23 May 2007 - Victoria Falls - the falls and the lions

14.03.07

Last night I ate ostrich, warthog and crocodile tail and it was all yummy. Especially the ostrich - I could really get into eating that!

Seem to have another great group. There's 11 of us again but at least I'm not the ethnic minority this time - we have 1 New Zealander, 1 Irish, 1 Scot, 1 Canadian, and 7 English. A real mix of ages this time - from 18 to 69! My tent mate is Claire the Scot and she's great.

Our tour leader and driver is Pat who is from England but the great news is we have a cook/guide. I thought we were going to have to shop and cook ourselves on this trip but apparently not. By all accounts the cook is pretty good. If he is half as good as Solo fron the last trip we are going to eat very well!

This morning we went and had a look at the falls properly - it was absolutely spectacular. I have never seen so much water going so fast! You get absolutely drenched just from the spray alone! I had high expectations of the falls from talking to other travellers but even my expectations were completely exceeded.

Just got back from my ultralight flight - wow!! What a spectacular view. Marianne this is a small plane you couldn't get claustrophobic in - its got no walls! Its literally 2 seats, 2 wings and a motor - completely open. The perspective is amazing - you can see just how long the falls stretch - 1.2 kilometres. You can also see all the churning water in the bottom which you can't see at all from the ground.

Had dinner from the truck tonight. They were not wrong - Denford our Zimbabwean cook is fantastic!

15.05.07

Oh my god - what a day! I am going to run out of superlatives to describe the things I am doing!! This morning I was up at 4.30 to go walking with lions. They are young lions - 8 months to 2 years - taken in and trained on a private game reserve. You get to go for a walk with them and you can actually touch them (in very controlled circumstances obviously!). I loved it and must have taken at least a million photos!!! They film you as you are doing it and when they showed us the dvd afterwards I had a constant big grin on my face the whole time (bit like when I'm dancing salsa!).

Left Vic Falls at about lunchtime. I'm really sad to leave and will just have to come back one day cos there's still just so much to do! On to Botswana to do more amazing things - see Botswana entry!