Apparently they say ‘you never get any rest in Africa’. While that is not the case we were certainly busy on day 9. Where do we begin? 🤔
We went on a early morning tour of Victoria Falls. What a site to see and a 7th wonder of the world.
Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in the world. It is twice the height of Niagra Falls and is almost almost a mile and a half wide.
We just stayed on the Zimbabwe side which has about 80% of the viewpoints anyway. We looked at 18 different vantage point.
Tanaka, our guide, told us that every site was the best for pictures which I found hard to believe but he was right. Each stop we went to I thought was better than the rest.
The middle points were right in the middle of the falls midst and it literally felt like we were in a tropical rain storm for about 15 minutes. We got soaked from head to toe.
After we cleared the mist though the warm weather and sun dried us out pretty quickly. We also got to see the famous Victoria Falls bridge which was actually constructed in England and shipped down to be put together in Victoria Falls. Talk about grown up legos! 😀
TRUTH DETECTOR: Before coming to Victoria Falls we were told by some friends and then did some google searching for articles about the drought here in Zimbabwe and how the falls had all but dried out (the plastic straws finally won!). This turns out to be complete fake news. The photos in the news were from the “horseshoe” part of the falls which is the driest part of the area AND were taken during dry season. While it is true that Zimbabwe was in drought conditions earlier this year (not anymore) the photos and accompanying articles were definitely “fake news” as our guide said. The falls are still very healthy and filled with beauty and H20.
Our next stop was the village of Victoria Falls.
It is the only village inside of a national park in all of ZImbabwe (my kids claim they said all of Africa but I am not entirely sure of that).
We got to go to an open air market in the center of town where the boys got to learn a bout bartering and negotiating prices.
Of course the more experience we gathered the more the prices came down. We have a lot to learn though. We all got some good little gifts and then headed to a local restaurant in town.
We picked the one with the most “Adventurous” menu. The restaurant was called Lola’s Tapas.
Peter and Ms. Tami had the crocodile appetizer and crocodile Caesar salad.
The little Nate Dogg got the Zebra and eggplant pasta and I got the giraffe rib and antelope steak.
All of them were delicious. The croc tasted like a chewy shrimp. The zebra just tasted like a spicier version of ground beef. The giraffe rib didn’t taste much different than a beef rib from Texas and the antelope tasted more like a ground sirloin than a steak. However we enjoyed all of our meals.
We did a bit more shopping and sent off some postcards.
We came back to the Safari Lodge and spent the rest of the day down by the pool.
The boys loved it as they could jump off the rock wall and the pool was deep enough not to hit the bottoms.
No chlorine either (let’s hope that’s a good thing!). We got to see an elephant come by the lodge and had a full bottle of South African Syrah which again was wonderful.
Daddy got a power nap and we headed out to our dinner at The Boma.
The Boma is best equated to a Hawaiian Luau. They had a dancing, singing, and drumming show with a full buffet. We had water buffalo, lamb, and Zimbabwean grass fed beef.
The most adventurous thing we ate were the Mopani worms.
We had to eat them in front of the chef so that we could get a certificate as a first time taster. The Italian guy next to me said they tasted like calamari. I can see that maybe a crunchier and bit spicy version. Although it was served in a tomato Chilli. The boys each had one and Ms. Tami and I had two each. Glad we did it but not something we would actively seek out in the future.
The buffet was awesome with a green salad bar, cabbage salad, and other vegetarian dishes with squash and fruit. The meat bar has several different meat soups, the grilled lamb and steak aforementioned, and a kabob grill with other meats.
The dessert bar had eclairs, creme brûlée, donuts, and chocolate mousse. All were very good. We drank water and another Syrah with dinner.
The show was fun and entertaining especially the drumming part. They handed out drums to every patron and we all got a quick lesson in playing and then did a play along with the band. Very high energy and fun.
My wife was a bit tired because of the long day but it even woke her up and she got in to her usual dancing and rocking out Barbie mode.
We also got to see a fortune teller (unfortunately he couldn’t foresee what I found out later was a pretty cheap tip! Should have done 2 bucks a person not 1.).
We headed back and crashed. Starting tomorrow we head out to the bush! Prayers will be needed as I am deathly afraid of flying in small aircraft (think EMB 120s or smaller). Good think ol’ Doc Newton gave me some anxiety pills!
We may not be able to have connection again for awhile so be patient I will keep up the blog and photos. Also, our best camera with the best pics of our adventure wont be able to download until we get back in the states so stay tuned for non iphone, higher quality pictures!
Last day or two of my 30s. Drinking what I can (damn i get tired easily) and smoking the cigars I can before I hit middle age on the 5th.
Cheers! 👍
Richey's Travel Adventures 