Today was going to be a big travel day. We woke up super early and this time made sure to pack spare clothes and our malaria drugs just in case we happened to have our luggage misplaced again! The lovely people at Kapama were there to help us with our minimal luggage, but also handed us each a little breakfast pack as we were leaving before breakfast was ready so we were pretty pumped about that given that it was a 2hr drive to the airport so we could catch our flight to Jonannesburg.

Our breakfast pack from Kapama which was so sweet and really filled us up!

in Johannesburg we then had to make it to our next flight our to Victoria Falls to begin the Zimbabwe section of our adventure. The flight to Victoria Falls was pretty decent. Immigration, however, was a very different story. It was so unorganised and we were told to change lines a few different times by different people. Eventually we made it to the booth and it was pretty straight forward from there. Our luggage also made it so that was a huge plus in our books!

George’s croissant sammich on the flight to Victoria Falls

A group of dancers welcomed us as we left the airport

We were picked up by a guide who then took us to the Victoria Falls tour that was included in our safari package. The falls were amazing. So powerful and moist. There were rainbows everywhere and although it was a beautiful sunny day it felt like we were being rained on from the mist at the falls. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do one of my bucket list items which was sitting in the devil”s pool at the top of the falls. There was just too much water, but seeing the falls with that much water flowing was a spectacular sight.

Photo to prove we actually were there!

Photos really don’t do the falls justice. But yay rainbows!

Watch this video with sound just to hear how truly powerful the falls are.

 

After our amazing walk around the falls, we headed back to the car and were driven to just before the Botswana border. Our next lodge Imbabala, was super close to the Botswana border so we were picked up be a representative from the lodge at the border and then driven to

Imbabala.

I don’t really know what I was expecting, especially after our stay at Kapama in Kruger, but wow. Just wow. Imbabala is situated on the bank of the Zambezi river and has no fences so wildlife comes and goes as they please. There are only 12 villas in the lodge too so it was quite secluded and nice to not have that many people around. We had our introduction and were shown to our little villa to drop off our luggage and then we were driven to catch up to the afternoon game drive on which we saw elephants playing in the water, many giraffes, more elephants, kudo, water buck and impala. On our way back to camp, there was also a lion hiding in the brush close to the camp. There are 3 lions at Imbabala, a very tough female and her 2 teenage boys. She is apparently a master hunter and it is often seen close-ish to the camp.

 

The river in the background here is the Zambezi. So many elephants came to frolic in the mud!

Dinner at the camp was like a big family gathering as everyone who was staying there sat around a big table and got to know one another. It was a really nice touch. Our first night actually had the most people there, the dinners became much smaller affairs over our time there.

Then off to bed for the both of us after a very long day in our little villa listening to the sounds of hippos grunting and other animals making noise around us. It was truly something else!