Day 17 – Chobe National Park and Victoria Falls

So, inasmuch as this was also my vacation (holiday), I decided to sleep in this morning and let everyone else go on safari. Of course, it was the best one yet with a male and female lion crossing their paths during the drive as well as numerous other animals I had not seen. BUT, it was worth it to get some additional sleep. I never had to fight jet lag, but I did have to fight early morning wake up calls! It was pure heaven sleeping in and lounging. I made it downstairs to meet everyone for breakfast upon their return. Coffee, somebody give me COFFEE!!!!!!

The Thompson’s van met us at the hotel at 11 am to take us back to Zimbabwe. This time it was a Botswana Thompsons guy and he saw us through the border crossing and the Zimbabwe Thompsons guy met us there and the luggage was transferred. It was all very smooth and easy. Did I say that Thompsons was GREAT and going through them was the best choice I made on the whole trip.

Our Zimbabwe driver had warned us about the economic disaster that had befallen them under Robert Mugabe. I had the opportunity to meet Mugabe AND Ian Smith, the former PM of Zimbabwe at an agricultural fair in Salisbury (now Harare) back in 1980. He was the toast of Washington DC back then, but not long after had his troops murder 20,000 of the opposition forces (ZANU vs. ZAPU). From then on he took over control of the country with the strong hand of a dictator and continued to tighten his grip to the horror of the rest of the free world. As a result, the Zimbabwe dollar, which was worth over $2 US in 1980, was now worthless. They kept printing money with no substance behind it and soon were printing trillion dollar bills. I am now in possession of a $50 trillion dollar note and a $100 trillion dollar one. Both are totally worthless and the currency of the country is now the US $ by default. You can still buy the trillion dollar notes as a tourist curio, but they are no longer recognized and so no one takes credit cards nor do ATM machines work. I fear that under Obama’s presidency we face a similar fate unless he curbs his spending habits! What will be the default currency if the US $ fails? The Euro?

We arrived into the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge mid afternoon and had nothing on the agenda for the day. The lodge was in the Victoria Falls National Park and so there was a watering hole behind the hotel with lots of game coming and going. Right when we got there they had a feeding of vultures and storks where they threw out chicken scraps for them to eat. It was really neat seeing the group mentality of feeding.

Dinner was in town at a Pizza Inn, believe it or not! It was cheap and delicious and we had to pay in cash… US $ of course! Greg even got the calzone he has been waiting for! Upon our return to the room, Thompsons had gotten us a two level suite with two bottles of champagne and a fruit basket for our arrival, so we went to the room and talked for a while, then we all retreated to our places and read. It is great to be able to spend time reading instead of the constant barrage of television!