Here we come, Zimbabwe! Cycle 5 Bikepacks Africa

Day 35 (August 7th): Livingstone, Zambia to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

• Didn’t set an alarm this morning, but we were still up at 6am. Took our time, had breakfast and then went for a good coffee. (The good coffee and a muffin cost us about as much as our room!)
• Tried to exchange the last of our Zambian kwacha, but all currency exchange locations only had Kucha. Too funny. Came back and met some sisters from Dubai. Chatted with them about their trip so far and they sent us their itinerary as well. That’ll help us as we move forward through Botswana and Namibia.
• Met a Dutch family with lots of bike questions 🙂
• Riding our bikes out at 10:30am to cross into Zimbabwe!
• Went 5k and got a WhatsApp message from the hotel that we forgot to pay for dinner and beers!!! So we had to call with our visa number 😆
• Crossed into Zimbabwe at 11:30am. Stopped on the bridge for pictures and then had a quick zip through immigration and customs. Now through the search bay. And off to our hotel. So excited!
• As soon as we rolled across, we saw the Ilala Lodge that we tried to stay at. With elephants grazing on their property…lol super cool over here. Lots of Mazungos…touristy.
• Rolled into our hotel, got signed in, had a nice welcome drink and got the instructions for the hotel.
• Waited a bit for a room to be ready and then we saw our room which was incredible.
• Unpacked a bit, came back and had lunch and our first Zimbeze beer, the local Zimbabwe beer.
• Met Dan from Ontario and his wife from Zimbabwe. Had a great connection, shared contacts and are planning to have pizza and beer tomorrow night with them.
• Realize that we may not need three full days, so we tried to get two nights instead of three. Couldn’t get a refund so looks like we’ll stay and ride out Monday.
• Back to our room to have showers and get ready for our sunset dinner cruise.
• Grabbed our taxi and off we go.
• Got on the boat and had a wonderful table on the side rail. Saw crocodiles right away, and then started our cruise.
• Beautiful sunset, great cocktails so we’re in a pretty good mood…lol.
• The sun sets in like five minutes here!
• Waiting for our main and fixing our master bath floor tile at Cultus at the same time! Thank goodness for ChatGPT!
• Had an amazing dinner cruise! Dropped off a Belgian couple and now our taxi driver is trying to get into the Boma Drum Dinner.
• Back to our hotel by 8:45. Great night!
• Had a bit of a scare as we had knocking on our door. The security guard woke us up because we left the key in the outside of the door! LOL.

14.72km/125m
Total: 2,903.23km/24,142m

Week 6, Day 36: Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe (Shongwe Lookout)

• Slept in until 7am. Went for breakfast at 8am. Incredible buffet, with Eggs Benedict and Cappuccinos.
• Got ready to walk across the border to the Falls at 8:50am.
• Decided to walk to the border and left the Zimbabwe side at 9:30am. We actually walked past fritters and didn’t stop to buy any…lol.
• Talked to one of the truck drivers and he said usually it’s 1 to 2 days of waiting to actually get across in your truck. The border does not work 24 hours, so they have to wait.
• At the Zambian immigration at 9:50 so it’s a good trek across the bridge – “no man’s land”.
• Started at 10am and decided to do the Boiling Pot hike first. Down to the bottom and then we’ll come back up.
• Nice hike down to the bottom where we got to see somebody bungee jumped from the bridge. Then, on our way back up, we passed a boys and a girls football team doing the track down and back up with their two Mazungo coaches. Some of the girls had flip-flops and somewhere in socks. Insane! These kids have Vibram souls on their feet.
• Crossing back into Zimbabwe just before noon. Had a great morning walking around and seen the falls from that side.
• Messaged Marijke to wish her a happy birthday! Missing her a lot today.
• Decided to grab some gelato just across the Zimbabwe border and then walk back to our hotel to get ready for our massages.
• Back to our hotel by about one. Ordered some snacks to get ready for a massage at 2pm. Those are two great hours! Even had a mask cover my eyes in my mouth…never had that before. It was PL‘s first facial and he quite enjoyed it. Massages were good too.
• Back to our room to chill for a bit. PL worked on our bike bikes.
• Took a chance and came in a cab and we got in for dinner! Super excited. Yay. We got in! Had a great meal watching some authentic dancing and drumming. We even got our own drums to use to get involved in the performances. It was a lot of fun.
• My hands are quite sore and I was pretty tired, but it was a great night.