We made our way from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe to Livingstone in Zambia. What a crazy journey! It only took about 45minutes all up, including going through immigration in Zambia but it was a crazy 45 minutes and a little bit nerve wracking too.

The trip took two different taxis. One to get us to the Zimbabwean border and then another to cross the bridge to the Zambian boarder. Leading up to the bridge there were a load of trucks and their drivers finalising their last bits of paperwork before heading into Zambia. There was quite a queue lining up but that could have also been because only one truck is allowed onto the bridge at any one time.

Once on the bridge our taxi driver had to weave in and out of people making their way to the other country. Cars did not seem to be staying on their side of the road. People on bikes loaded up with with so many things your wonder how they can actually push the pedals. Once we got to the other side that is where the fun began.

As soon as we got out of the taxi people were trying to grab our bags to help us and make a quick buck at the same time. We were able to fend nearly everyone off. It also seems that people here do not have respect for people's personal space. Either that or they are just really nosy! While showing our passports to guy in immigration the people were standing so close behind us they could have read the passports. It wasn't only the people behind us the people behind them got really close too. The guy going over all our paper work was not phased by this. He was too busy chatting to his friends on Facebook! After what seemed like forever we were finally issued the appropriate visa for volunteering in the country, charged $50 each (a figure he just seemed to make up out of the blue, although he did give us a receipt) stamped our passports. Then went back to Facebook, probably telling his friends that drinks were on him as he had just duped two Australians out of $50 each!

We finally me our contact and driver while we are here and headed to the backpackers that will be home for the next two weeks.

We have had a quick look at the school but we will tell you more about that later when we have some more to talk about.

On Saturday night we went out to dinner at a little Italian restaurant called Olga's Italian Corner. All the staff their come from disadvantaged backgrounds. People who did not have access to schooling when they were younger so have no skills now. Olga's teaches them about the hospitality trade, (something Livingstone is not short of considering the many tourists about.) cooking and even carpentry. They are even opening a guest lodge and make a pretty good pizza. You can check them out at www.olgasproject.com. It was nice to see how eating out can make a difference.

Today we went for a swim... Going for a swim, that's pretty boring you say.. Well it just wasn't any swim. We went swimming on top of Victoria falls itself. We went by jet boat to Livingstone Island and then for a short swim and walk out to the little pool named Devil's Pool and then took a big leap of faith into the water where we found ourselves right on the edge of the waterfall with only a natural ledge made of rock stopping us from going over. It was amazing to see the rainbows that the mist forms from such a birds eye point of view. We both did the jump without to much hesitation. We were both more nervous going gorge swinging than jumping off a rock metres away from the largest waterfall in the world. It was such a exhilarating experience. Once back on dry land we enjoyed a fantastic lunch on Livingstone Island. Hopefully the photos do what we did some justice and you can see how silly we both really are!

We start our first full week at the school tomorrow so will hopefully have something to tell you at the end of the week. In the meantime if we have anymore crazy adventures we will be sure to tell you about them.

See you all later.

written by  craigandcorrine on November 7, 2011 from Livingstone, Zambia
from the travel blog: Cape to Kruger and a Waterfall
Send a Compliment

---

Looks like you're loving it like Simon loves it! We look forward to seeing all your photos when you're back :)

written by  Shelley and Steffan on November 8, 2011

comment on this...