Oct 21: Victoria Falls

The scenery seemed to change very early into our drive from the Lodge to Kruger Airport.  We climbed up and up through sub tropical hills of rich farmland.  Banana plantations, market gardens, vast plantations of avocado, macadamia even eucalyptus.  After 2 hours we arrived at the prettiest airport I've ever seen ... Shouldn't have packed the cameras away ... Thatched buildings designed to look like a game lodge.  

Our small plane, maybe seating 40, became airborn after only a short run off from the mountaintop.  There was a lot of turbulence to start with, but the One and a half hour flight to Livingston gave us some spectacular views.

We landed with our feet running metaphorically speaking.  The hotel, The Zambezi Sun, is only 5 minutes walk from Victoria Falls, so we dumped the bags in the rooms and headed straight out. 

Disappointing views.  After all the hype we expected to get soaked from the spray and deafened by thunderous noise of the falls.  But it's the end of The Dry isn't it!?  Best time of the year to go on safaris, but the Zambezi water levels are at their lowest of course!  Anyhow, we got some good photos and just had to use our imagination to visualise the might of the Falls at peak flow.

We needed another viewpoint while we were here.  We could cross the bridge to Zimbabwe, which has the best views we've been told.   (Look closely ... Someone has just done a bungee jump)

 But what a performance going through two border checkpoints, and paying US$35 for a visa into the country, then $30 to enter the park, then yet another $50 to re-enter Zambia (we had only just paid $50 at the airport for a single entry into Zambia).

It turns out it's cheaper to get a helicopter flight over the Falls!  So that's what we did!  Hadn't been in the country for more than a couple of hours and we find ourselves getting the best views possible from the air.  Fantastic!  It was Julie and Terry's first ever helicopter experience so they were doubly exhilarated.