Our journey to Southern Africa - part 5:
By Marius Westgard Erichsen
Zimbabwe:
Victoria Falls
In Victoria Falls we planned to camp in the tent we brought for emergency, because there was no available room at the Spray View Hotel, a reasonable priced hotel, recommended to us. (Click here to read about the discriminating price system in Zimbabwe.) Me being ill it didn't seem like a very good idea When we arrived at Vic. Falls Airport, mom got Mark and his wife Mary Ann to watch me while she made a phone call to find a more comfortable place to stay. She found out that there was no phones working in the entire airport, so Mark and Mary Ann kindly allowed us to come with them to their hotel, where I could lie down while Bodil found a place to live. When we came to the hotel, Ilala Lodge, mom found out that they had a free room, so we decided to stay there until I got well. It was of better standard, and more expensive than we would normally choose, but as long as they had a proper air-condition, mom didn't care much.The rest of the day I spent in bed. If I tried eating I vomited, so I only drank boiled water. After a while I got sugar in it, probably it should have been Coke from the beginning. That stuff helped to cure me next day.
Monday December 22.
I spent this day in bed too, watching TV. Cricket is boring, but Mary Ann was pleased because she was convinced children are OK if they have the power to watch telly. We contacted Barbo (She is a friend of a colleague of grandpa, and lives in Harare.) Mom wanted to make sure we could get help if needed. She prepared for hospital if I got worse, though she was pretty sure it was a normal stomach decease I had caught. Barbo invited us to stay at her place for a couple of days, if we came to Harare, ill or well. Mom was right about my stomach. At the end of the day I was getting better, then I could eat toasted bread.
Tuesday December 23.
"Little Christmas Eve" as we call the day in Scandinavia, I was well, so we moved to Sprayview hotel, which was much cheaper. We walked the distance from Ilala to Sprayview, which is almost one kilometer, with our 15 kg backpacks. Everyone thought we were crazy, and we had taxi drivers running after us. We saw the old Victoria Falls Hotel, a beautiful hotel, but very expensive and no swimming pool. We ordered one English tea (It consisted of tea, some very small sandwiches, and some cakes, and cost 110 Zimbabwe dollar. That is a small fortune) and a coke. The idea was to share the bread and cakes, since we were only out to taste it.They wanted us to pay for two because we had both eaten from it, though we far from emptied it. But after mom had quarreled with the manager for a while, (a black man she found very attractive ...) we paid only for one.
Wednesday December 24.
This day we rented bikes. First we crossed the bridge to Zambia, where we saw the falls from the Zambian side (surprise, surprise). There was not to much water in that end of the falls. In fact the only place there was as much water as it should, was in the Cataract Falls at the western edge of the falls. When we returned to Zimbabwe, we went straight to the crocodile farm, 3 km from the center of Vic. Falls. Here we saw a lot of crocs, they're quite lazy animals. I also got to hold a two year old croc. We ate lunch at the farm, which had an beautiful cultured garden, and stayed there in the shadow trough the hottest period of the day. After this we saw the falls from the Zimbabwean side. Parts of the falls were all dry because of the season, but it was funny to see them like that. We also saw the Livingston statue there, it was nice. In the end we saw the Big Tree, it was really huge, tree meters in diameter. After having seen the tree, and talked to the lonely, uniformed man who guarded it, we had to rush back to deliver the bikes. In the evening I hung up one of my socks in our room, because it was Christmas eve , but I did not get anything in it apart from dry biscuits.
Thursday December 25.
The whole day we were on a canoe trip on the upper Zambezi. We drove by bus (or what
these typical, common, open jeep-like vehicles are called) for a while trough Zambia, and
started the trip from there. First we had breakfast at a camp. We could clearly see that
Zambia was much poorer than Zimbabwe. It was cloudy all the time, so we did not see too
many animals. They don't need to come the water so often, when the sun is not burning. But
apart from that it was nice, and we did see hippos and mom even saw a crocodile. We ate
lunch on an upturned canoe, and of course then it started raining. It didn't matter much,
because we were all wet through from the canoeing anyhow. Mom and me were very lucky to
get help from the supply boys to maneuver the canoes. It didn't keep us dry, but at least
we never fell into the water, as some other Scandinavians did. We were supposed to paddle
our own cannoe, but mom did not feel very comfortable with the two of us alone in a canoe
(it was only an air filled plastic thing!) and with minor paddling skills down by the
crocs and hippos. So we split, and were completely safe with native "drivers".
As in Okawango: a tourist and a guide in every boat.
pictures from Zambia.
Friday December 26.
Now that we had seen most of what could be seen around Vic. Falls we were ready to leave. When mom called to see if there was any available seats on the train, she got the message that it was fully booked. Later she called to see if there were free seats on the train next day, then she was told to come down to the station so that they could check if they could manage to get a ticket for us that same day. I don't know how they made it but we got a reservation on 2nd class on the train, no matter that it was fully booked. So six o'clock that afternoon we left with the night train for Bulawayo. The train stopped after a while because a huge flock of maybe a hundred elephants standing in the way. Apart from that everything went fine.
Go to next part: Bulawayo
Go to previous part: Okawango Delta
Go to introduction page
MWE 04.12.98