Today was day one of my two day "touristy" adventure in Zambia. Ba-Eland, Ba-Innocent, Lumba (Ba-Eland's daughter) and I went to Victoria Falls. I squeaked by at the Zambian rate, they assumed I was Zambian, of 12 Kwacha (about $1.25) instead of the American rate of 250 Kwacha (about $26). Shhh, don't tell anyone. Sara Wingert warned me that I would get wet, and so did Dr. Thomas, but that was not an accurate statement. Let me preface this by saying that this is right after the rainy season, so the river is swollen, and there is a larger volume of water that splashes back up. We rented ponchos and walked into the park and followed the path. We passed a statue of David Livingstone (I presume), and shortly after caught our first glimpse of the falls. It was incredibly beautiful and roaring with all the power of a full Zambezi River. As we walked further I started to feel the slight drizzle of the splashback from the river. Five steps later it was as if I had walked into a sprinkler system at full blast. The rain was hard, it was not too cold, but very annoying. Luckliy my phone is waterproof, so I don't worry much and took pictures and recorded video through the storm. We walked toward a bridge and it was a scene right out of Moby Dick, but I wasn't chasing a whale. There was a river of water on the bridge and I wore shoes, the same ones, again. At this point I wondered why I even rented a poncho. It stuck to me like a wet towel and I kept almost tripping over it. As we walked I text Dr. Thomas that this would probably be my last trip to the falls unless I was bringing my girls. I was annoyed, but convinced myself to keep going because it was beautiful and a great experience. When we crossed the bridge the deluge subsided a bit and I got some really great views and pictures. We walked back across the bridge, and I cursed it again, then we went to the back of the falls where the river flowed. This part was much more dry . . . In terms of water coming down on me, and had some nice views. After that we found another path that took us further out away from the waterfall toward Zimbabwe and we had a great view of the gorge and watched some brave souls bungee jump off the bridge. On the way there and back we encountered some baboons.
People warn you that the baboons at the falls are agressive. Well the ones I saw really didn't care that we were there. There was one laying on the road that refused to move as we walked past it. They are cute from the front . . . but, um, thier butts are pretty gross quite frankly. The little ones were adorable of course, just like babies of most species are, and I got a good close shot of one.
All in all, it was an amazing experience! The views were incredible and I would go back. As Gene Wingert would say, "There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate dress," to paraphrase. Here are a few pics of what I was able to see.
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