Victoria Falls: No water but plenty of animals

Other than the border crossings each morning and early evening, I had a great weekend in Victoria Falls relaxing - made all the easier when forced to go to sleep early after the electricity goes out in the hotel as result of the thunderstorms and you are told not to leave the hotel under any circumstance - and visiting several of the game parks. It was really nice to take a break from visiting school and orphanage programs and seeing the poverty and AIDs problems up close. By the time we left Botswana last Friday, I was feeling very weary.

Hippos and zebras are an entirely different story, however. On Saturday, Linda and I went on a boat safari along the Zambezi river. Hippos were everywhere. Unlike the happy hippo characters of my imagination, these can supposedly rip a boat, needless to say also a person, in half rather easily. We also went on a land safari and I could not click my camera shutter fast enough to take pictures of all the zebras, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, wart hogs, impalas, water buffalos and babboons we saw. Poaching has been a huge problem in the parks so every now and again a man also would pop out from behind a tree with a rifle. Always rather disconcerting, so Linda leaned up to the driver each time and asked, just to make sure, whether the man was there to shoot poachers, animals or us.

However, this time of year, the Falls on the Zambia side are dry. After we arrived in Zambia/Zimbabwe, that was the first thing everyone said to us - too bad, the Falls are dry. We thought they must be joking. But, of course, we arrive and there is no falling water in one of the world's great wonders. But it was still beautiful and the Zimbabwe side of the Falls does have water if you are willing to get yourself over there to seem them...

After a few days at Victoria Falls, it was then time to head back to South Africa, to Cape Town.