Day 89-90: Kazungula to Victoria Falls - Bike Bimble - CycleBlaze

December 30, 2024 to December 31, 2024

Day 89-90: Kazungula to Victoria Falls

This is an odd border – four countries meet at one point. Apparently, the only place on earth this occurs. This gives us a couple of options getting to Victoria Falls. The best view is from the Zimbabwe side of the falls, so we decided to try and take the forest road through Zimbabwe from Botswana, see the falls and then cross into Zambia.

The (drunk) campground manager in Kazungula tried to tell us the Zim forest is bristling with lions and all manner of perilous animals (also that we’d likely die by wild animal when walking around Kazungula after dark…). The Cairo to Cape Cycle Club WhatsApp group had more measured caution about the likely dangers – but it still sounded sketchy. What sealed it was the two French cyclists who we met who had ridden through the exact stretch of road the day before and mentioned seeing a few elephants and giraffes – and that’s it. And far fewer cars / trucks. Which is how we found it as well.

We went right
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Chamaeleon pretending to be the road
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Another uneventful, although slightly more expensive border crossing (for Australians the Zim visa on arrival is USD30 – of course you can pay by card). Haven’t seen so many warthogs running around a border post before though.

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Then a relatively quiet road – so quiet we could ride much of it next to each other. A bit of a change from riding single file for hours on end to give the trucks a smaller target.

More elephant. No giraffe or anything more exciting. Nice road for cycling too. Slightly undulating – which is also a change from the last 1200km of completely flat road.

Had reasonably clear skies in the afternoon, so straight to the falls to pay the eye-watering entrance fee (USD50 each, plus the visa fee to enter Zimbabwe) and then wandered around looking at lots of water falling. Apparently, it’s a drought and the falls have only a fraction of the normal flow, but it’s still impressive. There are pictures / videos on the internet to see it at full noise, but we had the benefit of the air being not completely full of water spray so we could see the cliffs and water.

(prepare for bombardment of Vic Falls photos...)

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Almost no water falling
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Glad we saw it. Lots of other tourists think it’s worth coming to see as well. We have only seen this tiny corner of the country, and a tourist town at that, but there’s a lot more to learn about Zim. The most obvious change was a substantial increase in price in most things compared to Botswana. We gathered the cost of living is a bit of a challenge for most ordinary Zimbabweans after having a chat with a few locals.

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Today's ride: 86 km (53 miles)
Total: 4,677 km (2,904 miles)

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Scott Anderson$50! Looks like you got your money’s worth but they really should give a discount to bikers who rode all the way up from the Cape to see it.
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2 weeks ago