Woke up feeling fine, but Olly seemed pretty bad.
After another failure at Barclays trying to withdraw dollars, we travelled to the border at 10.00, courtesy of a resident white whom the Americans had met in a café.
The Zambian side of the border was a breeze. Not so the Zimbabwean. The immigration man wasn't fooled by our far-fetched story about being able to withdraw money on our credit cards. Nor was he fooled by our onward flight booking slip from Kenya Airways in Lusaka. Basically we was a twat and he didn't want to let us in. Fortunately we had all our other tickets to hand, including our flight from Nairobi to Bombay. The sight of £2,000 worth of tickets seemed to convince him, at last, that we didn't intend to travel into Zimbabwe, get deported, and have a free flight home.
Victoria Falls town was only a very short walk from the border, and one of the first things we saw was Barclays Bank. Unfortunately, it took well over an hour to authorize my visa card, but at least we had currency.
We had heard that the best place to stay is a camp-site with a hostel, so we headed straight there. A bed in the dormitory was Z$20 so we were quite relieved.
Olly wasn't up to lunch, so I went alone to the nearby Wimpy. A delicious (but not massive) chicken curry came to Z$10.50.
Later in the afternoon we both walked to the shops, and I was able to get quite a nice athletics slip for only Z$15.
At about 4.00 I took a walk down the falls. The admission charge was Z$5, but it was well worth it. There was more of the waterfall to see than on the Zambian side. On the way back from the falls, the path took me past some baboons in the forest. It was very interesting watching them for a while.
The next step was to get some information about travelling to Bulawayo. On the way to the station I bought a Coke for 50¢, and the overnight journey will cost us Z$29. Zimbabwe is much cheaper than we expected.
When I got back to the falls, there was somebody else in the dormitory talking to Olly. He is an English guy called Richard, who deals currency on the black market and drives a Land Rover. He is a bit of a twat, but it was interesting hearing his views on the Africans' inability to organise anything.
After another failure at Barclays trying to withdraw dollars, we travelled to the border at 10.00, courtesy of a resident white whom the Americans had met in a café.
The Zambian side of the border was a breeze. Not so the Zimbabwean. The immigration man wasn't fooled by our far-fetched story about being able to withdraw money on our credit cards. Nor was he fooled by our onward flight booking slip from Kenya Airways in Lusaka. Basically we was a twat and he didn't want to let us in. Fortunately we had all our other tickets to hand, including our flight from Nairobi to Bombay. The sight of £2,000 worth of tickets seemed to convince him, at last, that we didn't intend to travel into Zimbabwe, get deported, and have a free flight home.
Victoria Falls town was only a very short walk from the border, and one of the first things we saw was Barclays Bank. Unfortunately, it took well over an hour to authorize my visa card, but at least we had currency.
We had heard that the best place to stay is a camp-site with a hostel, so we headed straight there. A bed in the dormitory was Z$20 so we were quite relieved.
Olly wasn't up to lunch, so I went alone to the nearby Wimpy. A delicious (but not massive) chicken curry came to Z$10.50.
Later in the afternoon we both walked to the shops, and I was able to get quite a nice athletics slip for only Z$15.
At about 4.00 I took a walk down the falls. The admission charge was Z$5, but it was well worth it. There was more of the waterfall to see than on the Zambian side. On the way back from the falls, the path took me past some baboons in the forest. It was very interesting watching them for a while.The next step was to get some information about travelling to Bulawayo. On the way to the station I bought a Coke for 50¢, and the overnight journey will cost us Z$29. Zimbabwe is much cheaper than we expected.
When I got back to the falls, there was somebody else in the dormitory talking to Olly. He is an English guy called Richard, who deals currency on the black market and drives a Land Rover. He is a bit of a twat, but it was interesting hearing his views on the Africans' inability to organise anything.
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