Update Zambia III - Victoria Falls

Voila! After recovering from New Year eve in Lusaka we drove to Victoria Falls, between Zimbabwe and Zambia. We stayed at a hotel in Livingston, A town 10 km away from the falls. Vic falls is a big attraction in southern Africa, and there are many tourist agencies organizing any kind of activity; rafting, canoeing, bungee jumping, boat cruises etc.. The Zimbabwean side used to be more developed but the political situation is making more and more people to visit the falls on the Zambian side. The visit of the falls is very impressive; the Zambezi sort of disappears in a crack 1.6km long and 100m deep and continues its course passing several gorges. In some parts you can get very close to the falls and the spray is so intense that you need a rain coat!

 

We wanted to do rafting but they didn’t do half a day activities in this time of the year, and we didn’t want to leave Bwenzi the whole day on the hotel (although the receptionist said rafting would be a great experience for her! ) So we went for canoeing. For the Belgians, you can imagine that canoeing in the Zambezi is not quite like the descent of the Lesse, but we still thought that it was going to be relaxed compared with white water rafting! Well, that was until our guide started to talk us about what to do in case of a hippo attack! We found out that hippos are very territorial and they don’t like people crossing their land in canoe.. So the guide would pass first hitting his canoe so that the hippos would pop out their heads and we could see them. Everything went ok until one big Bully (Male Hippo that has been kicked out of a family) scared us so much that we dragged the canoes outside the river until we passed his patch and we could continue.. I will never forget the moment when I heard it growling behind us, it was so close!!

 

 That was almost the end of our holiday, we drove back home in 2 days getting ready for the back to reality. Now, lecture preparation, the pharmacy students’ start next week!!!