Vic Falls - day 5 Sling Africa Tour 2014

The Victoria Falls are spectacular and we saw them in the wet season which means that flying there was more tricky with clouds and rain, but the water level was high and the water thundered over the Falls sending a spray cloud up to over 1 600 ft into the air.

Our view of the 1,7km stretch of the Falls along the trail on the Zimbabwe side was amazing..

Incredible rainbows everywhere in the afternoon sun. The second rainbow is actually a mirror image/reflection of the brighter one against the mist and spray.

We all got totally soaked through shortly after this as we entered the spray zone from the Falls

James and I were ignoring the "Don't climb on the statue" signs because we wanted to be up there with Dr David Livingstone whose epic adventures in Africa first brought the wonder of the Falls to Europeans.

In some parts the spray was like a heavy rainshower and although we put our passports in plastic bags we were totally drenched and burning in the sun at the same time.

At the end of the 1,7km rainforest trail along the Falls you come across the Victoria Falls Bridge which divides Zimbabwe from Zambia. The bridge was opened in 1905.

In Victoria Falls on the 17th March - it was St Patrick's Day so we decided to sport our best green shirts for the occasion... not that there was any evidence of a St Paddy's day party anywhere, so we made our own.. cocktails on the veranda of the famous and exquisite colonial hotel.  In the photo are Cornel, Cobus, Marc, Llewellyn and myself.

The Falls Bridge forms the backdrop for the Hotel

The Victoria Falls Hotel

The view of the bridge from the front lawns of the hotel

Pretty decent long island iced tea with scones, jam and cream and cake selection

After cocktails we did the bridge walk to find out what was involved in getting to the Zambia side. We exited Zimbabwe and got drenched from the spray heading towards the bridge and then turned back as the restaurant in no-man's land in the middle was closed. We decided to adventure further on our last day.

The sun goes down on our first night in Zimbabwe as we stand on the bridge before returning to our hotel for dinner

Hitching a ride with the locals

Taxis were big business in Victoria Falls as the heat of the day dissuaded most people from walking too far. A taxi ride was seldom less than USD$5 - 10, which we shared or had to hire 2 taxis until we discovered a 6-seater taxi we used more frequently afterwards. Here we hitched a ride back to our hotel (also costing USD5$ mind you!)

The currency in Zimbabwe is the US Dollar since the collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar a few years back. Street vendors still sell the old notes and I bought a few that go into Trillions of Dollars. Life must have been impossible then with food scare and inflation rampant.