Travel Story «Water Water Everywhere!»

Zambia | 0 Comments 29 June 2006 - Last Update 29 June 2006

After a horrible night in Johannesburg we were driven in typical African style to the airport in record time thanks to a driver who didn't believe in the power of red traffic lights or waiting in queues. We were very happy to leave Jburg so quickly as it was big and ugly and dirty and crowded. No thanks! Luckily our hostel had an electronic gate with a massive brick wall surrounding it, coated in barbed wire reaching up high and there was a guard and a big scary dog as well. So did we feel safe? Ummm.
The local newspaper was quite interesting- columns of advertisements for abortions, corrupt police, newsworthy people dying of Aids, people being stabbed in nightclubs with no witnesses etc. Really disturbing stuff.
So we flew out of South Africa into Zambia. We arrived at Livingstone airport on the 27th May. We very quickly found out with people in Zambia have not heard of deodorant! Oh my goodness! And it was so hot and dusty and the smell...!!! 
Luckily we were seated on the good side of the plane and got a great view of "The Smoke That Thunders" from ths sky. Victoria Falls is 1.7km wide and 90m tall, about twice the size of Niagra Falls! We wore our raincoats and spend hours dancing in the water drops from the falls. When I say water drops, it really means torrencial rain. There were some great, and not entirely safe, walks around the falls area which gave you different views, from down the bottom to the calm water before it reaches the edge. The quantity of water spilling over the edge was just amazing- over 500 million litres per second! You would just stand in the middle of an enormous cloud of water and every now and then the wind would clear a little bit for you and you could see through to the top. So beautiful.
Another night was spend doing the requisite sunset booze cruise on the Zambezi. We saw a family of hippos playing- yes how awesome is that- we say hippos in the mighty Zambezi! It was very exciting. Or was that the double vodka and lemonades we were quickly consuming? Then there was the sunset which was just beautiful.
It was definately a day to remember.
Trying to leave Livingstone was also an interesting day. We packed onto the minibus at the allocated time and waited.... and waited..... and waited....... 2 hours later the bus was finally chock a block full to the brim of smelly Zambians and we were allowed to commence our journey. 8 hours later (on a 5 1/2 hour trip) we finally arrived in Lusaka for our flight into Kenya the next day.
Bus trip to Lusaka