Saturday, September 24, 2011

Victoria Falls

The last week of our trip in Africa, we traveled to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.  We stayed at The Kingdom Hotel four nights and went on six excursions.  It was relaxing to end the trip in a nice hotel without any long, dusty roadtrips.  Upon arriving the first night, we went on a river cruise.  We watched the sunset while enjoying snacks and drinks, and looking out for hippos.  The next day, we took a walking tour of Victoria Falls. The falls are not the widest or tallest falls in the world, but it claims to be the largest waterfalls.  Because the falls are SO large, it was difficult to see the falls from the walking tour.  You also get very wet from the mist.  The following day, we took a helicopter ride to see the falls and we were amazed by it's beauty!
Victoria Falls from the helicopter


Victoria Falls


Victoria Falls


Helicopter ride over the falls




The  gorge is a popular area for bungee jumping, swinging, and ziplining.  We were not stupid brave enough for any of these activities!
Victoria Falls Bridge where we watched bungee jumping...just watching made me sick!
  


Victoria Falls Bridge and Gorge, here people (not me!) swing over the gorge


We went on one last safari before leaving Africa.  The highlight was seeing this momma elephant and her baby.  This baby was the smallest we saw throughout the entire trip. 
Momma elephant


Baby elephant...so cute!


I tried to get a picture of the baby elephant, but it ran really fast while the momma stood guard.
  Early one morning, we went waking with lions!  They were cubs (one male and one female), but you can see they were still large!  They were one and a half years old.  When they were born, they were taken into captivity and are being raised to return to the wild.  The lion population has been decreasing in Africa, so this program was created to make sure more cubs survive through the first few years.

Petting the lioness

Walking with the lions
  


Walking with the lions

Our last evening in Africa, we enjoyed a traditional dinner and dance.  Actually, we didn't enjoy the food that much, but the overall experience was great!  You can see they gave us a wrap to wear, painted our face, and passed out drums.   





Face painting



Worms to eat! Yuck!  Don't worry, we didn't try them.

I will have to make another post about our fun, but SCARY whitewater rafting trip!


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