Ntwala Island Lodge, Namibia, to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Friday, October 8

Here are a few photos of our hovel at Ntwala that I took this morning:

We were up early, had breakfast, said our goodbye’s to the staff, and set off by boat to the reverse of our trip here two days ago.  At the Botswana – Zimbabwe border, we transferred our luggage to the small bus we had before – our first air conditioning in two days.  (OK…I’ll admit it…we’re spoiled Americans!)

Shortly down the road there was a police road-block…a normal thing to check papers, licenses, etc.  Sarah took a photo of one of the people there, for the bright colors in his uniform.  One of the policemen noticed her doing so…and apparently, since September 11, it is illegal to photograph law enforcement officers in Zimbabwe.  That led to one policeman entering the bus, and a heated discussion with our guide (not in English).  We weren’t sure if Sarah was going to lose her camera, go to jail, or what.  Then it appeared to be a shakedown for a “fine” (that would likely go into the policeman’s pocket).  The final resolution was that Sarah deleted the image, the policemen made her scroll through more than a 100 photos on her camera to make sure there was no other image of police, or other forbidden subjects, and we were off.  No jail time and no fine!

Our next surprise (but this a good one) was that Victoria Falls Anytime (our guide service in Zimbabwe) had set up a lunch stop just outside Victoria Falls – Chairs and tables by the side of the road, with interesting hors d’oeuvres and champagne.  We just pulled over to the side of the road and hopped off the bus!

Chuck and Chef Nico

We checked in to our hotel (the Victoria Falls Hotel), and you would have thought that we were back in British colonial times!  Uniforms unchanged since then.  Memorabilia all over the walls.  Serve high tea at 3:00.  And air conditioned rooms!

We sat on the veranda for a drink with Moses and to discuss what we would do the rest of our visit to Vic Falls, then walked over to the craft market…an area with crude shops (some just laid out on the dirt) which had a few hundred vendors, many selling the same things, and all of them pestering you to come over and see their crafts.  We did buy a small hippo stone carving for my office, a wall hanging for home, and a beautiful wood bowl.  After negotiating the prices, we thought they were bargains, by our standards.

Wonder if one of these would make our luggage overweight?

There must have been thirty (maybe more) booths like this one

Liked this artist's work, but didn't buy

And, of course, there are monkeys all over the place

On the walk to the craft market and back, we were accosted by young children either begging for money or asking you to buy old Zimbabwe money as a souvenir.  The money is now worthless, but rampant inflation caused them to print large bills – I saw one for twenty-five trillion!

Rita and I thought the craft market reminded us of the bazaar in Istanbul, and Sarah described it as “worse than China.”

We had dinner at the Jungle Junction restaurant at the hotel – a good buffet.  I tried my first crocodile…it tastes like chicken.  During dinner, a local group performed typical native dances.

Rita went to bed early, while I got caught up on the blog.  When I finally got to bed, I started laughing hysterically – there are two light switches next to the headboard on my side of the bed.  One does nothing.  The other turns the light in the light on in the dressing area when pushed one way, and turns my reading light on when pushed the other way.  Get the picture?  Either way the switch is, there’s going to be a light on in the bedroom.  Exit light bulb from reading lamp.  Problem solved.  I was wondering if the toilet would flush when I turn on the shower in the morning.

There is a sister hotel next to ours – new construction, with a casino.  It reminded us of Las Vegas, only the casino was virtually empty when we stopped, and the big payoff in the slots was something less than $600.  Yes…that $600 US dollars!  Wow…who could pass up trying for a bonanza like that!  I’m guessing that hotel isn’t making a lot of money from its casino operations!