And just like that, another year has come and gone. And this one couldn’t go fast enough. While the months of teleworking and social distancing continue on, we were happy to be able to take a break and head to Victoria Falls in November. This was our first trip to Victoria Falls, and since Zimbabwe’s land borders had not yet opened, we had the national park and the resort where we stayed practically to ourselves.
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| Why did the elephant cross the road? These huge animals would disappear into the bushes within 10 feet of the road. |
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| Much easier to spot when they're out in the open. |
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| Or when there are 50 of them. |
After years of ongoing drought, the past couple of months have brought some much-welcomed rain. We stayed at a lodge on the Zambezi River, and during our game drives and other outings, it was remarkable how the rain had turned the landscape so lush and green. It made for some beautiful scenery… and gave the wildlife lots of cover, making them less easy to spot than on our previous safaris.
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| Just look for the giraffe heads sticking up out of the bushes. |
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| We watched these two playing around for like 20 minutes. |
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| Definitely lots of good birdwatching on this trip. Here's a ground hornbill... which we inexplicably never saw on the ground - only in the trees. |
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| We wrapped up a couple of days with a sunset float on the Zambezi. |
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| You can see why we liked this sunset spot. |
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| Some local Zambian fishermen on the river. |
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| ...And an Australian fisherman too. |
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| Goggles are a fashionable choice to spare your eyes from the flying bugs in the open-air safari trucks after night falls. |
This trip also brought us to Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia, so we had a chance to finally see what is arguably Zimbabwe’s biggest tourism draw. Being from Oregon with its bevvy of waterfall offerings, before setting eyes on Victoria Falls, I was thinking waterfall schmaterfall. But Victoria Falls is definitely something to behold. It goes on and on. There was a half-mile-ish long trail that offered about 15 different viewpoints of the falls along the way. Each one was different and all were spectacular. We easily spent a couple hours or more there, and we saw only a handful of other tourists the entire time. Our guide said during The Before Times, there would be busloads of tourists walking the trails and waiting in line for photo ops at various lookouts. But on our visit, we had the park almost to ourselves. We took a little drive through Victoria Falls town on our way back to the lodge, and while it is clearly set up for – and eagerly awaiting the return of tourists – it was very sleepy and quiet. Another sad reminder of the toll this virus is taking around the world.
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| At the first of 15 viewpoints along Victoria Falls. |
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| We visited right at the beginning of the rainy season, so this was pretty much low flow. At its peak, you can't even see the falls because of all the mist. I think we timed our visit perfectly. |
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| You can see some of that mist that Victoria Falls is known for here. In the bantu language the falls are called “mosi-oa-tunya” – the smoke that thunders. |
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| A post-hike visit to the landmark Victoria Falls Hotel built in 1904. |
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| The hotel's veranda was an excellent spot to cool off with a refreshing beverage. Our waiter shared with us that former Zimbabwe president (slash authoritarian dictator) Robert Mugabe and David Hasselhoff had sat at our table... though not at the same time, I was disappointed to learn. |
Our holidays this year similarly reminded us that these are not normal times. For the first time in probably 30 years, I did not cook or bake anything for Thanksgiving. Instead, we joined a few friends at a local restaurant where we sat outside and enjoyed Zimbabwe’s take on a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner – complete with turkey and all the fixings. We joined mostly the same group of folks for a Christmas potluck. I’m thankful for the small group of friends in our “pandemic pod” with whom we can gather to mark these occasions, and for the mild, pleasant weather that Zim has given us all year that make our outdoor gatherings possible year round.
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| Our front porch where we've spent a lot of time during lockdown. |
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| Our outdoor Thanksgiving celebration with our pandemic pod. |
Of course, all that said, I will eagerly welcome the return of some kind of normalcy where we can greet each other with a hug, reduce our dependency on hand sanitizer, and have parties and gatherings where we can invite as many folks as we want. As the holidays came and went this year in a very unconventional way, our countdown to 2021 now begins in full. Here’s hoping the new year gives us all a fresh start and renewed hope for better times to come. Wishing you all a safe and healthy 2021!
