A week after leaving The Falls we're back again, this time on the Zimbabwean side. We arrive in Victoria Falls Town late in the morning and have a few hours time to explore the surroundings. Ten years ago, Vic Falls was a sleepy little town only starting its development as a tourist area. Nowadays it looks very commercialized with numerous curio stalls, a lot of moneychangers and an ugly casino. Apart from that, even though the present situation in Zimbabwe frightens off a lot of tourists, its crowded with people and prices are high.

One of the least crowded spots around Vic Falls is Big Tree. Big Tree is the oldest Baobab in Zimbabwe. Early pioneers camped here and it became a traditional gathering place for crossing the river. Since a careless elephant damaged the tree, it is fenced off but you can walk around its impressive trunk.
Back in the center of Vic Falls, there is a collection of curio shops with nice but expensive stuff. In front of the shops, a big chief in traditional Ndebele outfit and a band playing lovely marimba music welcomes us.

Behind the curio shops there's a new attraction in Vic Falls (at least new for me). It's a helium filled balloon that goes up 126 meters into the air offering a good view at the falls and its surroundings. Due to the spray the Falls are hardly visible and the entrance is rather expensive, so the balloon offers an interesting alternative for viewing the Zimbabwean side of the Falls. We're not the only ones having this idea and we have to wait for an hour before it's our turn to go up. This gives us the time to walk around looking for a souvenir and we end up buying a giraffe to accompany the Namibian one which we already have at home for four years.

The entire balloon trip takes about 20 minutes. First we slowly go up to our final altitude of 126 meters, than we start turning around in order to allow everybody see the Falls and its surroundings. The sight is impressive. From the balloon we have a perfect, unobstructed view at the Main Falls where enormous amounts of water plunge in to the gorge with a deafening roar. In the distance we see the railroadbridge to Zambia. The other side offers us a wide view over the upper Zambezi.

Much to soon we are going down again. Beneath us we see the curio stall where we have bought our new giraffe coming closer again. Rows of giraffes, each one of varying length are waiting for new owners. Unfortunately we can only take one giraffe with us. But there's a good chance that we will return some time in the future to buy a third one. But not now! As the truck is waiting for us to cross the border to the Zambian side, we have to leave again.

The Zambian border is crowded. Apparently many people are heading north for the eclipse. Today is the first day that we notice an increase in the number of tourists in the area. During the waiting, we see baboons walking between the cars looking for an opportunity to snatch something away from an unsuspecting tourist. After about an hour and a half of waiting everything is ok and we can enter the bridge over the Batoka Gorge to the Zambian side. Stopping is forbidden on the bridge, but Mick drives very slowly offering us a view at Danger Point, Knife Edge Point, The Boiling Pot and the Falls beyond. Again the spray is covering much of the scene.

A short ride brings us to the same campsite as a week ago. It almost feels like home. After making the arrangements for tomorrow's rafting trip, it's time for dinner. It's rush hour for the restaurant's personnel: our reservation is forgotten, some of the entries on the menu are already sold out ("sorry for the inconvenience, but...") and it takes them about three hours before we've had both our starters and our main course. As the temperatures are going down again, we forget about desert and decide to turn in.