27 June 2011 - Bulawayo to Victoria Falls

This morning we took it easy, compared to the previous day where we were awake at 1 am. Plus, with warm-water bottles in our beds, no one was in any hurry to get out of bed. We packed the cars and enjoyed a really sumptuous breakfast in the dining hall. The drive for the day was not too long - 450km - so we cruised out all harry-casual at about 10am and headed north.

At this point we have to comment on the roads in Zimbabwe. Over the past few months we have had the fear of all things unmentionable beaten into us over how terrible the Zimbabwean roads are - full of pot-holes large enough to swallow entire cars, and such-like tales. Tommy-rot! The Roads in Zimbabwe are in very good condition as far as we are concerned. In nearly 1000km of motoring from Beit bridge to Victoria Falls I think we probably saw no more than 15 pot-holes in total, and most of these were in the back-streets of Bulawayo, not on the national routes. And the largest of these pot-holes was barely big enough to wash your feet in, never mind swallow a vehicle. There were some sections of the roads that were a bit bumpy, but bumps are not pot holes.

For the most part the drive was fairly tedious (except for random moments where cyclists with a death wish swerve across the road in front of us.) In Zimbabwe there are vast stretches of what we will call tree-veld. Like bush-veld, only it is trees more than bushes. Maybe this is what Africans call Jungle? Anyway, it is beautiful, but it blocks any view of the scenery from the road. We we stopped to buy some Baobab fruit - "cream of tartar" according to some. We tried eating the fruit - we do NOT recommend it. Its a bit like eating chalk. The Baobabs can be huge - see Damon next to the Baoab in the picture? And that was not the biggest one we saw!



We stopped apparently randomly in the middle of nowhere - it was the "1000km from home" mark. We took some pictures, stretched our legs, and watered a few plants, and then we moved on.



We arrived at Victoria Falls about 3:30pm. Access to view the falls from the Zimbabwean side was $20 per person. We all agreed that what we saw defies explanation or description - you simply have to see the falls yourself to understand the sheer majesty. It is no wonder that this is one of the 7 wonders of the natural world. We walked along the face of the falls on the opposite cliffs for about one and a half kilometers, and all the way there is water pouring down the oposite face in an unending torrent. The spray thrown up literally rained down on us on the opposite side of the gorge. Seriously, all the photos and videos you may have seen do not do the real spectacle justice.




Just before 6pm we did the customs and ended the day with a "Great Maramba Burger" before getting into bed in our "chalets" for a good night of rest.