Victoria Falls

It’s president’s weekend here in Botswana, which means 4 day weekend for all its citizens! Time for me, Mackenzie, Alyson, Zoe, and Chrissy to take off to Victoria Falls!
We left Friday night and took the overnight bus to Cascane – the town that sits on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The drive is about 12 hours, so being able to sleep on the bus is a HUGE advantage (as we’d later learn by taking the day bus home). The bus ride travels through the Botswana bush and it’s pretty common to see elephants and other wildlife hanging out by the road. Apart from the 2am hoof and mouth checkpoint in which the entire bus had to be emptied of sleepy passengers who wandered through the murky chemical water, the bus ride went smoothly. We arrived in Cascane at 10am and caught the ferry across the Chobe River to Zambia. The ferry ride reminded me just how much of an adventure it is to be in Africa. You ride the ferry with a couple of transport vehicles, the backs of which people will jump on to and ride on to the ferry to avoid wading through the water since the ferry doesn’t seem to be capable of making it all the way to shore. Unfortunately, we missed the memo and had to wade. Thank goodness for water-proof shoes. A 60-minute taxi ride later, we arrived in Livingstone at our hostel. What a cute place to stay! The hostel was full of other students on holiday. We met some people from China and Britain hanging out by the pool. They even had a campfire they would light every night at 6pm where people can hang out. Livingstone is a very cute town. We wandered out to find lunch and made friends with the owner of the restaurant and his girlfriend who drove us to the local craft market after we were done eating. The craft market was full of cool bags and baskets. But I must say, I can’t explain how frustrating it is trying to mentally convert 1 USD to 4,700 Kwatcha. Imagine trying to buy a bag that costs 40,000 bucks! The smallest denomination of kwatcha is a 100 dollar bill. People on the streets sell 1 million dollar kwatcha bills as souvenirs.
After enjoying a relaxing afternoon in Livingstone, we woke up early the next morning for our elephant-back safari. We got to spend a whole hour riding around on the backs of elephants through the bush! My elephant’s name was Lewa. She’s the result of one of the elephants in the safari family disappearing into the bush for 10 months and then coming back pregnant. The group of elephants that do the safari trips are a very close-knit family. They even have a 2-year old baby right now that one of the female elephants found orphaned in the bush and brought back to the camp to take care of. The baby elephant came with us on our safari and danced around the other elephants’ feet, munching on bushes. We saw some hippos on our safari, and a couple of crocodiles.

Afterwards, the safari company dropped us at Victoria Falls so we could go into the park and see the falls. Victoria Falls is BEAUTIFUL! But people aren’t kidding when they ask you if you’re ready for your free shower. We were smart enough to bring flip-flops and invest in the rentable ponchos because we were drenched! You cross a bridge in front of the falls to visit the island and the mist from the falls crashing into the river below rains down on you like a monsoon. The Niagara Falls boat ride has nothing on the Victoria Falls bridge. But the views from everywhere are gorgeous. The Zambian side is really cool because you’re literally right up next to the falls. At certain times during your walk, you’re literally just surrounded by mist. It’s pretty incredible. You can also walk around to the top of the falls and stand right next to the edge of the falls. Be careful not to fall in!


The safari company picked us up from Victoria Falls a couple hours later and took us to our sunset boat cruise. I was amazed how many animals we were able to see on the side of the Zambezi River! We saw giraffes, hippos, and tons of elephants. And the sunset reflecting off the water was just so pretty.

Our trip home from Livingstone included waking up at 5am to catch the first ferry across the river and arriving in Gaborone at 11:30pm on the last bus from Francistown. 3 hoof and mouth checkpoints, 2 stops on the side of the road from the bus engine overheating, 1 Chicken Lickin’ lunch bought from the Francistown bus rank, and I was grateful to see the lights of Gabz as we pulled in late at night.
The trip to Victoria Falls was wonderful. But with only two days left in the program, it’s time to get packing for the Okavango Delta!