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jnj away 2012...the journey continues

Victoria Falls, Zambia

ZAMBIA | Sunday, 3 April 2011 | Views [784]

For Caro & Albert - our NZ ponchos copped it again!

For Caro & Albert - our NZ ponchos copped it again!

20th – 22nd March 2011

Victoria Falls, Zambia.

Crossing into Zambia is always fun…there are taxes for the vehicle, $50US each for visa, car insurance, carbon tax and a local Council levy – total cost for 2 people in the car was $222US.  Luckily we then enjoyed 10 days in the country!  Then there are the money changers very eager to do business.  We particularly liked the “insurance” caravan – it’s so dilapidated and nothing’s been done about it since we last saw it in 2006!

Vic Falls are fantastic at the moment….the Zambesi River is in full flood so the waters were roaring over the top and through the gorge – the water’s so high they’ve had to shorten the bungee jump on the bridge so you don’t land in the drink!!  We stayed on the Zambian side of the bridge and stopped halfway across which is the Zimbabwe border where you can watch the brave but crazy bungee jumpers.  Then we scrambled past some menacing baboons (they go after fruit which we don’t carry) down to “boiling point” where the waters were swirling hence the name. Then back up to the eastern cataract – this part was exhilarating as we walked to the look out at the top of the falls in our NZ ponchos!!!   Imagine the spray bucketing like a Darwin downpour but there’s actually no rain, then wading across the pedestrian bridge when 20cm water is gushing over it and no visibility – it was such a drenching we kept going back for more  J

Staying at a lodge in a safari style tent near Livingstone on the Zambian side we met a very adventurous guy called Robert Knol who is cycling 11,000km from Cairo to Cape Town to raise money for bore water for a Zambian school. It’s a school he went to as a boy when his parents taught there.  Robert now lives in the Netherlands and his project is called www.11000km.NL He’s out to break the Guiness Book of Records in doing it in 74 not 81 days and was already 6 days ahead.  He was about to face the elephants near Chobe in Botswana but his blog reports he’s got through that.  The worst had been the kids in Ethiopia trying to throw stones at him to knock him off the bike to steal his stuff….

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