Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe & Zambia

On November 14, we flew from our safari in Hwange National Park on a teeny, tiny plane back to Victoria Falls International Airport. From there, we were greeted by our driver from Wild Horizons, who took us to Ilala Lodge, our accommodation for our few days at Victoria Falls.

Throughout our short stay in Victoria Falls, we did a few, noteworthy activities!

Sunset Cruise on the Zambezi River: The Zambezi River is river that flows into Victoria Falls and it is the fourth-longest river in Africa. We very much enjoyed our two hour sunset river cruise. They served delicious drinks and food, and we encountered a crocodile and many hippos! Given that there were so many hippos, the boat moved very slowly along the river so that we did not disturb the hippos. Hippos are herbivores, but are also very territorial. If they are caught off guard, they attack and are actually extremely vicious towards humans!

Helicopter Ride over Victoria Falls: We spent one morning taking a helicopter ride above Victoria Falls. It was our first helicopter ride and it was absolutely breathtaking and so much fun!

Walking tour of Victoria Falls: After our helicopter ride, our private guide led us on a walking tour of the falls. We visited during the dry season, meaning that the river was much lower and therefore the smalls were relatively smaller. Despite this, we were still able to get some great views of Victoria Falls.

Local Brewery Lunch: We ate a bunch of our meals at Ilala Lodge, but one day we ventured out for lunch to The River Brewing Company. We had some delicious food, tried all their locally made beers, and watched cricket!

Local Market Shopping: We enjoyed walking through the local market for some souvenirs. Cody was very set on finding a one hundred trillion dollar bill – a relic from Zimbabwe’s infamous hyperinflation period when the value of the currency was cut in half nearly everyday until one hundred trillion dollars was worth about $1 USD. While many vendors sold the historic currency, which is no longer used today (they use both the USD and an equivalent local currency), Cody had to settle for a 20 trillion dollar note and paid much more than it was worth when the currency was phased out.

There are many other activities at Victoria Falls (bungee jumping, gorge swing, elephant sanctuary…etc.). That being said, we had limited time at the falls and also wanted to spend a good amount of time relaxing by the pool at our hotel.