Day 2

We started the day by visiting a local village. It looked small from the road, but its population is 3000. The dwellings are made from wood branches and clay and topped with a thatched roof. There are a few solar panels which charge car batteries for powering TVs. Cooking is done over an open fire and water is pumped from wells. The small children followed us and spoke good English. There was a school, nurse’s house and a medical dispensary which were concrete structures. The village had 7 churches, each a different Christian denomination. The village leader was a woman. The leader is responsible for assigning land to new families and other admin tasks. The tribal chief of this particular tribe (Lozi) oversees about 1200 villages. After the village visit we set out for Victoria falls. It is not far but we had to cross international border into Zimbabwe. First, we had to do exit emigration from Zambia then entry immigration into Zimbabwe. It was quite a long worthless process. The falls are amazing. They are 300 feet high and about 1 mile in length. The amount of water cascading over and down is mind boggling. On the way back, we stopped by the side of the road to watch a herd of elephants drinking. We went back to the River Club for lunch and had a short rest. Our next outing was to a national park nearby that is known for its white rhinoceros. We were instructed to walk single file following ranger with rifle, ranger guide, us, followed by ranger with rifle. Within 5 minutes we came upon a group of 5 rhinos, which included at least one big male, a female and a baby. We took lots of pictures and drove back to our lodge to have an al fresco dinner on the bank of the Zambezi river against the background of the setting sun. Both the setting and the food were outstanding. The lodge owner stopped by and added some fascinating conversation.