Forgive me for the pun-ny post title; I couldn’t help myself.

Allow me to introduce you to mighty Victoria Falls (or Vic Falls, as everyone here abbreviates it), a waterfall of staggering proportions straddling the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

[image via]

After getting our passport exit stamp from Zambia, we all hop back into the overland truck and cross over the bridge to Zimbabwe. Our driver is not allowed to stop, but he goes slowly to give us a chance to photograph Victoria Falls from the windows.

Cameras are ready to go:

Our first glimpse of Vic Falls in the distance:

We’ll walk back to the Falls later this afternoon, but for now we press on to the hotel. We’re staying in the cute village called Victoria Falls, located on the Zimbabwe side.

Since Vic Falls marks the end of this leg of our tour, many of the guests are leaving tomorrow. In fact, so are our guide and driver — passengers continuing south to Johannesburg (myself and a few other people) will have new tour leaders starting in two days. In the mean time, we are completely on our own in Vic Falls. The hotel is included and it’s the nicest place — by far — of the whole tour: Elephant Hills Resort (rooms are around $200 per night). Our group is split between this place and similarly upscale Rainbow Hotel in town. What an upgrade from camping in tents night after night! Elephant Hills Resort is a little far from the city center (not walkable due to dangerous wildlife in the area) but they have a shuttle that goes into town hourly. When I take a taxi back after dinner one night, it only costs me a few dollars. Plus their wifi is among the strongest I encounter in Africa — I stay up until 3 or 4am both nights to get ahead on my blog while the signal is strong. I’m even able to upload my 2013 RTW trip video to Youtube (totally worth checking out if you haven’t seen it).

Here is my gorgeous room:

The courtyard outside my door features a tranquil waterfall display with towering palm trees.

Can you believe I never wander down to the pool? I spend too much time doing activities in Vic Falls to take full advantage of the amenities here. I snap these photos on the last day right before we depart and I’m struck with guilt for not properly exploring the premises sooner.

The breakfast buffet is unreal. How will I ever go back to overland truck breakfasts of oatmeal and toast again?

On my full day in Vic Falls, I start by walking from the town center out to the Victoria Falls Hotel. I’ve read they have pretty views as well as a private path that extends all the way to the bridge.

This is a super fancy hotel but I just pretend like I belong here and walk out back to the viewpoint. Luckily this doesn’t backfire on me like my shenanigans did at the Sheraton in Ethiopia.

Viewpoint at the back of the hotel:

A view of the bridge I’ll walk out to next — it’s the same bridge we crossed over in the truck upon our arrival. There’s a bungy jump right in the middle of it.

This is the path that leads from the hotel towards the bridge. I’d read about it on-line and find it easily enough while wandering around the property.

I walk past the turn-off for adventure activities at the gorge lookout… more on that in a future post!

After a sweaty walk in the mid-day heat I arrive at the bridge. Zimbabwe passport control gives me a piece of paper allowing me to walk out there (remember to bring your passport with you if you plan to do this).

There’s a sign on the middle of the bridge marking the transition from Zimbabwe to Zambia. I’m allowed to walk the full length of the bridge with my permission slip from the Zimbabwe side.

No Man’s Land — that white line marks the edge of Zimbabwe and the yellow line marks the start of Zambia.

A view from the bridge — there’s Vic Falls in the distance! We’ll get much closer tomorrow when our group walks along the rim of the Falls. This view is just a teaser.

White water rafting is a popular activity here; I spot today’s intrepid rafters chilling on the rocks below in red gear / helmets. Can you make them out next to the falls flowing into the river?

I’m not sure you could pay me to raft through these rapids. Rafting the Nile River in Uganda was hard enough!

A few more shots of the Falls… they are much wider; we’re only glimpsing a small part of them from this vantage point.

It’s hard to tell in these photos, but occasionally I spot people across the way walking very close to the edge of the Falls. That area is NOT part of the national parks (which are on both the Zimbabwe and Zambia sides) so I wonder if that’s where the Devil’s Pool / Angel’s Armchair might be located? Those are two similar attractions located at the top where tourists can swim right up to the edge of the waterfalls for death-defying views.

That’s the Zambia side of the Falls below:

I pass employees working for the bungee jump, waiting for their next victim tourist.

All over Vic Falls I’m approached by local men hocking fake money that reads “five trillion Zimbabwean dollars” or some other insanely high amount (ironic fact: the official currency of Zimbabwe is the U.S. Dollar). It’s essentially Monopoly money but they’re hoping tourists will see it as a novelty token and purchase a few bills. I ask one of the young men if I can take a picture even though I’m not buying any; to my surprise he happily consents, even fanning out the bills for me.

I LOVED this restaurant and coffee shop on the main drag in Victoria Falls village — it’s called Shearwater Cafe. The first time I go for coffee and lunch, then I spot so many tantalizing items on the menu that I return for dinner.

I order a steak sandwich for lunch and it’s outstanding — tender, juicy, savory.

And I get a pasta dish with bacon and cream sauce for dinner.

My two days in Vic Falls are jam-packed with activities and adventure. Many more posts coming this week!

I visited Zimbabwe on a 30-day Nairobi to Joburg tour with Nomad Tours. They discounted my tour in exchange for blogging and photography; opinions are my own.