Sign in with Facebook""The Smoke that Thunders"" Top 5 Page for this destination Victoria Falls by grets
Victoria Falls Travel Guide: 443 reviews and 1,074 photos
We spent a wonderful week in Victoria Falls taking side trips by car, mini bus, truck, jet boat, canoe, river cruiser, helicopter and on foot.
The following - as well as most of the tips - is an extract from my diary written at the time:
Immigration in Zimbabwe is very slow. David goes straight throuhg, but as a Norwegian passport holder I need a visa, so I have to queue with all the other aliens. The Americans in front of me are very confused about the price of the visa, it's $30 for a single entry or $45 for double entry, but the captain announced the airport tax on the flight as $20, which has totally mixed up the Americans. They try to argue the price, and then claim they don't have the money. Sad, but true. I have to translate for the Germans behind me as they are confused too. It takes forever. The cases have arrived and poor David is just standing there waiting for me to come tthough. There are no proper queues or little boxes with bars in front for the immigration officials to sit in, just one big room with a couple of desks and the luggage carousel.
Jojo meets us with a little mini-van. There are only us two for the transfer to town, which takes 20 minutes.
Our first task is to change some money. The official exchange rate is ZIM$51 to the US$, but we get 'highjacked' by some touts and taken to a Bureau de Change which gives us ZIM$250. I carefull check each note as I have been warned that you could end up with a roll of newspaper. It all seems OK.
We also find the Internet Cafe but there is a queue so we go off and have a beer in the Hunters Bar. We are the only white people in the bar, having said that, we haven't actually seen that many tourists (whites) in the town at all. Just a couple. The beer costs us 20p and we get chatting to a couple of the locals. They all seem genuinly friendly and we feel very much at ease.
The falls are ever so noisy in the night, I am awake for a while considering the reason why the locals call the falls Mosi Oa Tunya - the Smoke that Thunders. It sounds like a cross between thunder and a train in the still of the night.
While having breakfast one day we think we can hear an elephant trumpeting, but we can't see anything. Just as we are leaving the hotel, the receptionist points it out to us - three elephants just the other side of the road. What a wild place!
Another day, on the walk back to the hotel from town, one of the locals says something to us as we pass. I'm not quite sure what he says, it sounds something like 'elephant'. Sure enough, right there by the side of the road is a large, wild, African elephant. I thought those warnings about wild elephants in town at night was an exaggeration. Obviously not.%c*
- Pros:Plenty of activities on hand, excellent prices, great wildlife
- Cons:Elephants
- In a nutshell:One of our favourite destinations
Reviews (31)
Chobe National Park
Off The Beaten Path
(2)
As soon as we are inside the park, a large hyena crosses the road in front of us. We watch it disappear into the bush.... more travel advice
Mosi Oa Tunya National Park, Zambia
Off The Beaten Path
(2)
The guide book I read before coming to Victoria Falls, did not give Mosi Oa Tunya National Park a particularly good... more travel advice
A fantasy world
Hotels
(3)
The Kingdom hotel is the sister hotel to the Palace of the Lost City at Sun City in South Africa. It's not quite so... more travel advice
Far too upmarket for us
Hotels
(3)
No visit to Vic Falls is complete without at least seeing Victoria Falls Hotel. It's very colonial, very grand. We make... more travel advice
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Victoria Falls Travel Guide
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Comments (15)
wonderful trip
Great page and great adventure. I hope to see Victoria Falls next year.
thanx for the tips
Incredible page on Victoria Falls and adjacent parks of wild animals. Can hear the water and the elephants. Cheers, SL
Excellent page, Grete. Who was that lady having dinner with your husband?LOL
Grete! Don't you know there are animals in the water that will EAT you. That canoe is Not protection. Take care. nice shots. j
One week with Victoria Falls, that would be a dream come true. Great tips. Happy travels! :^)
I`m planning a trip here and I must that your pages is excellent :-).... I can`t wait to go.
Did you have high tea at the Victoria Falls Hotel??
This looks like an incredible place to visit. Great page and very informative!