Tour contin. Days 12-14 Victoria Falls!

And so on we went to one of the seven wonders of the world: crossing the Botswana/Zimbabwe border and on to the slightly tourist-y yet charming town of Victoria Falls! Before we reached the border we had a rather crazy moment. The Botswana police asked our driver to pull the car over to the side of the road to just check out papers (they often have these). Suddenly our driver put his foot down and we were off, only just able to hear the police shout after us as soon we were a cloud of dust! He drove, at what felt like, 100mph for the next few minutes until he reached the next town. We were all very confused but it was then that we found out our papers had expired in February! The police did not bother to follow us which I guess was a good thing but it would be pretty fun to say I have been involved in a car chase!

We had two full days (day 13 and 14) in Victoria Falls and so this meant we were able to fully explore the town, the Falls and take part in the extra activities (and also relax by the pool at the lodge!). One of the best parts was also the fact it wasn't camping, we had actual beds! AND A PILLOW ( for the first time in about 12 days!)

In terms of activities I did the Lion Walk and Elephant safari on day 13. For this I was picked up at 6am and taken to the place for the lion walk. This is a re-development programme where the lion cubs are brought up being able to interact with humans. Then, when they are too old, they are put back into a managed wild environment where they are able to get back their wild instincts where they have to hunt for their food etc. Then the cubs these lions produce (which have had no human contact) are put back into the actual wild. So we got to sit and stroke the lions and then walk with them for about  45minutes. After seeing these animals in the wild I was a little bit wary but it was a great experience and when I was stroking them I couldn't help liken them to a house cat due to their soft coat! This was until one bared their teeth at me slightly, reminding me that they of course were not!

The Elephant safari in late afternoon was one of the highlights of the tour. Elephants are by far my favourite animal so this was really special. When we first met the elephants, we were on an elevated platform at their eye level and so got to get very close and stroke their trunk (which feels extremely rough!) Then we had an hours long ride on an elephant in the bush even seeing some giraffes and buffalo (this was the first time I was not wary/scared of the buffalo because I was high up on a very large elephant!) We had a really great guide who told us an awful lot about elephants, most of which I cannot remember! One fact I do remember is that elephants have 6 sets of teeth in their lifetime and when their last fall out it sort of sentences them to death as they can no longer chew their food so they starve to death. Pretty sad really! We also got to feed our elephant after the walk which was great-you could either throw it in his mouth or say 'trunk down' then put your hand out flat and he sucked it up like a hoover!

The next day me and the other girls on the tour went to visit the Falls. I cant even really begin to describe how big, loud and wet it is! Its not even possible to get round your head how much water is going over every second. Some of the water that hits the bottom of the gorge then comes back up and falls on you so when you are near the main part you are walking through torrential rain yet the sky is bright blue! Its all very surreal. It's so pretty as well with lots of rainbows and because of all the rain it has its own eco-climate, almost like a rainforest. After this we had lunch and then went out the park and walked to the bridge which links Zimbabwe and Zambia together (I can now officially say I have been in Zambia!). We then proceeded to watch one of the girls on our tour-Malene, do the bungee jump off the bridge. She still chose to do it even though we found out that two months ago it snapped and the girl managed to swim to the edge of the river...

That evening the whole of our tour group and our guide Ed went to this, albeit slightly tourist-y, but very fun restaurent called The Boma. Upon entering you get dressed in 'traditional African robes' and get your face painted in traditional tribal patterns. It was a buffet  and included many traditional delicacies to try. One of which was the mopani worm. These are normally either baked or fried and covered in salt and are about 2 inches long (and they don't taste too bad!) As well as the worm I tried kudu, warthog and buffalo meat. After the food there was a drumming session and then a spot of dancing after. Finally it ended with the waitors singing to you. It was a very good end to a great few days in Victoria Falls.

Lion Walk!

 

Elephant Safari!

With my 'Congratulations you have eaten a Mopani worm' certificate!