We figured that this morning was as good a time as any to make use of the huge amount of food we brought to Zimbabwe, so we started off our day with tea, coffee and a delicious cooked breakfast. Since it was going to be Joe's last full day with us before he returned to Zambia we decided to go and see the falls from the non-paying side. The Beale's have apparently been seeing the falls this way for quite some time because they reassured me they knew exactly how to get there by bypassing the park entrance fee. When we got in the car to head to the falls it was clear that our efforts to control the smell of the vehicle had not worked. So we set off to view the famous Victoria Falls in the meat wagon.
Joe directed me to drive towards town but to turn off onto a side road about 1km shy of our lodge. From here we trundled down a road until arriving at the VIP gate into the paying side, next to the river. A short walk from where we parked the car was a heap of branches preventing people from walking along the banks of the river, towards the drop off of the falls. Apparently these were not here before, and were some sort of African preventative measure to stop people from doing exactly what we were about to :D We fetched the blanket from the back of the car and laid it over the branches allowing us to climb onto the banks of the Zambezi river. Lesley was having some reservations about the whole endeavour so she stayed just on the bank once we had passed the branches.
The rest of us walked along some of the exposed rocks on the Zimbabwe side until we were standing on the very edge of the falls, watching the water that flowed to the left of our feet tumble into the river below. We clearly weren't supposed to be on this side but if you exercise common sense the view is well worth the risk! We stopped to wave to a couple of tourists who were viewing the falls from the correct side before pausing so Joe could have a piss over the edge of the falls for the customary Beale photo. You cannot visit this part of the falls safely if it is the rainy season, but only in the dry season. As we are just headed into the rainy season the river is not yet full and so the walk to the edge is only slightly interrupted by puddles of water and tiny streams.
When we finished with our antics we returned to Lesley who was glad to see us all back in one piece. We climbed back over our blanket without incident and we headed for town to try and find a solution to the smell in the car. Joe directed me to leave by a different route that took us past the real entrance to the falls. Jenny wanted to get out and see he much it would cost for us to legitimately enter the park. She returned from the information centre and told us it would cost $50 for the two of us, so we decided to wait until after the helicopter ride we were given by the Olds as a wedding gift, to see if we wanted to go in. From there we drove to the same shopping centre as yesterday and went back to the TM supermarket to get some newspaper. We figured that if the air freshener didn't work than maybe we would fair better by stuffing the suspected areas of the car with newspaper to soak up the smell. We did just that in the car park once we found a newspaper and Jenny and Lesley suggested that we drive to the nearby Victoria Falls Hotel for some drinks.
Lesley remembered staying at the hotel during the summer of 1976 with her family and according the her description the hotel has not changed much since. We explored the grounds for a while before deciding to get a proper look at the interior of the building. The hotel is grand in every way and truly transports any visitor from 2012 back to 1870s colonial Africa (not sure if this is a good or bad thing haha). Jenny and Lesley had a look at some of the double rooms that had been left open by the cleaning staff and we also snooped about the dining room/ ball room, the whole time imagining what it would be like to have a wedding in a venue like this. We elected not to have any drinks because the prices were quite high and we had perfectly good tea, coffee and beer back at the lodge.
We drove back to Lokathula and headed to the Buffalo Bar to use the Internet we had been told about. The bar has amazing views out over a watering hole and if you climb to the very top floor you can get a spectacular open air view of the watering hole from about 50 metres off the ground! Dan and I went downstairs to get everyone drinks, beers for Dan and dad, an appetiser and gin for me and a Malawi shandy for mum. Unfortunately when we got back up to the top deck it turned out that the bar lady had a different view of what was in a Malawi shandy, so dad took it back. She graciously changed it and we sat upstairs watching over two male elephants who had come for a drink. There was also a warthog family playing on the banks of the water, and plenty of different birds to see.
We eventually went home as the sun began to set, and started the fire for the braai. We decided to cook the flat chicken and the boerwors tonight, and eat it along with mums yummy curried beans. the fire was quite hot and the bedrooms cooked a spanned, but unfortunately cooking a flat chicken whole on a braai isn't such a fast process. The sausage was done far before the chicken ever had a hope of being done, so Dan and I took it off and separated it out into normal size pieces to finish cooking it. Our meal was very yummy! Dad didn't really like the beans as he doesn't like onions, but Dan and I thought they were delicious. After a couple more drinks we rolled down the canvas wall that separate the patio from the lounge, zipped it all up and went off to our cozy mosquito netted beds to sleep.
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