African Sunsets

One thing that I simply LOVE about Africa are these AMAZING sunsets we get to see. They are beautiful, and I will miss them dearly when we leave. Last November when we took our trip to Lake Kariba, we saw some great sunsets as well.

These I took looking out of our window at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge. Beautiful, huh?

Here Birdie Birdie...

One of the advantages of staying at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge was seeing this spectacle at 1 o'clock everyday! That spectacle was feeding the vultures!!! Well, we didn't feed them, but we watched them feed. The first day we watched from the restaurant, and the second time we watched right where the action was!!

The vultures totally knew what happened at 1 o'clock. They would start gathering, and by the time the guy was hauling the stuff out there was over 100 vultures flying above us!

Here they are flying, getting ready to swoop down.

Kinda up close.

Waiting patiently.

The guy getting the beef out for them. It was frozen, which is smart because it was H-O-T-T out there! We asked him if they would start coming at the food with him down there, and he said they wouldn't. As long as he was down there they wouldn't come, they are afraid of humans. It was true too, because none of them got on the ground until he was up on the steps with us.

Looking up at the waiting birds. CRAZY, right?!!? Every one of those black spots is a bird.

One in a tree. They are also ugly little suckers too.

The fight is on!! Do you see the one down front with the beef hanging out of his mouth. It was an incredible sight to see. Also, very dusty.

This one was trying to look big, so then no one else would get his stuff.

Also, again, I could not get the videos to upload...one day it will happen. :)

Victoria Falls Safari Lodge

I've tried to upload our videos from Victoria Falls, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. I'll think of a way to get it up here so you guys can see the beauty of it all. :)

So onto our next hotel we stayed at. After going to Victoria Falls we went over to check into our next hotel/lodge. Victoria Falls Safari Lodge! It was beautiful! It was a two-level place, or well, it had the first level and then like a loft with the master bedroom and master bath upstairs. It was nice though.

Here is the look down the stairs. Spencer slept downstairs on one of the couch/bed things, and we slept upstairs.

This was looking straight out at the wall from the top of the stairs. Yes it had vaulted ceilings.

Here is the vaulted ceiling with the thatched roofing/ceiling. Most places here have that, which is kinda nice. Keeps things a tad cool I think. BUT even though we had A/C units in the place (two, one for downstairs and one for upstairs) we also had two places where there was just wire covering the open areas that were in the crest of the roof. So the hot air still got in. It was warm, but not as bad as it could have been without the A/C units, plus it gets cold at night here, so that helped.

Looking downstairs from the top of the stairs.

The mural on our wall. Cute, huh? Spencer thought it was some kind of alien with a weird body. :) It's really a giraffe.

The first level with Spencer's red couch/bed, and also the balcony that overlooked the watering hole. Tyler sat out there for a little bit one afternoon.

Our view from the second story. I couldn't believe how dry it was. We also had a view of the watering hole.

An impala that came to drink.

An elephant coming for an afternoon drink.

You can kinda see some baboons right above the water on the left side. Also that little hideout is exactly that!! A hide!! It's a place where people can go sit and watch the animals, and the animals think it's just a hill or something so then they come really close. Oh, and do you see the water buffalos coming in on the right side?? There is a line of them.

Impala, guinea fowl, and a stork.

Spencer smiling when we went to go eat lunch at the hotel. Most restaurants here have a lot of openness to them. It's actually really nice. This day there was a bird that came in, but it went and sat at a different table, and didn't bother our food at all.

We really enjoyed our stay at this lodge. They were all very nice, and it was in a good location. I think we'll stay here again when Tyler's parents and little sister fly out.

Majestic Victoria Falls

Last Saturday we walked over to Victoria Falls, and it was beautiful. I can't think of enough adjectives to describe the massiveness of it and the beauty that our Heavenly Father created when He created this.

Now, remember we went there at the end of the dry season so there was not much water coming over the Falls, and that when we go back in January there will be more water.

Here is Spencer at the entrance to the Falls, and he quickly pointed out when we got there that the African flag was flying, we quickly reminded him that it is the Zimbabwe flag. :)

This is a picture of the Falls. We had nothing like that water coming over and you will see that with the rest of the pictures. Also look how BIG it is!!! We walked all the way from the left side of the picture to the middle gap on the green side. Another thing to remember is that Victoria Falls is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

After seeing the signs that had all kinds of information and facts about the Falls on it we started on our trek to get to the Falls. This is what we saw. Dry, huh?

Then we saw our first bit of it!

Spencer and Tyler getting misted by the Falls in the background. It was incredible that even during the dry season we were getting some heavy misting rain on the path that we walked on.

A look down the Falls. They say when it is in full power after the rainy season you can't see anything, not even the actual waterfalls because the mist is too powerful.

Spencer taking a break while swinging on a vine that was hanging in the path.

RAINBOWS!!! There were lots of those while looking over at the Falls.

Our family getting misted again.

The main part of the Falls.

Family picture. Spencer was always worried when Tyler picked him up like this thinking that Daddy was going to pretend to throw him over, but Tyler never did.

Notice the difference of the walking path that was nearest to the Falls and it's mist.

A DOUBLE RAINBOW!!!!!!

So dry!

I love this picture to 1-show how pitiful the flow was of the falls, but also 2- to show how magical it all seemed.

There is a part of the waterfalls over on the Zambia part that has a small pool called Devil's Pool. It's called that because you can swim in it (only in the dry season) and it's actually right at the top of the falls, like you can lay on your stomach and look over the waterfall that is falling beneath you! It is guarded by some rocks, but we've heard that some people have slipped and fallen off and gone down the long way to the bottom.

We saw some people actually over on the Zambia side and saw that they were about to swim in Devil's Pool (this is something Tyler and I would have loved to do, but did not). Here is a man who is standing right on the brink of the falls.

Taking pictures of the others jumping into the pool.

Down the deep ravine of dryness.

There was a cliff on the edge of the falls that we were able to climb up and look straight over and get a little scared. Spencer is sitting at one of the high parts of the rocks.

AAHHH!! he's about to go over!!! :)

This is the bridge to go over to Zambia, and also the bridge that people go bungee jumping from.

Someone did bungee jump while we stood there looking at the bridge.

On our way back we came across a warthog who was having a snack. Walked right past him and he didn't even glance at us.

Next post I'll put some videos of Victoria Falls up so you can get an idea at how big it is, how loud it is, and how misty it is.

Not your average Hotel room

We've arrived at Victoria Falls and it was fun to see the small tourist town bustling with hotels, motels, lodges, and small shops. Oh, and also all the sellers on the street following the white people around. :) heehee. We had the excuse of saying we lived in Harare, and could find it cheaper there, the sellers then quickly gave up on us. They were even selling the Zim trillion dollar bills, which we have some, but I was hoping that any U.S. tourist wouldn't pay too much for them since they are worth NOTHING. Tip to those who travel to Zim, don't pay more than a dollar for any Zimbabwe money.

Our first Lodge we stayed in was the ilala Lodge. It was quite nice, and kinda looked like a nice Holiday Inn hotel room. Spencer on this trip has become quite the Vanna White, and wanted to show off all the signs we passed, so you will see more pictures of him doing this.

There were also baboons hanging out around the front of our Lodge. They didn't bother us, but I was a tad worried if they did want to bother us.

So we get situated in our room, which had a TV!!! We were so tired from driving that we just laid back and started watching the TV, then low and behold there were elephants right outside our doors!!!!! So we sat and watched them too.

The sign right outside our doors said: WARNING: All wild animals are potentially dangerous. Please do not approach. M-kay I'll make sure to not approach the huge elephant that is not tame and could trample me in less than 5 seconds. Thanks!

There were five elephants that hung out and ate for a little while right by our door.

Then the baboons came. We had heard from friends here in Harare, who took this trip this year to make sure to keep your doors and windows locked because of the baboons. One of their windows was not locked and when they came back to the hotel room there were baboons in their room eating their trail mix, when the husband tried to shoo them out one snuck back in by racing past him!! Another story was of some baboons that got into a man's (someone we don't know) room and started eating all of his medication pills. When they shooed that baboon out it picked up the toiletry bag and tried to take it back outside!

So needless to say, I made sure all doors and windows remained locked and shut!

I thought this was so cute how the little one was grooming the bigger one. I love having my hair played with and was wondering if I went out there and started grooming them, would they play with my hair too?? I didn't try.

I love that this big baboon has his eyes closed while being groomed. He was so relaxed. :)