This morning started bright and early packing and getting dressed before heading to the boat.

We cast off at 0630 (m&c aboard) and saw hippos almost immediately, then a troop of baboons moving downriver with their babies in the morning light.

There were many shenanigans, and a clumsy baby baboon is a thing to behold.

Onward, we watched birds hunting and hippos play fighting as Namibian fishermen looked on.

We returned to the lodge, said our goodbyes to M&C then packed our bags and waited in the lobby for our ride.

Everyone was incredibly gracious and warm. Our driver , CK, arrived a little late but took us back along the river to leave the park. We encountered M&C returning with our guide Kitty.

Kitty is pretty amazing – really fun happy and slightly cutting wit. She lost her brother to Covid, and like everyone in tourism has been really struggling economically. Whole resorts have just closed down. Like most guides, she spends several weeks at the lodge continuously then goes to see her family before returning.

CK took out out along the river, so of course we saw a bunch more wildlife.

Out of the park, we drove to the Zambian border, hitting a few traffic jams on the way.

We don’t lose sight of how incredibly lucky we are. Everywhere we go we meet people who are working HARD not just to get by but to better themselves. Inspiring and humbling.

At the border, we spent about 30 minutes getting our visas and passports processed. The crossing required we show our negative Covid tests and CDC vaccination cards, and the two country visas were $100USD in cash only.

Mask compliance and enforcement was pretty loose, though it was also all outdoors and reasonably distanced. We kept our masks on diligently. There was no hint of corruption.

We were handed from one driver to another at the border, Duncan from Thompson’s Transport driving us to the Victoria River Lodge. We got pulled over on the way, the police and our driver seemed to be negotiating proper paperwork. Our driver was pretty convincing and again we were on our way.

We arrived at the Victoria Falls River Lodge dock, where we were picked up on a pontoon boat and whisked upriver to the lodge. Of course we saw elephants and hippos on the way, including an elephant greeting party at the lodge dock.

We checked in, had orientation and lunch and went to our incredible room on the river. The resort is really spectacular- extremely wonderful setting, facilities, management and service.

There’s a cold tub (like a hot tub, but not heated) we jumped in to cool off.

Coming back in, Heather found a frog visitor in her towel (we named her Kushamisika, for “surprise” in Shone).

After settling in it was back to the dock for our evening river tour. We had insanely good G&Ts saw incredible wildlife – tons of storks, hippos, and elephants playing around in the water.

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We made friends with Kate from S Africa (and her young daughters), she is an architect and photographer and photo safari’s all over Africa. We learned a ton from her about how the pandemic impacted S Africa.

Polished it off with an amazing sunset (obvi) and then back for another G&T in the bar with the amazing Francis, a really delicious dinner on the dock, then back for an early night (0500 wake up to try to catch sunset on the falls).