Victoria Falls, which incidentally was very very cool, our hotel was
on the Zimbabwe side of the Zambezie river. Zim is, as I'm sure anyone
is well aware, not the most stable of places and we didn't take notice
of the hotels location when booking. The hotel itself was really cool,
like a step back in time to the days of British colonial rule with all
types of old photos, game trophys and other British historical
paraphenalia. However, it was very clear that they are experiencing a
downturn in tourism. It seemed to be a place on the brink, teetering
between luxury and just enough to get by. They are still going out of
their way to be a fine hotel, but little things made you aware that
they are struggling under the political instability. It will be very
interesting to see what happens in Zimbabwe over the next months and
years, because this place of such historical significance might just
disappear if the country doesn't right itself. I wish I could make
these comments with more relevance to the people living in Zimbabwe,
rather than through the description of a 4 star hotel, but we didn't
(and couldn't) really see much evidence of the hardship directly
traveling as we are. I'd like to come back to Africa on my own without
the worries associated with traveling as a family and have a chance to
see what life is really like outside the tourist destinations.
With that said, however, we did experience a bit of real Africa today
en route to our next lodge. Traveling by van from our hotel in
Zimbabwe, we passed through the border into Botswana and then
Namibia... Border crossing in Africa is interesting to say the least.
Crossing into Botswana meant a standard entry form, followed by a
"disease stop" which required us to step on a wet dirty towel with our
shoes while the van drove through some kind of dirty puddle to make
sure we didn't carry foot and mouth disease with us... It was like a
joke. Then a few minutes later we got t the riverside where we loaded
into an aluminum boat with all our bags and headed to the Nambian
border checkpost, which was a small room on a random island on the
river then back onto the boat to get to our lodge on another island 45
minutes away. My country tally is now at 9 since leaving the US,
flight tally is at 16...
I think this lodge will be cool and we'll be seeing a whole different
type of wildlife, mostly hippos, crocs, buffalo and elephants, versus
the more land oriented creatures of Phinda.
I am getting excited to be a week away from home, if for no other
reason than having a new set of clothes to change into. An opportunity
to get some exercise (not possible in Africa unless hotel has a gym)
and a real slice of pizza... Solo travel was also SO much easier than
traveling with our whole family. When I was alone there was just one
person to please with everything, and I think I'm pretty easy to
please, versus 5 people with varying levels of adventure tolerance and
desire for real exploration rather than just pampering in exotic
locales.
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