Today was dedicated to exploring Victoria Falls. The water volume of the falls varies by time of year. The volume is the highest in April and May and it is the lowest in October. So it was relatively dry when we saw it.
Our day started with a 13 min helicopter ride over the falls. I thought it was a good way to see the falls since the falls are basically on a gorge and it can be hard to get the full effect from the land. Here are some pictures from the helicopter ride.
After the helicopter ride we returned to the hotel to wait our falls tour. We were happy to find that Innocent was going to take us to the falls. We started our tour overlooking the bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia. The bridge is 128m high and was started in 1904 and finished in 1905. This is where they do bungee jumping. We didn’t see anyone bungee jumping but we did see someone being pulled up after they did a bridge swing. Not for me, thank you very much! We also saw rafters (the rapids are class 3-5).
After that we visited each of the 15 viewing sites. The falls are long and you can’t take a picture of the complete falls. They were impressive and the roar of the water was loud. At several points we felt spray from the falls. We didn’t see it at its most impressive but I think Iguazu Falls beat Victoria Falls for beauty. Here are some pictures.
We had lunch at the Lookout Cafe which over looked a gorge of the Zambezi River.
After lunch Patty, Tim and I went to the open market while Rick, Kay, and Mike went back to the hotel. The open market had about 20 vendors, all with pretty much the same stuff laid out on the floor.
They were all very aggressively promoting their wares. I didn’t buy anything but Patty and Tim did. There was some hard bargaining going on. Zimbabwe doesn’t have its own currency, they primarily use dollars. However dollars are in short supply and ATMs don’t have them. Innocent told us that while the political situation is much better and he has high hopes that the economy will recover, currently the unemployment rate is at 90% which explains why the vendors at the open market were so aggressive.
We returned to the hotel and had dinner there. We have not had to wake up early so we have stayed up a little later. After dinner the last couple of nights we have played Mexican train which is a domino game and a lot of fun.