April 29, 2025
This morning, the boys still had pent up energy from the travel day and hours of sitting. Ollie took to doing wind sprints up and down the walkway while Len ran laps. When breakfast arrived, Len would stop after each lap to take a bite of an apple. On one of his laps, he found a “sleeping lizard” that he brought back to the table and placed it on the table in front of me like a cat delivering a dead mouse to its owner. I confirmed the lizard was dead and not sleeping and asked Len to please not touch animals again and also wash his hands.
For breakfast, Len got croissant and Ollie french toast. They swapped pieces of their breakfasts with one another but after Len took a bite and didn’t like the french toast, he immediately asked to swap back. Ollie had made quick work of the buttered croissant, though, so no take backs for Len.
Our driver for the day, Handa pronounced “Honda like the car” picked us up at 9am to take us into town. The only activity we had planned for the day was zip-lining over the Zambezi river. The guides at the activity site reminded us that they refer to it as “the Mighty Zambezi”.
We thought Len might be intimidated by this much more intense zip line, but he showed no signs of fear. Ollie didn’t either save for a moment right before we dropped in where he asked to confirm that we were doing it just one time. But after we had gone and were dangling in the middle of the gorge, he begged to go again. Even after seeing us go, and hearing me scream, Len wasn’t nervous but rearing to go. He also loved it and asked to go again or do “the big swing”. The big swing was really a free fall jump but instead of a bungee, you swing in a semi circle over the gorge. We saw a woman do it and Kyle and I were anxious even just watching her do it.
Zip-lining went by rather quickly and we wrapped by 10am. We were nearby the Victoria Falls National Park so decided to check that out this morning. Our driver recommended we rent raincoats from his friend in the parking lot. We obliged, assuming this was just a tourist ploy but they definitely came in handy.
The Victoria Falls National Park was more expensive than most to enter; $50 each for adults, $25 for children and free for 4 and under (thanks Len!). There was mist even above the park entrance which I wondered if it was manufactured to add to the ambiance or mystique or if it was legitimately from the falls– but of course it was real!
We encountered plenty of monkeys and even animal bones before reaching the falls. We saw Ollie contemplate taunting, or giving, the monkey one of his potato chips but luckily we caught him before he did either.
We learned the falls are known as Mosi-oa-Tunya, which translates to “the smoke that thunders” in the Lozi and Kololo languages. The falls are more than a mile wide and 300,000 gallons of water go over each second (double that of Niagara Falls).
We spent about 2 hours walking throughout the park and exploring the 16 viewpoints on the Zimbabwean side of the falls. We learned there were 3 additional viewpoints but on the Zambian side, but we didn’t make it that far. The first few viewpoints were from afar and out of mist range. The size and scale of the falls does take your breath away the first time you see them, but at this point we didn’t even realize the falls extended well beyond what we could currently see. While each viewpoint fascinated Kyle and I, we understood how they all started to blur together for the kids. The later viewpoints were the ones where you were surrounded by water and mist and couldn’t even visualize the falls that were right in front of you. By this point, though, Len was especially tired and the prospect of being wet no longer excited him.
We then had a better than expected lunch at the national park of falafel and roasted veggies, pesto and mozzarella paninis, crispy chicken sandwich and a strawberry banana smoothie. Handa then picked us up to head back to the hotel. We asked that he make a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some snacks to have in the hotel room. We needed to deviate from out typical shopping list and I picked up some pears, Pringles, Lays American barbecue chips, korn kurls and knock off kinder eggs. The Pringles were the most expensive of the lot at nearly 6 USD per can. Len and I couldn’t find his most favorite snack, popcorn, but he’s excited to try the locally made korn kurls.
Handa shared with us that the intent behind the big walls surrounding all properties is not due crime protection but animal protection. The Zambezi National Park runs through Victoria Falls and there are no fences surrounding the park, allowing the animals to roam freely. Handa pointed out a house not far from our hotel that had been trampled twice by an elephant in order to reach a banana tree growing on the property.
When back at the hotel, it was straight to the pool. The boys played their favorite game which involves a sea monster and attacking Kyle. After a while of this, the game then transitioned to Kyle throwing them in the air repeatedly. Thankfully, no other hotel guests were at the pool this afternoon so we didn’t have to modulate the boys’ volume levels which is nearly impossible anyway.
After swimming and baths, we snuck in a mini homeschool session. Afternoon homeschool is typically a disaster and today’s session was no different. The kids are tired and unfocused and Kyle and I are tired and impatient. Ollie wrote a letter to his friend Aley telling her all bout our cheetah encounter and Len worked on reading a book with Kyle.
I bought knock off kinder eggs for the boys when I stopped for snacks earlier. Ollie got a small truck prize and Len a keychain. Ollie was the obvious winner, but tried to divert Lenny’s interest by saying, “Wow Len thats great, not many things have keychains”. Len didn’t buy it and soon starting pleading his case for sharing. Since the only toys we brought with us are the iPads, we’ve found the jealousy and competition over these small prizes has been amplified.
We ordered diner to our room tonight, much to the boys’ delight. But given our sleeping situation (4 across in a King bed plus twin to the side like the grandparents in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) we declined the boys’ requests to “watch and eat”. After dinner, we then watched the movie Up and everyone was asleep before 9pm!
