Play Misty for Me…

 Words of wisdom from St. Dennis: 

        Our guide Shaun told us it could take anywhere from 2 hours to all day to cross the border from Botswana into Zimbabwe. With his help, it only took about 20 minutes. 👍 We are at Shearwaters Explorer’s Village in Zimbabwe, a beautiful lodge with A/C, pool, bar, and restaurant.

We booked a tour to visit Victoria Falls, s short way from our hotel. Rosemary, our guide picked us up. we were her only guests for the two hour tour. We arrived at the gate to the park with our prepared tickets to enter for $50 for each of us.

Rosemary gave us rain gear and off we went. The falls are spectacular and about a mile in length with a 200 foot drop into the Zambezi River below. When we neared the center of the falls, at the rim, the blowback or mist from the rushing water was like standing in a thunderstorm, thank you Rosemary for the rain gear. 

Rosemary and Dennis

    At this point, Cindy had had enough and headed back toward the exit to wait while Rosemary and I completed the trek. At the end of the falls is a bridge that enters Zambia. This is where the bungee jumpers drop into the gorge. I took a pass. Walking back I learned a lot more about Rosemary—her family and kids and what life is like in Zimbabwe. We returned to the exit gate, met Cindy and were driven back to our room at the lodge. As with the river cruise on the Chobe in Botswana, I want to learn more about Victoria Falls. David Livingstone named the falls in 1855 for Queen Victoria of England. I want to be able to compare it to Niagara Falls but I won’t bore you with the details. Next up? Swimming pool and wine.

Cindy adds…

    I made it back to the exit/entrance point where I had a bit of fun photographing these little guys.

    But I need to back up a bit. Our drive to Zimbabwe was one of the shortest and easiest drive. We stood in line to pay the $30 USD entrance fee for our very classy looking visas. I handed the official my three bills and went to wait for my passport. Shortly my name was called and I had my new visa. I put my passport away while standing and waiting with the others. As I placed it in my purse I saw that I still had a ten dollar bill. I had shortchanged Zimbabwe! Given them 2 fives and a ten. Yikes, I let Shaun know and gave him the ten dollars. He took it to the officials who simply accepted it and we were good to go.

    After a short drive we arrived at the beautiful Shearwater Explorer's Lodge. Here G-Adventures supports two women’s groups. One group of ladies prepared a delicious traditional lunch for us—beef stew, chicken stew, several kale types of vegetables, pap, potato salad, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, plus grilled and blackened caterpillars. Much to Dennis’s delight the caterpillars were greasy and salty, yum!

    The other supported group does laundry. For $20.00 we got a huge bag of laundry done and received a bright cloth bag.

    

    After getting our room, collecting our luggage, going back for our forgotten, still drying out gym shoes and purchasing tickets for our tours here, it was almost time to meet the group for our final dinner.

    Where had the time gone? Except for the longest night of the year it was the shortest week ever, filled to the brim with interesting people and totally absorbing activities and many moments of sheer awe.

    Barry our driver was delightful with a full blown sense of humor. He kept an eye on us, especially Dennis so we stayed out of trouble. Shaun our CEO was patience personified. He was always calm, answering our same questions repeatedly, never asking, “Don’t you listen??” We will no longer have anyone to tell us when to get up, when to show up for dinner or what we’re doing today. That’s a lot of responsibility. I can only hope we’re up to it.