Day 43 (13/7/10) Livingston

Before I start writing today’s blog I should explain that its now day 45 and I’m only writing this now as I’ve had a headache and funny (sore not haha) the last few days (nothing major just exhaustion from bus journey and bad meals, so certain people there’s no need to send a team from Medicine Sans Frontier). So we got at about 9 as the hostel had a free shuttle to the falls and we wanted to catch it. We decided to make our breakfast, it wasn’t great, the bread was shite and fell apart and the corned beef wasn’t the nicest but it filled a spot so we set off. On the bus there was one really loud annoying American (isn’t there always) who told the whole bus her life story. When the Americans autobiography recital had finished we got off the bus and right in front of us was 3 baboons just running around it was cool to see them in the wild (we saw much more today but that’s another story). On the way into the park (the entrance is right next to the Zambian boarder control on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border) there is a massive market full of craft stalls so we went for a look (a big mistake) in the first stall the owner came out and asked us our names and where we were from (my friend, my friend, what’s your name what country you from?) as soon as we said Irish they responded with “Slainté” which just proves the Irish are suckers for tourist tat, no matter how much we complain about it at home. They then asked us to “come have a look at my stall it is all made in the village by the chief” (yeah and I’m honest news of the world journalist). The stall was cool it was filled with tonnes of the stuff we had bought in Mongu. I definitely wanted to buy some but I want to wait until the end of the week to know how much money I have. This didn’t seem to be an option he started asking if we had any money or anything in our bags to trade (one guy even asked for Áine’s socks, I’d have to pay a government specialist waste authority to take my socks). Eventually I made my exit promising to return someday during the week (he wanted a day and time). This was repeated at the next seven or eight stalls and each one sold more or less the same stuff (village chief my ass). One stall owner called Richard was nicer, he still did all the same things as the others, but he gave us free ponchos and necklaces (he put it on me not really my style, it classes with my eyes). To eventually escape me Dan and Áine managed to convince them we’d return another day. Jamie’s however ended up buying two statues he didn’t want. So finally we got to the park with the falls, it $20 in and when you want in its just a normal park with a deafening sound of water crashing down. As you walk down a small path and amazing site hits you through a gap in the tress you can see the mighty Mosi-ou-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) better known as Victoria Falls. It really is spectacular the amount of water falling over the cliff is spectacular. From where you stand you can see the over top of the falls but due to the spray the bottom isn’t viable. The falls themselves are about 5545 feet long and are about 300 feet deep deep and they are shared by Zambia and Zimbabwe with the border being down the middle of the Zambezi River. So back to us, the park is huge and there are a number of paths showing a number of different views and we decided we wanted to walk them all. We set off for the Knife Edge bridge and at the start of the path there is a gut selling raincoats which we figured was a scam as it the dry season with less water and we’d been pretty close already so we went without. We were very very wrong luckily me, Áine and Dan had Richard’s ponchos but Jamie’s only had his hippo statues. It was like being out in torrential rain, it was so funny and the views were spectacular. At the end of the path only a gorge with the Zambezi below separated us from Zimbabwe, I never thought I’m be that near to Zimbabwe with all the hassle going on there. The next path was down into the gorge to a spot called the boiling pot. The steeps were so steep we knew it wasn’t going to be fun coming back up (more on steps up gorges tomorrow). Again however the views were spectacular.   We were now at river level and could see the massive Victoria Falls Bridge high above us. We could also see people bungee jumping from it, it looked insane. The path back up did prove to be torture despite the spectacular surroundings. On the way back up Áine opened a banana and suddenly from nowhere a baboon came a stole it from her hand, they had been everywhere on the path so it wasn’t that surprising. Once we got up we sat and had some cokes with a guy from Belfast, I also got a ukulele badge finally.  We walked the last path which was once again spectacular. On the way out we had to return our ponchos. They remembered us and tried to get us to buy stuff we were there ages. Áine traded her socks for some small models. One guy sported the ukulele at took it out of my bag and started trying to get me to trade it (not a chance) he then handed me some small models and said we’ve traded I told him in no uncertain terms I was having it back and I got it after that. I decided I had enough so waiting outside a bit away even still I had to be rude to the other stall holder to get them to leave me alone. The other 3 bought different amounts of tourist tat including some stuff they didn’t want (with one person in particular spending more than she wanted). After the fall the day went a bit flat. The hostel serves free pancakes everyday at 3.30 so we went and got our fill. There we met an Irish man living in Perth and his Australian wife. He left the north in the 70’s and we had a long conversation about the economy at home, where each of us was travelling and many other things beside. We talked for so long we set off for dinner shortly after the conversation ended. We got a decent dinner (pizza) in a weird cafe come tourist shop and shortly after returned to the hostel browsed the net a bit and due to tiredness and illness and the thought we were going abseiling in the more we retired to be around 10. So to the next day...