Eight Days of Doing NOTHING in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

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We enjoyed a REALLY lazy morning, slept in for hours, and I woke with a really bad sore throat and the beginnings of a raging cold.  My farewell gift from Zambia would have me down for a few days.  After finally packing up we said goodbye to our traveling companions, exchanged email addresses and made promises to stay in touch.  We would be in Victoria Falls for a full week.  We taxied to our Zimbabwe home where we would hide out and rejuvenate.  Our estate, thanks to Airbnb, is actually a four-plex wandering through a fully walled lot, with loads of trees and plants, a really lovely garden, and a beautiful apartment.  Our host Susan lives in South Africa and our caretaker, Collen, could not have been nicer and more accommodating.  Three bedrooms, two baths and a great room.

We quickly settled in, found a small fruit and vegetable store in the neighborhood that also offer a decent assortment of meat, canned goods, and dairy, as well as the basics...rice, flour, etc.  Less than $50 per person fed us well for the full week.  Wi-Fi was great and we had plenty of bandwidth to handle Netflix and Comcast, as well as everything else we could find to keep us entertained.

It was coolish at night and quite warm during the day.  Bobbie took a daily hike into the city center and some of the girls joined her from time to time.  It was 2KM into the tourist sector, which is pretty much all of the town, and took about 30 minutes.  Even Andi made it as far as the big grocery short and shopping center one day.  Taxis back home were less than $5 and the drivers were all pleasant and accommodating...each trying to sell a safari or other day activity...smile...ah, capitalism.

My cold expanded to a slight fever, achy body, and of course, the ever familiar diarrhea.  It too five days to get over it...a short time considering...and I used the time to catch up on correspondence, do some advance planning, and get plenty of rest.  Under the trees surrounding the house, it was cool, and afternoons could be spent enjoying the lounge furniture outside without bugs.

It is dry and sandy here and once outside of the compound things are pretty monochromatic. The town itself is pretty small and most everything commercial is happening near the falls and the border.  In the photo below you can see the falls to the far right and the city in almost its entirity.

 The main highway from the border to Bulawayo, some 300 miles to the south, is also the main street of town.  Tourist shops, and travel offices line the street for a couple of blocks.

 There is one major shopping center and except for a decent sized grocery story and a few curio shops, it is almost entirely tourism vendors.  The "falls" is their main calling card and they work it as much as possible.  Nearby Chobe and Hwange National Parks offer game viewing and we will be doing that once we rejoin the overland truck in a few weeks.

Ten minutes away from the main street, this is what the side roads look like, with local folks going about their daily chores.

We celebrated my 69th birthday here with an Afro-Mexican dinner and a key lime pie.  It was fun.  After a week of recuperating and resting up, we were ready to head off into Zimbabwe for more adventure.