Monday September 14, 2009

After breakfast, we departed the Southern Sun for the terminal and our flight to Livingstone, Zambia and Victoria Falls. It was about a two-hour flight, and we caught our first glimpse of the Falls from the air.

The terminal in Livingstone is exactly what you might imagine a colonial African airport to be. One building. Lots of people. Seeming chaos, but not quite. We had to wait in quite a long line to purchase our visas, definitely a strong revenue stream for the Zambian government given the political situation in Zimbabwe next door. When we were planning our trip and mentioned we would be going to Victoria Falls, everyone we spoke to — everyone — said:  Zambia, right?

Once through immigration and bag claim, we were met by representatives from Bushtracks Africa, the travel company that has the concession for transport to and from the Sun Hotels properties in Livingstone. After about a 30-minute drive, we were at our hotel, the Zambezi Sun.

The Zambezi Sun is right on the edge of the Eastern Cataract of the Falls, about five minutes walk, so after we got settled, we decided to walk over to the Falls and investigate.

On the way, we were “waylaid” by Webster. Webster is a member of the grounds staff at the Zambezi Sun, and as far as we could tell, a big part of his job is feeding a small group of zebra, giraffe and impala. He invited us to join him to meet his friends during the day’s 3 pm feeding. It was a tremendously pleasant way to start our African wildlife adventure. I’m sure I will never be this close to a zebra again in my life.

After our mini-wildlife adventure, we walked over to the Falls. You can see the full set of my photos from that afternoon on Flickr, but here are some of my favorites.

That evening after dinner we attended a performance of Dancing Around Zambia presented by the Livingstone Performing Arts Foundation. There were not too many guests in attendance, and that was their loss because it was a terrific performance of African dance and song. My brother shot video, and hopefully he will post a copy online at some point.

A word about the Zambezi Sun. The rooms are quite small, and it is not as elegant as its sister hotel the Royal Livingstone. Luckily, Mum, Doug and I get on quite well, and we weren’t in the room that much anyway. However, I did feel a bit sorry for my mom as both my brother and I were fighting off colds when we were in Zambia and it must have sounded like a herd of elephants was IN the room at times.

The location of the hotel, however, cannot be beat and the service and food were excellent. I highly recommend it. The Sun is definitely the right choice for families. On your honeymoon? Maybe the Royal Livingstone. It’s not that far from the Falls and a bit more upscale. It also has gorgeous views of the river.

In both pictures, the land across the water is Zimbabwe. We are on the Zambia side of the Zambezi River.