One of the Greats

What am I talking about?

Kasane – Dave and Lesley have retired to the Chobe Safari Lodge while we get to stay in the lodge’s campsite. An advanatage of being at the campground lodge and having Dave and Lesley stay there is that we get to take advantage of a few of their local tours. One of them is a drive to Victoria Falls.

Victoria Falls is one of the 3 great waterfalls of the world. There is, of course Niagara Falls and then there is Iguazu Falls. Each one has a record; Niagara Falls has the greatest volume of water, Iguazu has the widest falls, and Victoria has the highest.

Although 3 countries border on the falls (Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe), one is best to see the falls from the Zimbabwe side. We chose to visit using the tour from the Chobe Safari Lodge which took us first to the border with Zimbabwe where all the formalities of crossing the border had to happen including a per person charge of 900pula – approx Cdn $100. That’s for a one day visa and no longer, so don’t get left behind somewhere on the day tour.

The falls are about a one and half hour drive from Kasane and the van took us to the National Park where they left us for about 5 hours. That’s more than enough time to walk through the park and along the falls.

By 1500hrs we are all lagging and looking forward to the bus arriving back in the parking lot at Victoria Falls. We clamber in and repeat the process; an hours drive to the border, 30 minutes to clear customs and immigration and then another 30 minutes to drive back to Chobe Safari Loddge to collapse into a comforatable sofa and enjoy a gin and tonic on the banks of the Chobe River – this is decadent but then we have to go back to the campground while Dave and Lesley continue to lounge in splendour.

Just to make sure there is a clear separation between the campers and the lodge-sitters, there is a sign on the path back from the main lodge to the campground – see photo below

Not only crocodiles wander the riverbanks but hippos can be heard belching and croaking away demanding their space. Thank god there’s an electric fence between our campsite and the Chobe River!