Victoria Falls: December 27

We spent the morning touring the falls (have we mentioned that Victoria Falls are one of the seven natural wonders of the world?) with our new friend from the U.K. We decided against an organized tour and instead took our time exploring the trials and snapping lots of pictures. Each bend in the trail seemed to provide an even better view and the only reason we didn’t take more pictures was the fact that we had to keep hiding the camera to protect it from the spray. Unbeknownst to us, we had picked an ideal time to view the falls: mid-flow. During high flow, the mist obscures the view of the bottom and many of the waterfalls disappear during low flow periods. After a few rejuvenating hours, we began our journey back to Vezubuhle.

Just as we pulled into the airport, we realized that we had forgotten our rafting video at the backpackers. Eek! The shuttle driver calmed us down by telling us that her colleague would be returning in an hour and would bring it for us. We then fought over a now illegal $25 tax, paid it in frustration, got ripped off on postcard stamps and finally boarded our plane. Everything went smoothly (Kelli was even able to get a visitor’s visa) until we hit the baggage claim. For those of you who have heard our airport baggage claim horror stories, you understand our hatred. An all too familiar scenario found us as some of the last people anxiously waiting for our bag after the carousel had shut off. We tried to remain calm as we realized that our remaining possessions were probably lost somewhere in southern Africa. After an hour of waiting and trying to figure out where our bag was, the airport staff finally discovered that the carousel had broken and the remaining bags were sitting downstairs.

It turned out we weren’t in that big of a hurry since the Kramer’s plane had been delayed and we had over an hour before they were due to land. Keeping ourselves entertained with airport games, we finally met up with the Kramer’s and were ready to begin yet another adventure. The first obstacle was getting to our village. Kelli’s dad bravely maneuvered the rental car onto the left side of the road and despite four backseat drivers, a crummy map and a couple of wrong turns; we finally made it to the village. Ma and Dora gave us all a warm welcome. After a brief tour of the house and lessons in bucket baths we crashed into bed.