FROM BOTSWANA TO ZIMBABWE TO ZAMBIA: A CLASSIC BOB-STYLE ADVENTURE

We all know that my husband is crazy when it comes to travel. Well, YOU might not know that if you don't know him personally, but those of you who do definitely know this about him. Let's just say he doesn't let the grass grow under his feet. This post shares an example of a classic Bob-style travel day.

We had spent the morning on a motorboat in the waters of the Okavango Delta, awed and inspired by what we saw. We came back to camp, packed our things, and were driven to a landing strip, where our driver drove the length of the strip (on a parallel dirt road) to make sure it was animal-free. We would later learn how important that was.

As we turned around at the far end, the plane came in and we followed it back to the other end. This time we were on a 12-passenger plane, still tiny but nothing like the 6-seater we had come in on.

The pilot was a very young woman from Botswana. She looked about 16, but we were SO impressed with her professionalism. She was very serious about her responsibilities, and we felt we were in good hands.

A brochure at our seat told us a little bit about her:

There was also interesting reading material about the Okavango Delta:

The advantage of a small plane is that it stays pretty close to the ground. Who would want to watch a screen when THIS is what we saw outside our window?

We were headed towards the airport at Kasane, a small town in Botswana near the Zimbabwe border. We made one stop on the way, dropping off some of the passengers at a remote clay airstrip. However, at the last minute our pilot had to abort the landing because there were two impala standing of the edge of the landing strip. No one had cleared it for us as we had done at the previous landing strip. We circled around and by the time we were in position again, the impala had disappeared.

We dropped off our passengers and went right back up--a turnaround time of just a few minutes. As we approached our own landing spot, we began to see signs of civilization, such as this paved road:

While small, the Kasane Airport at least has an asphalt runway. It actually services quite a few tourists who are on their way to Botswana's popular Chobe National Park.

We were met at the airport by a driver who took us to the Zimbabwe border, where we checked out of Botswana at one office, got driven a little further, and checked into Zimbabwe at a second office, where a monkey was hanging out on the roof:

From the border it was about an hour to our hotel. Bob was anticipating that we would cross through a corner of Zambia to get there, but our driver detoured to save us time on border crossings, and Bob's planned visit to Zambia vanished.

As a side note, our driver had bottled water for us, water that came from the Zambezi River, which feeds Victoria Falls:

I have never seen bottled water with such a detailed label, nor one that stated it "contains no preservatives." The Zimbabweans are clearly proud of their Zambezi River water.

Our hotel, the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, was located just outside of the city of Victoria Falls. Our driver dropped us off and we checked in. It is a pretty opulent place--not what I was expecting at all. I didn't get a photo, so I borrowed the one below, which is much better than what I would have been able to take anyway since we were not allowed to walk down by the waterhole:

Photo from here.

We did have quite a good view of the waterhole from our balcony, however:

Note the warthog on the right end of the waterhole:

Here is a close-up:

Well, Bob was not about to be a few miles from Zambia and not find a way to get there.  I was all for taking a cab into town and walking around, maybe finding dinner, getting some ice cream, and doing a little souvenir shopping, but Bob would not be deterred from being able to put a check next to Zambia on his Countries List.

We had been scheduled for a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River, but our flight had come in a bit late, and we had missed the boarding time. We took the hotel shuttle to the Wild Horizons travel office, who had handled the bookings for our activities in Victoria Falls, and we were able to change around our schedule to fit in a new river cruise the following day. That left us with a free evening, so Bob talked to the agent, got instructions for how to get to and where to eat in Livingstone, a city just over the border on the Zambia side.

And off we went.

We took a cab to the Zimbabwe border, then got out and went through immigration. We took a second, different cab (and different driver) to the Zambia border, 1.5 km away, where we got out again and went through immigration there. 

As a side note, we got a kick out of how many baboons we saw at the border crossings. They seem to hang out near the buildings. Most likely they have become accustomed to scavenging for their dinners there. My pictures were taken with my phone from a moving car, so they aren't very clear, but you get the idea.

We also saw a group of warthogs rooting around near the road. 

Our driver told us it is not uncommon for wild animals to walk down Main Street in the city of Victoria Falls, including monkeys, warthogs, and even elephants. Everyone just tries to stay out of their way and peacefully co-exist.

We were lucky to have a ride through the no-man's land between the two borders. There were plenty of people who were walking.

After getting our passports stamped by the Zambezi border control (SUCCESS!), we took a THIRD taxi (and third driver) to the Royal Livingstone, a very ritzy hotel with a nice restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant was not scheduled to open for 45 more minutes, and our time was limited. Instead, we discovered that we could order snacks and sit on the patio, where we had a lovely view of the Zambezi River.

Looking across the river at Zimbabwe:

Looking downstream, where we could see the spray of Victoria Falls:

Bob had paid the cab driver to wait for us, and he took us back to the first border, where we repeated the process in reverse. In my mind it was a total waste of time and six cab fares, but Bob was happy to have "put his toe in Zambia."