![\"Africa](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Africa-442.jpg\")
<\/a>Victoria Falls<\/p><\/div>\n
I have that feeling that our time in Africa is going way too quickly as we head to the last leg of our journey, Victoria Falls<\/strong> \u2013 one of the \u20187 Natural Wonders of the World\u2019<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0 Our trip from Notten\u2019s Game Reserve<\/strong> necessitated an evening layover in Johannesburg<\/strong> since there is only one flight a day into Victoria Falls from \u2018Jo\u2019burg’<\/strong>, as it\u2019s known to the locals.\u00a0 Arriving in the late afternoon and leaving the next morning only gave us enough time to wipe the elephant dung off our shoes, visit Nelson Mandela Square<\/strong> and gradually acclimate to having electricity in our hotel room.<\/p>\n \u00a0Zimbabwe<\/strong>, formerly know as Southern Rhodesia<\/strong>, was colonized by the British<\/strong> in 1890; our hotel, the Victoria Falls Hotel<\/strong>, took us back in time to the turn of the century, when it was built by the Brits during the construction of the Victoria Falls Bridge<\/strong> in 1906 as part of a grand plan to run a railroad line through the heart of Africa from Cape Town<\/strong> to Cairo<\/strong>.\u00a0 If I described the hotel as being grand and colonial, in an elegant, Edwardian sort of way, neither of us would know what I was talking about, so just look at the pictures.<\/p>\n After walking the meticulously groomed grounds of the hotel, we were whisked off to a sunset cocktail cruise on the\u00a0Zambezi River<\/strong>, where we witnessed a playful\u00a0‘bloat’ of hippopotamus<\/strong>, a sun-worshiping\u00a0crocodile<\/strong>\u00a0and a spectacular sunset.\u00a0 One of our fellow cruisers was a rather arrogant young American, who didn\u2019t fit in too well with the rest of the animal lovers on board, as he was bragging about the hunting trip he had just completed where he shot an elephant, a buffalo and something else, maybe it was his wife, I stopped listening.\u00a0 He was either very quiet toward the end of the cruise or he was that thing we saw bobbing in the water at sunset heading for the falls.\u00a0 I\u2019ve included a spectacular picture of the sunset that evening, but honestly it doesn\u2019t do the sunset justice. \u00a0We head back to the hotel for dinner. \u00a0The hotel is steeped in the history of explorer, missionary and liberator,\u00a0Dr. David Livingstone<\/strong>\u00a0and the famous meeting with\u00a0Henry Stanley<\/strong>\u00a0in the middle of Africa.\u00a0 The balmy evening allowed us to enjoy our dinner at one of the hotel\u2019s outside restaurants.\u00a0 Before dinner a local tribe provided entertainment with their singing and dancing to traditional music.\u00a0 Sensing that\u00a0Apple<\/strong>\u00a0didn\u2019t have these songs in their\u00a0‘iCloud\u2019<\/strong>, I purchased their CD, my fourth of the trip.<\/p>\n ‘Today’s Special’<\/p><\/div>\n After the tour we walked into town to get a bite to eat, but my picture of ‘Today Special’ tells you why we decided to wait until we got back to the hotel to eat. \u00a0We were told to never eat warthog in a month with any letter in it. \u00a0We continued walking to the middle of the\u00a0Victoria Falls Bridge<\/strong>, which was the scene of a\u00a0bungee jumping accident<\/strong>\u00a0last year when the bungee cord detached and dropped an Australian woman into the water 360 feet below.\u00a0 The bungee operator responsible for the accident, Cecil \u201cOops\u201d Newman, no longer works there, but someone did do a jump while we were there watching – crazy!<\/p>\n On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a\u00a0\u2018craft market\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0to bargain with the locals for their handmade wares.\u00a0 I rationalized my poor negotiating skills as wanting to help boost their economy by paying, according to my wife, somewhere between 6 and 7 times what the craft was worth.\u00a0 But who can put a price on a\u00a0hand-carved African mask<\/strong>\u00a0from Zimbabwe?\u00a0 Apparently I couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n View of Victoria Falls from hotel<\/p><\/div>\n Even though I\u2019m writing this while in Africa, you won\u2019t read it until I\u2019m at the chiropractor\u2019s office getting my back adjusted after the 40 hour trip home.\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s a long way getting there and coming home, but was it worth it?\u00a0 Oh yeah!\u00a0 The people, the places, the animals, the things we experienced, (Did I mention the people?) made it the trip of a lifetime!<\/p>\n A big thank you to Jack and JJ Budd, our travel companions, who did a similar trip two years ago and kept us from making \u2018rookie travel mistakes\u2019, to our travel agent, Lenni Curl of First Travel of California in Laguna Niguel, who secured us great accommodations and got us on all the right tours, and to David and Mia Notten for their gracious hospitality at their \u2018family\u2019 game reserve in Kruger National Park.<\/p>\n And thank you readers, especially you blog subscribers, for vicariously taking this incredible journey with us and thank you for your wonderful comments.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow (back from Africa) I have that feeling that our time in Africa is going way too quickly as we head to the last leg of our journey, Victoria Falls \u2013 one of the \u20187 Natural Wonders of … read more<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>The next day we loaded up for our\u00a0\u2018Barrel Ride Over the Falls\u2019 <\/strong>tour\u00a0\u2013 just kidding, it was already fully booked. \u00a0We did take a tour of Victoria Falls, whose original name translates to ‘The Smoke That Thunders\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0and even though there was not a cloud in the sky, we wore rain gear and got soaking wet. \u00a0A\u00a0‘congress’ of baboons<\/strong>\u00a0apparently signed up for the same tour we did as they followed us to the various viewing points along the falls.\u00a0 They were amazing \u2013 the falls, well the baboons too.\u00a0 Even if I told you that an average of about 38,000 cubic feet of water goes over the falls PER SECOND, you probably still couldn\u2019t imagine that much water \u2013 I didn\u2019t even know that water came in cubic feet, all I know is that it\u2019s a lot of water.\u00a0 The falls width of 5600 feet and height of 350 feet make it the\u00a0largest sheet of falling water in the world<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>