Quotes

After breakfast we headed off on the Trans Kalahari Highway toward the border between Namibia and Botswana. The road from Windhoek to Gobabis was straight as if drawn with a ruler. The landscape is almost completely flat, small mountains can be seen in the distance. The colors of the countryside are mostly brown, beige, and grey. Shrubs, bushes and small trees.

Wild animals, such as warthogs, and monkeys cross the highway, or roam around on the side. There are fences on the side of the highway, at home that would be so the wild animals would not be able to get onto the road. Here the animals are mostly on the side of the fence where the highway is. There are also numerous farm animals; horses, cows, goats, donkeys.

Before arriving at Buitepos, and the border crossing at Mohembo, we stopped in Gobabis. We wanted to stock up on plenty of water and some snacks for the journey. For lunch, to make it quick, we just got some pepper beef pies at Shop-Rite.

There weren’t many people crossing the border at the time we were there. We filled out our forms and was stamped out of Namibia, then drove through a short no man’s land. On the Botswana side we had to fill out another form. They checked our passports and Alex’s birth certificate. Then we had to sign the car into a ledger, go to another till and pay road tax. After that we were good to go.

The landscape on the Botswana side was pretty similar. A bit more green, and some trees are a bit larger, and a few more in numbers. Still animals on the road. Apart from the ones mentioned above we saw an ostrich family, two adults and two little ones. I wouldn’t say there were rolling hills, but there was a slight change in the road, and also some small curves.

It took us a little short of 7,5 hrs to get to our lodge in Ghanzi. Just over 550 km. The highway is fairly good, two lanes (one in each direction), and not much traffic. Speed limit outside towns is 120 km/h.

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The flight from Victoria Falls to Windhoek only took 1 hr 20 min. Immigration was painless. Just passports, and a check of Alexander’s birth certificate. Anna entered her 70th country.

Picked up our rental car, and all necessary documents.

About one hour after landing we were checked in to our accommodation for the night.

(16 June)

This morning we head off for Botswana after breakfast. We have a five hour drive (according to google, probably more) ahead of us. Plus time for a border crossing.

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Our flight was scheduled to depart at 16.30. We received a message (quite a while ago) that it was delayed until 18.30. When we arrived at the airport a little after 15, the check-in was just opening. The information board still says 16.30. The guy at the counter told us the flight would leave at 19.30. A girl in a shop told us the past two weeks the flight to and from Windhoek has arrived and departed a bit randomly. Today, maybe 19.30, maybe 21.30. No one knows. Maybe tomorrow it will be back on schedule. Maybe…

It’s a modern, pretty small airport. Some souvenir shops, a restaurant, and a coffee shop. The coffee shop said they would be open until our flight left. The waitress was kind enough to find out information, since none was to be found.

We finally taxied out at 18.10 (!) and took of five minutes later.

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(June 14-15)

Victoria Falls town was built around tourism, thus it is more touristy than Livingstone. The population in Livingstone is about 110 000, Victoria Falls is said to have a population of about 35 000 (numbers according to what we found on google).

The town of Victoria Falls has a bit more of town feel. It’s easily walkable, and has lots of little shops, cafés, and restaurants.

On Friday we decided to go for a bit of a touristy lunch. We went to a restaurant run by a lady from Barcelona. They specialized in local game meat. We tried giraffe ribs (only one rib!), and impala meatballs (@Adam). Both very good. The giraffe tastes a bit like beef, it was very tender. Alex went for a safe bet, beef burger, but actually liked the giraffe better. Local musical entertainment from a place across the walkway.

After visiting the falls I wanted my afternoon coffee. We walked to the Elephant’s walk, a small shopping center, but the coffee shop was closed. Instead we tried a restaurant. There had been a power cut, and the coffee machine had not been warmed up yet, so we had to opt for cocktails instead. Tough!

At the place we’re staying we saw Rotary flags, asked the chef at the guesthouse about it. He said they meet there randomly (?), the owner is Rotarian, but we have not seen him.

We had dinner at the lodge. After dinner the chef told us there is was a small bonfire outside. It was nice to look into the fire, a cup of tea in hand. Or, in Alex’s case, an iPhone.

There are 55 women from Namibia staying here, they all work for the same company all over Namibia. They warned us yesterday they would be noisy all night. Wasn’t too bad. Though one got lost, and knocked on our window in the night. Maybe more of a shock for her to see Jan (LOL), she waited for us to apologize in the morning. This morning (Saturday) we had to wait our turn for all of them to be shuttled into town, before we could go. That meant we had to relax on our terrace past check out. We live a hard life here.

We have been strolling around town, popping into the little shops, and had a very nice lunch at 🐵🙈🙉, and the first really good coffee (@Ida).

In Zimbabwe it is against the law for foreigners to pay in the local currency, only USD, Euro, Rand or Pula are accepted. Young men are trying to get tourists to change to their currency, quite the rip off since no one would be able to spend it. I suspect the prices may also differ.

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Today (June 14) we viewed the Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side. From this side you ger a much better greatness of the size of the falls as you are able to see a great length of them at the same time. It is a truly amazing sight!

The statue is Dr Livingstone, I presume.

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Woke up this morning and got a message from the place we were supposed to stay at in three days has been closed down. Before breakfast we had secured another accommodation.

After breakfast we checked out. The power had gone out right after breakfast. We were told that the power is turned off for four hours every day due to shortage of electricity, This is because the water levels in the Zambezi rivers are low, and does not generate enough electricity.

We were driven, by the same driver, to the border crossing. It’s right after the entrance to the Victoria Falls National Park. On the way we passed, where we also past yesterday, an elephant corridor. Yesterday there was only one elephant eating away on the trees. Today they were many more. Men riding bikes, loaded with food stuff, were holding back, waiting for the elephants to move on. The elephants smell their food, and might attack.

The boarder crossing was really smooth. Got our stamps on the Zambian side, took a taxi across the bridge (a 20 min walk without luggage), then got our stamps (had to buy a visa for Alex, not needed in Zambia, we had the Kaza visa for both countries) on the Zimbabwe side. Took another taxi to our lodge.

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We had one full day in Livingstone. Safari in the morning and Victoria Falls in the afternoon. On the way back we asked the driver to drop us off in the center. We planned on having dinner in town. Since it was still a bit early we walked back to a shopping mall we had passed. This is not the typical American or Swedish kind of shopping mall, but a row of shops around a square. We just needed to buy some water. It’s always fun to go into grocery stores in other countries, and see what is similar and what is different. Here a lot was similar.

I noted quite a few people had 25kg bags of breakfast meal, corn. I guess they eat cornporrige for breakfast, and maybe use it for bread.

We passed a pretty little church where a boys’ marching band was practicing (no pics of the boys, I never liked the tourists taking pictures of the kids in Alex’s nursery or school, therfore, I won’t do the same).

Dinner was had at an Italian restaurant. An Italian owner, but a local twist on the dishes. Tasted good! After we went to the ice cream section to have our Italian gelato – that was the whole point going there, right? Soooo good!

The driver who droppes us off had given us his card. We asked the italian guy to call him for us so he could pick us up.

A perfect ending to a perfect day!

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After lunch we took a taxi to Victoria Falls national park, about 11 km outside of town. We arranged with the driver to pick us up two hours later.

The Victoria Falls are one of the seven (new) wonders of the world. They are the largest waterfalls in the world. Up to one million litres of water fall – down a 108m drop along a 1.7km wide strip in the Zambezi Gorge.

On some paths you can walk and see the amazing sights, and come back dry. For a close-up view of the Eastern Cataract we also walked across the footbridge. It’s a narrow walk across the bridge. The water from the falls spray you like anything from a drizzle to a heavy rain, depending on where you walk. We came prepared, bringing rain ponchos.

Around the bridge there was a full rainbow and part of a second one. They almost came around in a full circle around the bridge. Beautiful!

From certain points you can also see the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe. We will be crossing there.

The falls are truly spectacular!

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Inside the national park there was also an opportunity for a walking safari to see white rhinos. One ranger walked in front and one in the back. Both armed with rifles for protection. They are there 24/7 to protect the rhinos from poachers. Recently 2 rhinos where killed by poachers, they were caught and are now going to jail, as well as having to pay fines.

Now there are 10 rhinos left. One is a 2 week old baby boy. It was so cute! Another young rhino was about 1 year 5 months. It was truly an amazing experience to be able to get so close to these animals!

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We were picked up from our lodge at 8 a.m. in a safari jeep. It was very, very cold in the morning and we were glad to have our warm jackets. Mosi-Oa-Tunya is the second smallest national park in Zambia. We still saw a large number of animals. The zebras with their unique pattens, lots of impalas, elephants that you have to respect, and the giraffes with their long necks. Hippos were laying lazily in the water, and sunbathing on the sandbanks. The Zambezi river is a great water hole for the animals and we got very close to an elephant having a drink.

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