Trip Report: Southern Africa Day 1/2 – Toronto to Victoria Falls

Saturday August 10, 2019

Our story begins with our Ethiopian Airlines flight leaving Toronto on time at 11 a.m. We spent 13 hours in the air before touching down in Addis Ababa at the construction site known as Bole International Airport approx. 5 minutes late, at 7:05 am. The 5 minutes was a big deal, because we only had 95 minutes to make our connecting flight to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and were counting on using every minute of it!

The transfer was not difficult, though it was a bit nerve wracking with the time constraint. We landed on the tarmac and loaded onto an airport transfer bus – which after a bit of a wait, we rode about 30 feet to the terminal. We could have walked it much faster. We were routed into the terminal (did not need to pass through security or pick up baggage) and downstairs to a new gate. This part of the airport was nothing short of decrepit, with no services available, not even drinking water. Luckily it was only a short wait until we were back onto a bus to a different area of tarmac for the 4.25 hour flight to Victoria Falls.

The Victoria Falls airport was a nice modern building – however as Canadian citizens, we were required to purchase our visas on arrival. We were approximately 10th in line at the wicket to do this, and yet the wait was easily an hour. It was the most slow and painful wait I can remember in recent history. Everything was done very manually. We purchased the Kaza univisa which would allow us multiple entries into Zimbabwe and a day trip to Botswana during our stay.

Thanksfully, the transfer we had booked with Shockwave was still waiting for us when we finally got to the airport exit, and took us to Kingdom Hotel.

We checked into our room, freshened up after the long flight, and checked out the hotel grounds. Then we decided to explore a bit before sundown, and walked over to the site of the old Lookout Cafe.

This place was supposed to have a great view into the gorge, and I’m sure it did before a recent fire wiped it out. They are recontructing, but are nowhere near completion. We saw the zip line and gorge swing launch sites nearby.

There were lots of warthogs around, as well as a variety of antelope, and baboons.

Back at the hotel, we took a quick nap before dinner. We were booked into The Boma, and wanted to ensure we had enough stamina to enjoy the evening. Our driver picked us up on time, and drove us out to the Boma site.

This dinner was indeed lots of fun.

The buffet included all kinds of local specialties, including eland, crocodile, and impala, as well as the traditional mopani worms.

The food quality was good, though I would stop short of saying it was great.

And the drumming show was excellent – very interactive and a lot of fun, and a great way to celebrate our arrival on our first day in Africa.