South African Adventure - Final Day

After nearly 3 weeks exploring southern Africa, we were about to spend our last day on this amazing continent.   We awoke at 5:30am and finished packing for our arduous flights back to Toronto.  But before leaving Victoria Falls we still had some unfinished business to attend to.  To this point, we had visited a total of 5 countries - South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Botswana.  Since we were spending our last day in Victoria Falls, at the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, we decided to visit one more country before we left.  
 
After being informed the night prior that you shouldn't walk around on the streets in the evening due to the "animals being on the move", we decided to take a cab from the Rainbow Hotel at 6:30am to the Zimbabwe/Zambia border.  On route the driver stopped at the Old Tree in Victoria Falls which is said to be 1000 to 1500 years old.  We arrived at the Zimbabwe border at 6:45am and went through immigration to get our exit visa stamped.  We walked across the bridge that spans the Zambezi River through "No Man's Land” on the way to the Zambian border.  At the border we went through immigration to get our entry stamp into Zambia.  After passing through immigration we checked out the price of the  park entrance on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls.  While the cost was only 10.50 USD per person, it was a lengthy walk so we opted not to proceed as we had a very limited amount of time.  We walked back through immigration and got our exit stamp from Zambia.  In total we spent about 15 minutes in Zambia before walking back across "No Man's Land" to take some pictures from the bridge.  Kim bought a bracelet and teak elephant from an entrepreneurial Zambian 'artist' who also moonlighted as a tour guide.  We then crossed back into Zimbabwe where the border control officers were humourous and friendly, noting that we had exited Zimbabwe 3 times in 2 days. In total, the walk from Zimbabwe to Zambia and return, including border checks was about 1 hour.  

​We took a cab from the Zimbabwe border to the Victoria Falls Hotel where we walked though to the Jungle Junction restaurant for a buffet breakfast that was $25.00 USD per person.  This was a much better buffet with far superior service to what we received at the Rainbow Hotel for $20.00 USD the day before.  The view and ambiance of this location are unsurpassed in Vic Falls as the terrace overlooks the rainforest that borders the banks of the gorge a short distance from the falls.   We finished up our breakfast that included Eggs Benedict (Denis), omelette (Kim), bacon, sausage, baked tomato, home fries and then topped it off with a waffle with strawberries and whipped cream (for sustenance).   It would be several hours before we would have a chance to eat again and that would be on an airplane.  

​After breakfast we walked back through town to the Rainbow Hotel (20 minutes), picked up our suitcases and checked out.  Our driver, Handsome, picked us up at just after 10:00 AM and we headed towards the Botswana border, about 45 minutes away.  En route, we spotted a venue of vultures picking at a large carcass just off the road.  A short distance further down the road, Handsome spotted a male lion resting in the shadow of a tree.  Just a regular day in Zimbabwe. 
 
We arrived at the border crossing shortly after 11:00 am.  We went through Zimbabwe customs to get our passport stamped.  This was the 2nd time we had exited Zimbabwe in the span of 4 hours.  After getting our exit stamps, Handy drove us a couple of hundred meters to the Botswana border control where we moved our luggage to a Botswana vehicle and then went through immigration to get our passports stamped once again.  On exiting the customs building, we again walked through a dissinfecting solution that looked like a muddy puddle to clean our shoes as a precaution against foot and mouth disease.  We then boarded our Botswana vehicle with a new driver who took us to the airport in Kasane, about 20 minutes away.  

​We arrived at Kasane International Airport just before noon.  The Kasane Airport consists of a single tiny modern terminal.  As you enter through the main door, there is a small coffee shop/restaurant with 4 or 5 tables on one side and a ticket and check-in counter for South African Airlink on the other.  The electronic flight board showed a single international flight (ours) departing at 2:00 pm and a single domestic flight departing at 10:30 am.  No other flights for the day were displayed.  After checking our bags we went to the cafe and each ordered a glass of wine.  At about 12:30, the line at the Airlink counter was finished and the attendants all left.  Only a handful of passengers remained in the terminal so we went through security (in record time) and waited a few minutes in the gate area before being escorted across the tarmac to our waiting Embraer 190 that would whisk us to Johannesburg for our connecting flight through Paris and then on to Toronto.
 
While we had been away from home the better part of a month, and we were anxious to get back to Canada, we felt a sense of melancholy at having to end our African journey.  We have both travelled extensively for business and pleasure over the course of our lifetimes, and this was the most fascinating adventure thus far.  

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