We arrived just after lunch time, and it was early afternoon by the time we got through passport control and got to our hotel.
We stayed at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, which is all built in a crescent shape around a waterhole. You can pretty much see the waterhole from anywhere at the lodge, and every room had a balcony overlooking it. Our room was on the top floor and had awesome high ceilings.
This is the view from our balcony.
After we got settled we went to check out the activities desk. We decided to do a sunset cruise that evening, and the next day do a walking tour of the falls, followed by horse riding. The lady at the desk was very busy, and we were slightly late for the sunset cruise, but she managed to fit us in. While we were there we had a look at the hotel facilities. There was a bar around the corner from the activities desk, and a pool a bit further along. And upstairs was a restaurant. And they all looked out onto the waterhole. There were beautiful native flower arrangements everywhere too.
Before long it was time for our cruise. We met at the lobby, and were shuttled with a few others from our hotel, and one across the road. The dock wasn't far away.
These dancers were at all the touristy places. They posed for photos if you put some money in their bowl, but I misunderstood and thought they were telling me no photos, so this one didn't turn out very well!
The boat was fairly basic, open sided with a roof. There were tables and chairs set up along the sides, and because we were last on, we missed out on a 'window' seat. You could get up and wander around whenever you liked though so it didn't really matter. We didn't go anywhere near the falls, but we got to see a bit of wildlife. Apparently we were lucky to see the giraffes.
It was an open bar on the cruise, and we also got served some basic finger food.
When we got back to the hotel we went to the restaurant to have an early dinner. The food was great and the waiters were awesome! They brought the food out with a silver lid, and removed the lid with a grand gesture. While we were eating we saw some elephants at the waterhole. I tried to take some photos, but as it was getting fairly dark by that stage and the waterhole was quite far away, my camera was not cooperating.
After dinner, I went straight to bed, hoping to ward off any sickness that was creeping in.