As promised, I boarded a plane in Gaborone and winged my way all the way to the most northeastern tip of Botswana, Kasane, where I’ll be gearing up for the next leg of my journey. Kasane is mostly a base for safaris, where warthogs and baboons roam the streets and it’s not safe to walk around after dark for fear of lions, hyenas, and elephants.

Out in the bush, warthogs are always hard to photograph because they’re pretty shy and they run so fast. I’ve also been told they are super dangerous if you get too close, but here in Kasane they’re fine apparently. In the pic above I was just walking to the grocery store.

Before heading out for my next Botswanan destination, I decided to take a little day trip to one of the biggest waterfalls in the world, Victoria Falls, just over the border in Zimbabwe. At the border I got in the very long line to go through immigration while my driver took my passport and thirty dollars and disappeared behind the building. When he came back I had a Zimbabwe visa, I stepped out of the very long line, and we were on our way to the falls. Was that thirty dollars the cost of the visa or a bribe? Maybe I don’t want to know.

An hour later, I was being dropped off at the entrance to Victoria Falls National Park and on my way to check off one of my big bucket list items. Dr Livingston is honored as the first European to see the falls and the person that named them in 1855.

There are different ways to measure waterfalls. Victoria Falls isn’t the tallest or even the widest in the world, but if you take both into account along with the amount of water flowing over the side, then it is the largest waterfall in the world. There are several differently named waterfalls within the whole thing, but probably the most recognizable is the Devil’s Cataract at the far western end of the falls.

As massive, loud, and impressive as this place is, I’m visiting during the low water time of year, meaning it gets more massive, more loud, and more impressive during the wet season. The mist spraying up from the bottom of the Zambezi River below is pretty intense too. For most of the day I felt like I was standing in a rainstorm. I got pretty wet!

I chose to come to the Zimbabwean side of Victoria Falls because the views are better. The other side of the Zambezi River, and where all that water is coming from, is Zambia.

Finally, after walking along the cliffs and seeing the falls from every possible angle I reached Danger Point, the last viewpoint on the Zimbabwean side. Supposedly, the falls drop over 500 million liters of water per minute. How do they even measure that?!

After exploring from the cliffs I took a walk to the Victoria Falls Bridge at the far end which leads into Zambia. The Zambian immigration is nice enough to grant a “bridge pass” to tourists who want to view the falls from the bridge, so technically, I visited two countries today.

Victoria Falls was just a quick side visit. After lunch, I caught my ride back to Botswana and luckily, no bribes, uh… I mean visa fees were required. Tomorrow, I head into the bush for some close animal encounters, hopefully. Wish me luck and stay tuned…