Africa- part1 - Livingstone - Victoria Falls
The best trip of 2014
When: August 2014
Where : Zambia->Livingstone-VictoriaFalls->South Luangwa national park->Zanzibar
We flew from Geneva via Frankfurt-Ethiopia (Addis Ababa airport) by Ethiopian Airlines. The Addis Ababa airport was very small, we had 2 hour halt while going and 4 hour halt while coming back.
We flew into Lusaka, where we stayed there just for a night. From Lusaka, next day, we took Proflight Zambia flight, a 30 seater, 1 hour flight to Livingstone. They served amazing muffins and sandwiches in the flight as well ;) :D.
In Livingstone, we stayed in the center at Fawlty Towers ( 216s Musi o Tunya Road). Its a backpackers place and we loved it. Location was perfect, just opposite to the supermarkets and restaurants, and only 15 mins from the airport. The place was really nice, calm, extremely clean, with a nice swimming pool.
Every afternoon at 3 pm they used to give free pancakes ( actually crepes ;) , which were a treat with coffee. Their chef is a very funny guy and a good cook. On our request, he prepared special vegetarian dishes for us (really tasty daal and potato).
We reached the place around 10 am and they told us that they have a free shuttle to the Victoria falls at that time. So we quickly got ready and joined them.
At Victoria Falls, we had to buy an entrance ticket to the area. We hiked there for few hours. It was amazing experience.
You go right next to the falls and witness like 100s of rainbows. We did get a bit drenched by the showers from the falls but then got dried soon as well while walking around. There is a short hiking path that goes to the bottom of the falls.
It was nice but always occupied by Baboons who walk away if you wait for a while ;) (Just don't carry any food with you )
Next day we went for jumping in the Devil's pool/Angel's pool. We booked it through our hotel. It was around 80 dollars per person. Our hotel guys dropped us to the Royal Livingstone Hotel. This was five star hotel at the river bank of Zambezi. From there our guide took us to a small Livingstone island by a speed boat. It was a 5 minute ride. Our guide was a very nice and funny guy. There he took us really near the falls. He made us carefully sit right on top of the falls. The experience was incredible. Then he showed us the devil's pool, which was closed at that time because there was too much water. The water flow there was really strong and high. Then we went to the angel's pool which was on the other side of devil's pool. We jumped into it and swam to the top of the falls. The whole experience was amazing!! After we changed, we were served with a very good and tasty breakfast (included in the price).
Later we hired a taxi form the Royal Livingstone Hotel, the taxi guy convinced us to visit the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, just next to the hotel. He took us into the park with his car. There we saw several elephants, giraffes, deers, zebras and finally the rhinoceros.
We had a short walking safari inside the park to visit the group of rhinos. We watched grazing the grass carelessly from a distance of 5 meters.We paid 140 kwch as the park fee and paid around 100 kwch to the taxi guy (including the tip).
Next day, we went for half day river rafting on Zambezi river. We booked it with Bundu Adventures, from our hotel as well. We paid 200 dollars which included the rafting, lunch after the rafting, a cruise over the river for the sunset view and drinks and bbq dinner on the cruise boat. The rafting started right from the bottom of the falls. The rafting guys came to pick us up from our hotel.
We started at 7 am.They gave us some instructions, including how to deal with crocodiles in the river ;). They provided us the wet suits and other things needed for rafting. One of our friend didn't know swimming at all and we told this to our rafting guide. They all were extremely nice.They took care of us really well and made sure we were all safe all the time. We were also accompanied by 3 professional kayakers, who were there just for our safety. We did rappels numbers 1 to 10.
Our raft flipped only once, at the rappel number 8. That was really a scary moment, but we survived ;) :D.
After the rafting there was a short hike, which was really steep and was easily the toughest part of the rafting experience ;). On the top they had arranged a nice lunch and later they transferred us to our hotel.
Later around 4 pm, we were brought to another hotel from were we took the sunset cruise. It was a nice boat, there were free drinks, and BBQ (with fish, chicken, pork, etc).
Sunset was off-course fantastic.
We saw a lot of hippos and crocodiles, as well as some elephants who came at the banks of the river.
Next day morning, we took a nice massage at our hotel, ate nice food and left for our next destination, Mfuwe for a safari in South Luangwa National Park.
When: August 2014
Where : Zambia->Livingstone-VictoriaFalls->South Luangwa national park->Zanzibar
We flew from Geneva via Frankfurt-Ethiopia (Addis Ababa airport) by Ethiopian Airlines. The Addis Ababa airport was very small, we had 2 hour halt while going and 4 hour halt while coming back.
We flew into Lusaka, where we stayed there just for a night. From Lusaka, next day, we took Proflight Zambia flight, a 30 seater, 1 hour flight to Livingstone. They served amazing muffins and sandwiches in the flight as well ;) :D.
In Livingstone, we stayed in the center at Fawlty Towers ( 216s Musi o Tunya Road). Its a backpackers place and we loved it. Location was perfect, just opposite to the supermarkets and restaurants, and only 15 mins from the airport. The place was really nice, calm, extremely clean, with a nice swimming pool.
Every afternoon at 3 pm they used to give free pancakes ( actually crepes ;) , which were a treat with coffee. Their chef is a very funny guy and a good cook. On our request, he prepared special vegetarian dishes for us (really tasty daal and potato).
We reached the place around 10 am and they told us that they have a free shuttle to the Victoria falls at that time. So we quickly got ready and joined them.
At Victoria Falls, we had to buy an entrance ticket to the area. We hiked there for few hours. It was amazing experience.
You go right next to the falls and witness like 100s of rainbows. We did get a bit drenched by the showers from the falls but then got dried soon as well while walking around. There is a short hiking path that goes to the bottom of the falls.
Next day we went for jumping in the Devil's pool/Angel's pool. We booked it through our hotel. It was around 80 dollars per person. Our hotel guys dropped us to the Royal Livingstone Hotel. This was five star hotel at the river bank of Zambezi. From there our guide took us to a small Livingstone island by a speed boat. It was a 5 minute ride. Our guide was a very nice and funny guy. There he took us really near the falls. He made us carefully sit right on top of the falls. The experience was incredible. Then he showed us the devil's pool, which was closed at that time because there was too much water. The water flow there was really strong and high. Then we went to the angel's pool which was on the other side of devil's pool. We jumped into it and swam to the top of the falls. The whole experience was amazing!! After we changed, we were served with a very good and tasty breakfast (included in the price).
Later we hired a taxi form the Royal Livingstone Hotel, the taxi guy convinced us to visit the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, just next to the hotel. He took us into the park with his car. There we saw several elephants, giraffes, deers, zebras and finally the rhinoceros.
We had a short walking safari inside the park to visit the group of rhinos. We watched grazing the grass carelessly from a distance of 5 meters.We paid 140 kwch as the park fee and paid around 100 kwch to the taxi guy (including the tip).
Next day, we went for half day river rafting on Zambezi river. We booked it with Bundu Adventures, from our hotel as well. We paid 200 dollars which included the rafting, lunch after the rafting, a cruise over the river for the sunset view and drinks and bbq dinner on the cruise boat. The rafting started right from the bottom of the falls. The rafting guys came to pick us up from our hotel.
Later around 4 pm, we were brought to another hotel from were we took the sunset cruise. It was a nice boat, there were free drinks, and BBQ (with fish, chicken, pork, etc).
Next day morning, we took a nice massage at our hotel, ate nice food and left for our next destination, Mfuwe for a safari in South Luangwa National Park.
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