Well, today has been exciting. We were initially supposed to be here for two nights, but because of a complication with a connecting flight and a scheduling change, we had to cut out one day and get to Harare tonight, or we would not be able to keep our bookings in Madagascar. We had a 10AM walking tour of Victoria Falls planned, but 10 minutes before we were to depart, we got a text from the travel agency saying that our flight (for 17:35) had been moved to 15:30, and to drop everything and get to the airport by noon. After a bit of internal wrangling, we decided that we should be able to make the airport in time with the 10AM tour, and we were not going to leave Victoria Falls without seeing Victoria Falls.
We re-arranged our pickup to the airport, and took the tour and made it back to the hotel in time to change out of wet clothes, get a bit of food, and for a quick drive to the airport. At the airport, the folks at check-in said that there was no change. Two more folks (not together) were behind us in line, with exactly the same issue. The folks behind the counter confirmed with the pilot, and the pilot said he would not deviate from the original schedule. No one seems to know how all the passengers got an email with a time change.
The Victoria Falls Airport is nice, but I'd rather we spent more time walking around the Falls...
The tour of the Falls was incredible. It is the largest waterfall in the world - 1.5x wider and 2x higher than Niagra Falls, making it the largest "sheet" in the world (though Iguazu and Niagra have more volume on an annual basis - though at this time of year, Victoria is greater than Niagra). And of course, from the mist generated by all that splashing into the gorge below, we got wet (expected). The water right now is at the highest point of the year, so all of the Falls are gushing (the Main Falls always runs, but the Armchair Falls, Eastern Falls, and Devil's Cataract are also full force). It also means that almost half of the Falls were not visible because of the huge amounts of mist being produced by the crashing water. There is a whole rain-forest in the desert near the falls because of this mist.
Photos and video from our tour do not do justice. If we had more time here, I'd charter a helicopter to do it right, and visit Livingstone Island, and I'm sure we could find additional things to suck up 1-2 more days with multiple activities per day. 24hours was not enough.
Tomorrow morning, we leave the hotel at Harare at 5AM for Johannesburg --> Madagascar.
Photos of the day:
The river/falls separate the two countries (similar to Niagra and Iguazu).
Victoria Falls is number of individual falls into the cavern. The one below is the Devil's Cataract.
Devil's Cataract
Devil's Cataract
Across the path from the Falls, in the rainforest, a pair of bushbucks (one pictured below). A lot of colors and spots on this animal.
Main Falls
Right end of Main Falls
At the East end. It was wet. A lot of mist.
At the far end of the Falls.
View from the hotel out towards the bridge.
A bushbuck just off the property
View of hotel from back-side.
View of bridge from hotel, with a train crossing.
Monkeys steal sugar packets.
Banded mongooses running across the lawn.
As a bonus, I found that Christopher got video of the hippo picture from yesterday's blog. You may need to look full-screen.
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