After ten sun filled days exploring South Africa we flew to Victoria Falls via Livingstone, Zambia. Crossing the border into Zimbabwe was a bit of a challenge as all the paperwork is manual, so patience was indeed a virtue. We checked into Pioneer’s Lodge a beautiful property set in lush rambling gardens with beautifully manicured lawns, shrubs and flowers. We were only here for a couple of days but even though the time was limited the experiences were extensive. We toured, golfed, cruised and grazed.
Our golf experience was awesome, we teed off early in the morning and we had a great time
playing at Elephant Hills – highly recommend it. Our caddies were pleasant and knowledgeable the experience was almost as memorable as playing the course itself. The caddies were very eager for a job as most of them walked a long way to get to the course with no guarantees of work. We saw a lot monkeys and other wildlife on the course but no elephants. Golf carts were very limited and they were so high off the ground I couldn’t get in until my caddie found a drink crate which he carried around for me to use as a step, such a nice guy.
We had lunch at the Wild Horizons Lookout Café which is known for great food and fantastic scenery. Perched on the rim of the Batoka Gorge, it offers sweeping views of the rapids below and the iconic Victoria Falls Bridge. We also saw them getting ready for bungee jumping and zip lining.
Our tour of Victoria Falls was a truly awe-inspiring experience. It was described by the Kololo tribe living in the area as ‘Mosi-oa-Tunya’ – ‘The Smoke that Thunders’ for the immense spray and incredible noise caused by the rushing water. Victoria Falls is now also known as the greatest curtain of falling water in the world when its width and height are combined. Columns of spray can be seen from miles away as, and we saw the spray from the plane prior to landing in Livingstone.
The sunset river cruise was a superb way to wind down after a busy day, We relaxed on the water enjoying a beverage and snacking on finger food. The scenery was amazing and watching the hippos was entertaining. There are great photo opportunities against often-spectacular African sunsets. There are few moments as profuse to Southern Africa as when the sun sets below the horizon. In fact, if you have ever been to Africa, you likely just let out a sigh as the memories flooded back. There is just something about African sunsets that leave you speechless as you watch the sky twist and turn into incredible colors reflecting on the shiny surface of the river. African sunsets are incredibly amazing which is attributed to a high concentration of dust in the atmosphere. This dust helps to refract sunlight and paint the sky in spectacular orange, red, and yellow hues. We were to witness more sunsets and some sunrises too.