January 26 & 27, Day 1 & 2 - Victoria Falls - Botswana - Kasane

We met our new additions to the group after breakfast. We add 2 Irish, Adrienne and Brendan, 2 guys from Montreal, Claude and Jan, 2 Aussies, Sam and Julia and Evelyn from Israel (my roommate), and 2 English, David and Marlis. A very different group as now there are older and younger folks than before. (The English are camping - hats off). Tahiya finds out she is camping and not too happy about it as she thought she was accommodated and Sam and Valerie are still camping. We have a new truck as Mamma is in need of repair. His name is Roy. The seats are not as comfortable and the lockers don't work as well. The truck sits higher so is even more rocky and bumpy - grass is always greener. We leave from Elephant hills and our first stop is Victoria Falls National park.

Here is our first opportunity to see all 1700m wide and 108m high of the largest falls in the world. The Tonga natives here call it Mosi-oa-Tunya - the Smoke that Thunders. They believe that a river god, Nyaminyami, resides in the water as an immense snake. They sell these as necklaces - guess what, I have several! There are several different lookout points and the view changes from point to point. It is beautiful, all that they say. There is quite a bit of water so a fair amount of mist kicked up. As we move along the viewpoints, the mist practically turns into a downpour and we get soaked. I hurry up a bit so as not to become cold. There is a place on the falls called devil's pool. The water is too high to swim now, but they actually let tourists in the pool to swim. It's just before the water falls off into the river and several people have apparently died here. Now you need a guide to go….Darwin is definitely at work here. At 11:30, we stop for lunch at the Adventure lodge then it is off to Botswana and Kasane and Chobe National Park. We arrive after a relatively short border crossing into Botswana. Wow - the roads are pretty good, lines and night lights in the middle, signs and even some traffic lights. We stay at the River Safari lodge which is spacious and in good condition. We get a bit of a rest in preparation for a busy tomorrow. Evelyn and I invite Tyhea to stay with us as the rooms to upgrade are expensive and our room is quite large.