Day 96- Victoria Falls 7/1/13

Or of course simply "Vic Falls" to all seasoned travellers, such as ourselves.

Started the day with a pre dawn safari to catch the animals as early as possible. Again, not many "new" ones but added the "southern" giraffe to our list, as well as an extremely rare pack of four "wild dogs", now officially called "painted dogs".

The highlight of the drive was that our ancient land rover broke down. We had to be rescued by another but as there was no tow rope, we had to resort to cutting a couple of seat belts and tying them together. These then broke at various times, and then the towing land rover got so stuck in the mud that we all (except those taking photographs!) had to push hard to get it going again. We all greatly enjoyed the whole experience!

Next stop was an all too short visit to the local painted dog conservation area, with which we were all most impressed - not just with the work they are doing for these rare animals, but also with the impressive building in which the whole concern is housed. Quite possibly the best such that I have seen anywhere.

And then on to the town of VF, and a visit to the "adventure zone" to decide which "activities" we were going to do. Since before I left home, I had been trying to decide if I should do white water rafting on the Zambesi - perhaps they have a "baby slopes" equivalent for the likes of me ???? No such luck, it was all or nothing so was I going to be (for me) unbelievably brave or a wimp? In the end, I grasped the nettle and prayed I would not disgrace myself too many times by falling in.

Our evening meal was at the Victoria Falls Hotel, which surely has to be one of the most beautiful in the world, and the buffet meal there was just magnificent - and when we, after several visits to the "meat / salad" area, started on the "dessert island"......