july 11 updated

July 11, 2016

This will be a short post as I am typing it into my phone instead of on a computer so it is a bit harder!

Victoria Falls day!!!  The Falls were beautiful!  That is the first time I have been able to experience one of the Seven Wonders of the World!!!  The area around the falls is an actual rain forest.  It was warm and sunny outside of the falls and as you walked closer and closer, you got wetter and wetter!  We rented ponchos before we went in and that was the best $2 we spent!  I couldn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked because between the water and all the mist, my camera would have been soaked and it was having a hard time focusing on this.  Some of the pictures in the center of the falls didn’t come out very well because it was so wet and misty.  There were 35 different view points you could see the falls from and at different times of the day, they looked different because of how the sun hit them.  We were told this was a good time of year to visit them as well because the water level is higher.  The falls were huge!!  I have never even seen Niagara Falls so I really had nothing to compare it to though.  Everything in Africa is huge!!!

I wish the branches weren’t in the front of this picture!

After visiting the Falls we went on a horse back riding safari.  Yup, I came to Africa to ride a horse!!  Apparently the horses do not threaten the big game so as long as you stay on the horse you are fine!!  We rode right through the middle of two different herds of buffalo....  Another one of the Big 5!!!  And they are the most dangerous one!  They are beautiful animals and look so peaceful it is hard to imagine that they are so dangerous.  More hunters are killed by them than by any other animal.  There was one with a tag and our guide said it was because it was caught in a poacher’s snare at some point and since it was rescued, they tag them.  Probably one in a few hundred animals!  The one herd had a lot of pretty young calves with them as well.  They are seriously majestic animals up close and their horns are so impressive.  

These pictures aren't great as my horse was being less than cooperative at standing still while I took them!

We also saw bushbuck and impalas and warthogs!!  

They are so adorable!  There was a mom and what was most likely a litter of 5 piglets... Not real tiny but definitely youngsters.  They run behind their mom with their tails straight up in the air.  Everyone here is so nice and polite. And Victoria Falls is very clean.  But still can't drink the water.  Tonight we are going to a restaurant called the Boma.