Day 38 - Do not wear a white top when visiting Victoria Falls

Kasane (Botswana) to Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) – Shoestrings Backpackers

We caught the shuttle bus at 8.00am to do the border crossing into Zimbabwe, very straightforward and painless. We arrived at our accommodation by 9.30 and fortunately were allowed to check in immediately.

We then headed off to Victoria Falls, an easy walk of just over a kilometer. There were many people working very hard to sell you hundred trillion dollar notes (old Zim money), souvenirs, rain coats – very very demanding and pushy.

The falls were awesome! The amount of water is so phenomenal, and as it's not high season there weren't very many people there. We did the entire walk through the park that left us 100% drenched to the bone by the spray (hence the title to this blog) – however as it was so hot it was great to be so wet. We then walked to see the “Big Tree” – which is where the Zimbabweans and Zambians used to trade in the old days. This is how we discovered that the map we had seen at Vic Falls was not to scale – it was much further to the tree than anticipated (and in the heat) and there was really nothing much to see, other than a big tree. We did pretty much dry out by the time we got back into town though.

Back in town we decided to go to the famous Victoria Falls Hotel (we skipped High Tea but did have a drink). A very grand colonial place with the most wonderful view of the Vic Falls bridge - however even the posh can’t keep the warthogs off their lawn! After strolling through the corridors hung with photos of UK royalty we slummed it back to Shoestrings (which we are actually quite happy with). After a disappointing dinner at Spurs at the casino (our tip: give it a miss) we called it a day.