We departed Johannesburg for Victoria Falls on the 15th, after a beautiful drive down from Kruger and a great stay at the Premier Hotel. A nationwide high school football (soccer) tournament was being held in Jo-berg and the hotel was filled with high school boys and their coaches. Of note has been how wonderfully friendly the people are here…and as Lara and I have both noted, they are beautiful as well. So this group of lively, friendly boys and their coaches filled the air of this big hotel with their excitement and optimism. It was great to see.
We hit Zimbabwe running, and ventured to Victoria Falls immediately after our arrival. It is simply stunning and goes on forever. It is hard to imagine being the first person to unknowingly come across this amazing wonder. One can only hope it was not from up river, in a boat!!! There is not much more that can be said about it….AMAZING. The Victoria Falls entrance is just a 5 minute walk from the center of town and the entrance area has a lovely cafe and small information center. The information area is small, yet has a ton of really interesting historical and geographical information that really adds to the visit. “Livingstone, I presume?” was not uttered here, but on the banks of Lake Tanganyika, to the very same enduring Scottish explorer who “discovered” Victoria Falls and was the first European to map much of Africa.
After our visit to the falls, we explored our A’zambezi River Hotel. It was really a piece of heaven right on the Zambezi River. The river boats came and went from where we sat on the beautiful lawn and the sun set seemingly into the amazing river. The restaurant was outdoors, under a giant tiki hut with a roaring fire pit off to the side. The food was good and we were entertained by native dancers and scores of little monkeys and baboons, most with new babies, clinging for dear life to their mommas. They are the most fascinating creatures to watch, so nearly human, and so scrawny and adorable. It is amazing to watch their arms and hands, so like ours, work a million miles an hour at some task, their faces darting around and searching each others, then looking directly at you, and then darting on to something new. Very cute till you realize that adorable little monkey is taking things out of YOUR purse!!!!! And GONE!!!!! in a millionth of a second! This lawn here is probably the most peaceful, placid, beautiful place I can remember. The tranquility is only interrupted by the African singers greeting the incoming boats, and those sounds seem so a part of the landscape, just a gentle reminder that there are humans here, in this paradise.