Victoria Falls

Another 5am rise, this time for a 6am safari drive through the Chobe NP. Chobe is the oldest national park in Botswana and one of the largest in Africa, being gazetted in 1967. It runs along the Zambezi River in far N.E. Botswana, and four countries border this bit of the river - Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Zambia - so we had to carry our passport on the tours as technically we were in other countries waters.

Saw a different list of animals, courtesy of our jeep ride in the care of Moses our guide. Impala were everywhere, baboon showed off on a log, and we got our first glimpse of water buffalo, spotted jackals and wild dog.

Some breakfast, and back on the bus. It's only a short distance to several borders but luckily our guide took the turn to Zimbabwe. Why is it that every immigration centre on any border in the world seems to be chaos? How hard can it be to collect a piece of paper and stamp a little booklet? No such thing as an information sign, having blank forms at the entrance, ropes to designate lines, or anything. I'm guessing that most border crossings were designed 50 years ago when lost people occasionally arrived at a border post, wandered into the office, had a chat, filled out the paperwork, and got waved on. Today, bus loads of people just seem to crush towards two small windows and push random pieces of paper through them at bewildered officers who pretend to try to read them. Our guide knew that you had to queue at one to pay money and the other to get the visa put into your passport, but I've no idea how the Indian couple traveling solo in a car with their baby who were in the queue ahead of us coped. Last we saw was her running back from the car at the border gate towards the office with papers in her hand, so something had gone wrong.

Then it was a customs check of the bus, and a bit further down the road it was a police check point. Anyway, an hour later we arrived at Victoria Falls and the tour was over. There were three Kumuka buses at the lodge, and most people were proceeding on another leg with a different Kumuka tour, either north to Nairobi or east to Mozambique, so they just swapped tour guides and buses, and set up their tents in the back yard of the lodge, but after some lunch and a farewell to our guides, we said our goodbyes and got a lift to our hotel.

Bit of a circus. The hotel didn't have our reservation, which we guessed might happen as its Africa, but at least they didn't quibble when we produced their paperwork. Then they would only accept cash, so a half hour walk into town for an ATM was required. When we returned, they had no change - 'would you like to spend it at the bar?' Yes, we do have wi-fi internet, but you have to buy a code at the kiosk back in town, you guessed it, a half hour walk each way. They apologised that we would only be able use the ceiling fans, as 'the airconditioner is all f'ed up'. Like a lot of Zimbabwe, the locals who kicked out the white owners are finding trouble in running things efficiently.

Anyway, it's New Year's Eve and the town is humming. There are two major new year concerts in Victoria Falls, and there are thousands of young people from all over the world in town. Shops have queues, and security is everywhere.

After cleaning ourselves and doing some diary, we headed back to the lodge where the tours were to pick up Mandy's t-shirt on our way into town for tea. The t-shirt wasn't ready of course (perhaps tomorrow), but we discovered that our tour group was taking our guides out for dinner at Muma Africa's restaurant, so we joined in the party, having a really lovely meal out in the garden with the group listening to the local African band. Wandered back to the hotel just before the fireworks went off and the town got too silly.