Mon. 10th June 2013
From our hotel, Zambezi Sun, we get free entry to the falls and with the light this morning being completely different to that at sunset last night we decide to have one last visit before we check out of the luxury hotel and head into Livingstone town. The views never cease to impress us as we walk the opposite way around to yesterday, turning right at each junction. This also keeps us ahead of the group of Americans with their Thompson ponchos.
As we leave the Falls with yet more photos, we detour to find the WW1 Memorial which leads us to a different path marked, best photographic views and so we just have to investigate. A new path is being built with lookout points and is parallel to the road from Zimbabwe to Zambia, so we pass the other side of the high blue railings from the border post where we were yesterday and indeed get good views. Both Zambia and Zimbabwe are investing in upgrading the roads and facilities as the UN world tourism summit is coming to Victoria Falls in August which will certainly boost tourism in the area, and it is much needed. The Zambia side is the busier country and we think we prefer this side of the falls as the views are better even though you can walk less of the length of the Falls.
We just have time for a quick coffee before we head into town to our “Executive Lodge” for the next three nights. The taxi takes us along the main street of Livingstone town and a few kilometres out the other side and down a dirt track to our lodge. Not the location we thought we were booking and at $60 a night it was never going to be luxury. It is still cheaper to catch a taxi into town than to pay the price we have been paying, we need to get used to it as we will soon be camping! Sadly the free internet is also disappointing and random over whether the pages load quickly or not at all. We had hoped for better as we have one last session of planning before we head north east through Zambia and Malawi to Tanzania.
Once we have settled into the lodge, we catch a taxi back into town for lunch and find a pleasant Italian place, Olga’s (good food but even worse internet than the lodge). The restaurant also helps teach local vulnerable kids catering and carpentry. Our first stop after lunch is to buy a SIM for Dave’s phone with a data package and for £14 we have some phone calls and 500MB of data to last us for the next week, sorted. After a stop at the supermarket we find a friendly taxi driver called Annex, who is mad on football (sadly yet another Man. Utd supporter) to take us home and he becomes our new best friend, giving us his phone number for future reference.
I have skipped over the fact Dave has booked his microlight flight over the Falls and is being collected on Wednesday at 6:30am as I will be hiding under the covers when he leaves! I will also gloss over the dinner in the hotel which we had to order in advance and was ready over half an hour early. The T bone steak and chips was lukewarm and tough. At least we could take our own wine into the restaurant – we are already lining up possible restaurants in town for tomorrow night!