Today we had our first close Elephant encounter and that not even 50 meters from the town limits. After a sleep-in and a leasurely breakfast at our lovely Nguni Lodge we set out for our zip lining tour across the Zambezi Gorge. Just after we left the town limits of Vic Falls, we were stopped cold by the sighting of our first really close Elephant.
He or she was muniching right by the road side , not even 10 meters away from our car. Our adrenalin went up considerably but as the elephant was not showing signs of distress, we could watch it slowly munching on grass and twigs. Often the elephants, ore Ellis, as they are called here, walk through town and cause havoc.
Heading further to our Zip Line adventure, we saw the river from a totally different perspective. Harnessed up, helmet and gloves in place, we set out to do a 9 zip line zig zag across the gorge down to it’s bottom. Despite Esthers fear of heights , we made it down in an enjoyable hour. After our climb up to the rim again, we had a wonderful Cappucino at the Lookout Café with spectacular views across the Zambezi Gorge.
Walking from there we went to the Zambian side of the Victoria Falls in the afternoon. Doing the Zim – Zam as locals call it.
Less entry fees, less people, equally great falls. Just the rainbows were missing. Walking down the gorge until the waters edge we enjoyed a great view of the Bridge before heading up to explore this side of the great falls.
The water plunges 104 meters into the depth and the spray it creates when hitting the rocks below is unbelievable. The spray comes down like very heavy rainfall again.
We wore our Gore tex rain coats on top but our pants and shoes got soaked as if we were standing under a shower.
As we had to walk 45 minutes back to our car, we nearly were dry by the time we reached it. Again we decided for a sundowner (that’s what Zimbos call having a few drinks watching the incredible orange African sunset) at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge. This lodge is terribly expensive (we’re talking at least 500 Euros per night for a couple) – but the Buffalo Bar has reasonable priced and has an unrivaled view over a big waterhole. With a delicious Daiquiri and Pina Colada we watched a huge elephant appear at the water hole to drink.
And then it just vanished. We were flabbergasted. How could a four meter tall Elephant just vanish in front of our eyes? It turned out that he hid exactly behind the only scraggly bush that there grew and we could not see him until he moved out again. Amazing how those large animals can make themselves invisible to us.
