The great *Victoria Falls*

The *Victoria Falls* or *Mosi-oa-Tunya* (*The Smoke that Thunders*) is a waterfall on the Zambezi river, which is located between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone was the first European who had seen the Victoria Falls on his Africa expedition in 1852 - 1856 ... he gave the falls the name *Victoria Falls* in honor of his Queen Victoria, but the indigenous name of *Mosi-oa-Tunya*  - literally meaning the 'Cloud that Thunders' - is also well known. In 1989 the falls were declared as a world heritage site.

The falls are really huge and very impressive. After the rainy season there is a lot of water thundering down the falls ... it's nice to see, but you are getting really wet ;-) ... There are two national parks, one on the Zambian side and one at the Zimbabwean side ... I visited both, and the views are really amazing!! ... enjoy the pics from the falls!!

... additionally I did a microlight flight over the falls, which I highly recommend ... so you get a big picture from the vastness of the falls!!

Canoe-Safari @ Lower Zambezi River

So, what to do in Lusaka? Nothing! It's just another big, crowded and dirty city, where you cannot find anything of real interest. However, I have a few days left before I will go to Livingstone / Vic-Falls ... and after five days in the train I need a quite location, somewhere out of the city. The best place therefore seems to be the Lower Zambezi River, which is about three hours from Lusaka by Minibus. So I decided to go there for a 3-day Canoe-Safari on the river.

We were four people on the trip, two girls from Denmark (Amalie and Katrine), our Guide Tkay and me. It was really very nice on the river and we saw a lot of Hippos, Elephants and Crocodiles. We slept in tents somewhere on the islands for two nights. In the evening we cooked together (Tkay was an excellent cook),  we sat around the open fire with a bottle of wine, had some smalltalk and watched the starry sky.

... but now it's time for the *great* Victoria Falls :-)

The TAZARA-Odyssey

So now it's really time to turn around and go back to South Africa ... through Zambia, Botswana and Namibia. The next highlight on the way are Victoria Falls @ Livingstone / Zambia. Phuu, that's quite a long distance and I don't want to go the whole way by Minibus. But jep, this time there is an alternative to the bus ... the Tanzania-Zambia-Railway (TAZARA) ... so I catched the train!!

The railway connects Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) with Kapiri Mposhi (Zambia) and is over 1800 km long. It was built by the Chinese in the 70th ... and of course they did it not without a proper reason. So the main reason was to get an alternative access to the copperbelt which is located around Kapiri Mposhi ;-) ... before they only way to the sea was through Zimbabwe down to South Africa. However, the rails and the trains are also still the same ... and the last maintenance must be also a long time ago ;-) ... but it is still running!!

The train leaves twice a week from Dar es Salaam (Tue/Fri) and the normal travelling is about 50 hours. So I took the train last friday and it had already a departure-delay of about 10 hours ... and so the Odyssey began! After a few hours on the way there occured some technical problems with the engine ... but main problem was a derailed train which blocks the railway ... and so we had a total delay of about 50 hours!! ... and no Plan B at all!! ... ahhhh, I really got crazy on this train!! They did not inform the passengers and you did not get a proper information on what's happend ... *just take it easy!* ... sitting, waiting, wishing ... somewhere at a train station in the bush!

... and that was the problem for our delay!!!

But apart from this terrible delay the joyride on the train  was a nice alternative to the bus ... the track leads us through a very beautiful countryside and it is a more comfortable way to travel ... and of course it's also an adventure, like everything here in Africa ;-)

... a big *dislike* for the long delay ;-) ... and a big *like* for the beautiful countryside!!!