Zimbabwe 2

I saw Victoria Falls, and I didn't!  When we were flying into the VF airport yesterday,  I could easily see the mist rising up into the sky, and correctly assumed that it was the spray from the Falls.  Well if you can see the spray that high in the sky from quite a distance away from the Falls, you can then anticipate how much more intense that mist and spray will be five feet from the edge of the canyon into which that river is cascading. You can see the spray and mist rising up from the river below, and it seems to rise up double the depth of that canyon.  When profuse spray and mist goes way-way up over your head you can imagine the torents of rain that fall back to earth, when the momentum up slows and gravity pulls all that water down.  Always there was rain, not just a mist, but a steady hard rain, and when the wind pushed all that water it became a deluge.  I had on a tourist large raincoat, and well before we got half way thru the three kilometer walk on the canyon rim opposite the falling river, I was walking on water, there was that much water in my gym shoes.  I anticipated mist at the falls, but I experienced a deluge of water, forceful gusts of wind, and so dense were the clouds of water, the middle half or two thirds of the falls I couldn't see the other side where the water was falling, so yes I was at Victoria Falls, I did walk the whole tourist's path, but I only saw the right and left edges of the falls where the mists were only coming from one direction.  I got back to the hotel by about noon from our rain-storm walk, i was sopping wet.  I hung everything up to dry, after squeezing as much water out of each piece of clothing that I could, and it's after eight at nite after supper, and most items are mildly damp, except my gym shoes, which are very wet.  I did a more complete job of taking a towel and trying to have the towel absorb as much water as I could from inside the shoe, and I unlaced them to let the air from the ceiling fan try to dry them out overbite.  I did get some nice pics of the edges of the falls, and the rainbow under the bridge over the canyon separating Zimbabwe and Zambia.  This afternoon I did get to ride on Coco a 38 year old female, very large elephant.   She has a gate that isn't motion sick causing, but a side to side, stop and start, and it's bumpy as she takes each step.  Not hard to ride, just have to go with the flow of her  rhythm.  And to remember to lean back when she goes down hill, and lean foreward when she's going up hill.  She is one big animal!   You can senve het powet and strength when on her back.  A few male impala darted out of the thicket in front of us and the handler who sat in front of me quickly cautioned Coco to be steady, and talked to her for a half minute or so, explaining to me that elephants are nervous, alert animals, who can react in fright, alarm or nervousness.  We got to feed a treat to the elephants we each rode, a pellet that is like chocolate to them.  Boy! Did she ever enjoy those handfulls.  Up trunk and she raises her trunk over her head, and I threw a hand full of the pellets into her open mouth.  Down trunk and she takes the tip of her trunk upside down, and you put the pellet treats in to her open trunk opening (her nose), and she blows them into her mouth.  An elephant trunk is her nose to breathe thru, her hand with a 'thumb and forefinger' to manupliate items, and a built in straw to suckup water and blow the water into her mouth.  She drinks about 16 liters of water once or twice a day, depending whether it is wet or dry season.  A large male elephant can drink twice that.  She eats 600 pounds of leaves, grass, and a few fruits and nuts a day.  While we were going along she regularly would turn her head and the trunk reached out and stripped the leaves from branches.  If the leaves don't come off readily she just snaps the branch off and eats them all, leaves, twigs, and smaller branches.  The bark on the twigs and thinner branches has nutrient value for her also.  Then on the way back to the hotel, the van-bus stopped to drop me off to pay for the elephant safari.  Then I walked back thru town to the resort.  Had a hamburger for dinner, had dinner last nite in the main dining room, for $30 it wasn't worth it, and the hamburger is hemungous!  Good. And with a coke zero cost $13.50 with tip.  A much better deal.  Zimbabwe has 95% unemployment, and it's money was so inflationary that the means of exchange now, even the posted prices for everything is the US dollar, but the will accept euros, and British pounds.  Everywhere you walk people are trying to sell you something, to make a living, to get cash to get something to eat.  The luxury and high prices resorts cha. rge, next to the poverty for the person in the street is appalling.  One person I met, don't want to say who specifically since this is an open blog, said that people are not well or fairly treated, because the employer can find an unlimited supply of eager people looking for work.  Tomarrow I fly back to Jo'burg airport, and stay there for about six hours, then at 9:30 fly to Cairo, Egypt.  Will blog Saturday, hoping wifi's are available.