Iris and I elected to sleep in this morning instead of going on a morning safari. How can you top yesterday afternoon after all? So, we took our time getting up, left our tent to go to the main lodge for some tea and coffee, content to wait for the others to return for brunch at 11 AM before heading out to the airport. Soon Joan joined us around the small table where we were soaking up the sun, laughing and chatting, and enjoying our coffee and tea. Announcement came by and asked us if there was anything else we would care for - muffins? toast? anything? He should have stopped at muffins because on this trip we have had the most amazing assortment of melt-in-your-mouth muffins. So of course we said we take a muffin (or 2 or 3, in my case). Joan was really giving me a hard time about it, but like I said, they were amazing. Initially Announcement brought the 3 of us 5 muffins. Then when he saw how quickly they disappeared, he brought 4 more. Since I already ate 3, I figured I'd be polite and let Iris and Joan have the rest. Joan said she would go ahead and take them for Martha (who was on the morning safari), and she just so happened to have a barf bag from one of our smaller planes to put them in. Well of course we thought that was a riot and we told Joan we hoped the bag was empty before the muffins went in!
The rest of the group finally returned from the morning safari and we all sat down to brunch. I told Everard that I needed to go lightly on the brunch since I had just eaten 3 muffins. He just laughed and told me I should have paced myself.
Shelly, Pamela and Vitalis were on the first plane out and we were supposed to follow about 3 hours later, since we had to wait for their plane to unload at Victoria Falls, fill with passengers for Linkwasha Lodge, unload those passengers, and then pick us up for Victoria Falls. We were scheduled to depart at 1:40 for arrival at approximately 3 PM. But after Shelly, Pamela and Vitalis landed, the pilot thought there was some kind of mechanical problem with the plane, so there was no longer a plane to board. What would have been an hour and a half flight turned into a 6-hour jeep/van drive over very bumpy roads. The only good thing was it gave us a chance to get some awesome shots of a giraffe drinking at the water hole. (Talk about being knock-kneed)!
My knees hurt whenever I look at this photo.
So instead of arriving at 3 PM, we reached our destination at 6 PM, missing our afternoon tour of Victoria Falls. We barely had time to get ready for dinner, which was an absolutely delicious filet with mashed potatoes. Our waiter was named Innocent, a very kind, gentle soul, whom Iris and I befriended. He was working at the lodge during university break to earn his fees for the next semester. He was studying Honors Sociology, and he and I decided to friend each other on Facebook.
Then off to our rooms to crash, being reminded to make sure the exterior shutters and all doors and windows were securely closed lest the monkeys and baboons raid our rooms for food.
Victoria Falls Safari Lodge.
The view of town from our balcony.
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