Day 4: Victoria Falls / Zambia & Zambezi Sunset Cruise

July 1, 2019

After breakfast, we head back to Victoria Falls, but today we stay on the Zambia side and hopefully don't have to walk as far. The troop of monkeys from yesterday is gone, but there are a lot of trucks lined up at the border crossing.

We pass the border post and get our tickets at the Visitor Center (here we only pay 20 USD per person) and march towards the viewpoint. We already like the first viewpoint very much. You can see the falls through the gorge, and the whole scene is decorated with an almost kitschy rainbow. Oh, how beautiful!

A bit further up, we stand on the edge of the falls and look across to the Victoria Falls Bridge where we were standing yesterday.

We walk a bit upstream, but there doesn't seem to be anything interesting here until we suddenly come across fresh elephant tracks! Oh, we don't want to meet them here, so let's quickly go back to the falls.

There are monkeys in the trees, and they come out of the bushes and walk right past us on the path. I still have great respect for the "monkeys", so I keep my distance. But that's not always easy, as the monkeys walk right by us completely unbothered, just a few centimeters away. They don't seem to be afraid of us at all. The monkey mamas carrying their babies are particularly cute. Adorable.

We reach the "Knife Edge Bridge" and from there we have a gigantic view of the gorge and waterfalls, except for the Zimbabwe side where we were yesterday.

Normally, you get wet on the "Knife Edge Bridge" because the spray is usually so heavy that you can hardly see anything. But since the Zambezi River has little water, we manage to cross almost dry. Sturdy shoes are a MUST! The bridge is slippery and the paths to the falls are as well.

We see part of the Horseshoe Falls on the Zimbabwe side at the end of the trail. And a rainbow beautifies the scene at the river bend.

We take a detour to the "Victoria Falls Bridge Viewpoint" where we see the bungee jumpers from the bridge again.

At noon, we take a taxi back to the hotel. It was good to only plan half a day for the Zambia side and spend the whole day in Zimbabwe. This allowed us to enjoy both sides of Victoria Falls stress-free.

When we arrive at the hotel, we have lunch. The kids have pizza, and we have a salad. For tonight, we reserve our favorite table with a view of the Zambezi River for dinner. Before that, we booked a Zambezi Sunset Cruise on the "Lady Livingstone" ship. It starts at 3:45 pm on the shore of the neighboring hotel and will last about 2.5 hours.

We spend the 2 hours until then on our balcony, observing the "monkey theater" that is happening in the trees in front of our balcony. A group of monkeys are swinging from branch to branch with a roar, making me afraid that they might jump onto the balcony. Eventually, they calm down, and the parent monkeys sit on a branch just a few meters away from us to groom themselves. The little monkeys have funny colors - at least the male ones 😊

So "turquoise"....

At 3:15 pm, we walk to the neighboring hotel where our Sunset Cruise starts.

The Lady Livingstone has just returned from the Day Cruise.

When I booked it from home, I thought the price of 225 USD (2 adults & 2 children) was quite high, but since we are here, we have to do something like that!

We are even more surprised when we board the ship and get a glass of wine, beer (or water/soft drinks for the kids) for free. My husband jokes if there will be a "refill". The friendly staff member's answer: "Yeah! This is an all-inclusive cruise!"

Ohhhhh! Really???? Drink as much as we want? All-inclusive? Awesome! As we find out during the tour, even the food is included! Okay, then the price wasn't so high after all. Throughout the evening, we eat various snacks, vegetable skewers, antipasti, meat skewers, chips, nuts, and for dessert: chocolate brownies, cookies, and other sweets.

The glasses of wine and beer on almost empty stomachs quickly have an effect, so I switch to water soon.

We sail upstream on the Zambezi and after a short time, we already see the first hippos in the water. An elephant stands by the river and next to it, a warthog is sunbathing.

We are by far not the only ship on the river - but according to the kids, we are on the "coolest" one. Tourists from the other (mostly smaller) ships wave at us, and one boat next to us is hosting a birthday party. Wow, there is a lot going on here on the river!

If you are looking for a lonely and romantic sunset cruise, you are in the wrong place on the Zambezi. More and more ships appear on the river as it gets darker.

We watch the sunset - in the best sunset manner, of course, with a glass of whisky in hand - and enjoy the return trip to the hotel.

We arrive at the pier at 6:30 pm and are welcomed by a singing and drumming group by the campfire.

Shortly after that, we cancel our dinner reservation because nobody is really hungry anymore. Although it's still early, we retreat to our room, where we read for a while and then go to bed early. It was an eventful day!