my life, and this seemed like as good as time as any. We had a helicopter trip booked for the afternoon so I thought I would consider it after that.
Just after we had hopped back in the car to the drive and have a look around, a man came up to the car and asked who wanted to bungee jump. He was the bookings officer and had a group leaving at 10am to go to the Falls for a jump. It was 9:50am ... I ummed, and ahhhed, if I didn’t do it now, the next free transport would be at 2pm which clashed with our helicopter flight. So I decided why not, (?!) and quickly put some contact lenses, proper shoes and paid $160usd to bungee jump 111 meters. It was now or never basically.
After a lot of rushing around, my dad and I were on a bus headed to Victoria Falls with two other guys from the rest place. Although the driver offered my father a free jump, he was just there to accompany me. The jump takes place on the bridge connecting Zimbabwe and Zambia, so we had to bring our passports. Although we leave Zimbabwe, we didn’t get our passports stamped as we don’t leave the bridge and cross to the Zambia side. I’m not sure if it counts as being in Zambia, but you could sort of say that that we were briefly in Zambia….
As soon as we got off the bus we were greeted by touts asking us if we were doing the bungee, giving us (myself and the two other guys doing it) plenty of good lucks and “I’ll be watching you”, as well as a lot of hi-fives. It was quite funny actually to have all these random strangers start wishing us well. I entered the building, signed some forms (which as soon as I did, meant I couldn’t back out and get my money back) and then was directed back outside where I was put in a harness.
As we left the building the touts were back outside, continuing to wish me well, saying how they had done it a few times before, and how once I survive I should come and and have a look at his shop. I couldn’t think about buying things at the moment though, I had to jump! (My dad, who accompanying me, was not good at fending off these guys, (and is a bit of an easy target in that he seems to always engage in a conversation with these guys) ending up buying somethings however… Vic Falls also has some of the most aggressive touts I’ve seen so far).
Before I jumped there were several people doing the ‘gorge swing’ and as soon as I saw them step off the bridge I couldn’t help but scream … I would be jumping off this very soon! There was only one guy in front of me for the bungee jump, and as soon as he jumped I was ushered onto the bridge and strapped in. Several towels were wrapped around my legs and I could only hope that everything was secure and right. They helped me stand up, and I soon had my toes hanging off the edge of the bridge.
With several men stood behind me holding up my arms and counting down from five, I could do nothing but jump when they reached one. In reality I think I kind of just fell of the bridge, I’m not very good at jumping. All I remember is screaming a lot and falling down arms first, mainly because of gravity, but also because the Australian woman whose bungee cord snapped survived because her hands hit the water first and not her head.
I was relieved when I bounced back up, but as soon as I was free falling again I was screaming again. This happened the next few times [the screaming] and within a few seconds I was just hanging upside down. This was the scariest bit, hanging a few meters from the Zambezi and wondering if the rope was going to be able to hold me. Luckily a man showed up quite quickly to winch me up, “you know how to scream don’t you?”.
We made our way back up to the bridge, and I placed on the metal framing a few meters below the bridge itself, where I then had to climb a ladder and walk back to the Zimbabwe side. I was a bit shaky, and walking along the below the bridge by myself (although I was attached to it still), was a bit scary. My dad was there waiting as I climbed out and it was over! My first time bungee jumping.
The video showed that I was not quite as graceful as I was hoped, and I basically spent the whole time twisting and turning in circles, I’m pretty sure because I didn’t jump out quite far enough and basically fell down. Oh well, it was pretty fun, and if I had a spare $160usd, I would have done it again.
After the bungee jump we went back over the Zimbabwe side of Vic Falls, had a quick bit to eat, took a motion sickness pill, and went to get picked up for our helicopter flight over Vic Falls. We were doing the 25minutes Zambezi Spectacular where we would fly over Vic Falls and then over a national park to see some animals.
We were with two other men (from Australia incidentally) and I got the front seat of the helicopter, as I was one of the lightest, to keep the balance, which I couldn’t complain about. Our pilot was female and soon enough we were off - my (and my father’s) first helicopter ride! He unfortunately had the middle seat of the helicopter, but his view was still pretty good. I had seen Victoria Falls once three years ago from the Zambia side, but seeing it from the air was quite special, and really gives you an idea of how large the falls are. “The smoke that thunders”, as the mist and spray from the falls is so big. We managed to spot a few zebras, elephants and giraffes from the air as well, which was pretty cool.
Although it was nice, I was glad the flight ended when it did, because the turning and moving about in general was making me feel a bit sick. I had taken a motion sickness pill, but was still feeling a bit uneasy and a bit off when we reached the ground. After getting back to our accommodation I had a bit of a rest, before we drove back to Victoria Falls to see them for the third time that day.
It was not long after 3pm so we still had quite a bit of day. Entry into Victoria Falls was $30usd per person, a bit pricy, but was worth it. When I saw them in Zambia it was only a small portion of the falls, this time however we got to walk along a path that was around a 1km long. As we went further along the path the spray and mist got heavier (presumably because we were getting closer to the falls), and by the end we were completely saturated, as if we had walked outside into a storm.
I hadn’t seen the rainbows last time so this was nice, and it was a nice afternoon at Victoria Falls. We left cold and wet, and after a bit of souvenir shopping, we headed back to the rest camp for a warm shower, dinner and bed. It was a busy day getting to Zimbabwe and being here for a day, but definitely fun and worth it for Victoria Falls.
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