Victoria Falls: Zambia side

October 24, 2015

"Come into my shop, looking is free. Special price for Independence Day" said over and over as we walk past the curio shops outside the entrance to Victoria Falls, Zambia.

Today marks the 51st anniversary to Zambia's independence. Rachel has a world globe from elementary school days that shows when the country was named Rhodesia. There was a parade a few blocks away from the hostel. Shops are closed today. We took the free shuttle to the Mosi OA Tunya National Park, Victoria Falls, paid a $20pp entrance fee and walked along the rim of the canyon. The canyon walls are impressive. In 1994 along this side, we couldn't see the canyon because of the water spray. This is the end of the dry season and a drought, in addition to water being diverted to a power station, so the Zambia side of the falls doesn't have much water flowing.

Patrick takes a look at the wood carvings in the curio shops near the falls. He negotiates for several carvings, and a warthog carving for Rachel. We will see how long these souvenirs will need to be carried before mailing them home.

A taxi ride the 11kms from the Falls to Livingstone takes a bit of a wait. A shared ride is cheaper, but also means waiting until there are four passengers. We are dropped off near an Italian Restaurant that is supposed to have excellent pizza. And the pizza was excellent! On the way back to the hostel, we stopped for Italian ice cream!

In the evening we go to the hostel restaurant and watch the semi final rugby game between South Africa and New Zealand. A brishish guy next to us explains some of the rules. Americans miss out on not following rugby, it's a very interesting game to watch! The New Zealand All Blacks won, with cheers from some of the other backpackers watching the game.

Tomorrow we move on to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. We will arrange to take the overnight train to Bulawayo. The reverse of 1994.

Mural at our hostel. Very nice place but pricey, probably because of the very good write-up they received in Lonely Planet. A recurring theme....

Victoria Falls. Even though the flows are very low this time of year it is still an impressive sight to see.

At higher flows the whole canyonwall to our right is part of the waterfall. Now, at the end of the dry season only a small section on the Zimbabwe side has serious water falling.

Picture from 1994 when we rode our bikes to the Zambia side of the falls.

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