2023-08-11: Cape Town to Victoria Falls

It was an early morning. Our driver picked us up at 6:30am this morning to take us to the airport. So, we were up at 5:45am. Way too early. We didn’t bother grabbing breakfast at the hotel. We just got ourselves cleaned up, packed up, and checked out out of the hotel. The drive to the airport was only about 20 minutes. Of course the day we leave is the day the taxi strike ends. We had a nice chat with our driver. He was a teacher for 35 years but was unhappy with where the school system was heading so decided to retire from teaching. He had a couple of friends in the tourism industry so made the switch to being a tour guide. When we arrived at the airport, he escorted us to the check in line and then said goodbye.

We got checked in for our flight which was scheduled to depart at 9:45am. We were through security and at our gate by 7:30am. We went searching for somewhere to grab some breakfast. We were getting a little worried as we weren’t seeing any restaurants but we managed to find the one and only restaurant in the terminal. Despite being the only restaurant, the food was quite good. We enjoyed our breakfast and returned to the gate. Shortly after 9:00am they started boarding the plane. Or should I say bus? They scanned our boarding passes and loaded us onto a bus which took us out on the tarmac to our plane. We talked with a young Australian girl on the bus. She is part of the Australian National Netball team. The world championships were held in Cape Town for the past few weeks. The Australian Team won the championship. She was now taking some time to explore the area.

We boarded the plane and got comfortable. They announced that the plane was still refueling so they asked all passengers to make sure their seatbelts were UNDONE. Well, that was a first and didn’t fill us with feelings of safety. The refueling finished, we were asked to put on our seatbelts, and we were in the air on time.

Three hours later we arrived at the Victoria Falls International Airport in Zimbabwe. We had to walk along the tarmac for a bit to the international arrivals door at the terminal. We walked inside and were directed into a line to pay for and obtain our visa for entry. There were around 20 families ahead of us in the line. Their process is SLOW. It took us an hour and a half to get to the front of the line. By this time, another flight or two had arrived and the line was huge. I can’t imagine how long the people at the back of the line would have waited. It must have been hours. We received our visa, grabbed our bags, and headed to the airport exit. A driver was waiting for us at the exit to transfer us to The Victoria Falls Hotel.

The drive was about 20 minutes to the hotel. The driver gave us some background on the area and some safety tips regarding wild animals and mosquitos. We arrived at the hotel and got checked in. The hotel is very fancy. It was built by the British in 1904 to house the railway workers while the Cape to Cairo railway was built. The railway was planned to run from Cairo to Cape Town. The great depression followed by World War II and the decolonization of Africa meant the rail line was never completed.

The staff gave us some lemonade and showed us to our rooms. The We got familiar with the rooms and got ourselves unpacked. We then went for a walk around the hotel It’s on a huge property and there are several different wings to the hotel. The hotel is on top of a valley that contains the Zambezi River. There is a terrace the overlooks the valley and you can see the Victoria Falls Bridge and the mist coming off the waterfalls. The boys wanted to find the pool so we continued exploring. We found a putting green along the way. Right by the putting green we ran into a family of warthogs. We watched them for a few minutes and they carried on. We found the pool which made the boys very happy. Patrick was looking at one of the chairs by the pool and found a lizard laying on it. We continued our tour and returned to our room. On the way back to our room we saw a couple of mongoose skirt along one of the pathways. Too quick for us to get a picture though.

The boys were eager to give the pool a try, so they got changed and we headed back to the pool. They played in the pool for 30 to 45 minutes before we had to kick them out. We returned to the room and the boys got changed for dinner. We headed to the Stanley Restaurant for dinner which is a restaurant on the hotel’s terrace overlooking the valley. We enjoyed our dinner and then returned to the room. It was an early morning so we got ourselves ready for bed and relaxed until it was time to sleep. Tomorrow we get to see the falls.