A travel vlog by Nate Buchanan and Kara documenting a day at Victoria Falls (Zambia and Zimbabwe). They arrive early to view the falls from the dry side, then approach the wet side/bridge area (note: Devil's Pool is closed due to high water). They hike trails near the falls (see baboon sighting), eat a traditional Zambian meal featuring nshima, fried bream and crocodile, and cross the land border into Zimbabwe (stamped out of Zambia in ~2 minutes; full crossing under 20 minutes). They praise their VIP driver Evesta (driver/guide) and arrive at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge; vlog ends with a promise of a follow-up lodge-focused episode.
Questions this video answers
July 25, 2016
The full crossing took less than 20 minutes; stamping out of Zambia took about 2 minutes.
Because the water is high.
Chapters
Allow me to introduce myself. Who knows what dastardly Croix might perpetrate next. He's a very clever arch criminal who.
Must be put away.
Another innocent victim. Good morning.
This is Evesta. He's our VIP driver. And he picked us up from our hotel this morning. And we're going to Victoria Falls.
Just paid our tourist tax. Now it's time to go check him out. So this afternoon, after we see the falls, this morning, we'll come over here and cross the bridge into Zimbabwe. Perfect.
This is why we came to Zambia.
The largest waterfall in the world. Not the tallest, not the widest, the largest, which is kind of hard to understand.
Kara's been having trouble wrapping her head around that one.
A rainbow.
That is awesome. Whoa.
Check that out.
Can you believe this?
I think we can just go home now. There's no way it gets any better than this.
That is the prettiest rainbow I've ever seen.
I see why. It's one of the seven natural world wonders. So right now, we're going to explore the dry side of the falls. And then later, I think we go get really wet at that bridge, right? And then this afternoon, we cross that bridge into Zimbabwe.
Like, no one's here right now. This is the coolest tourist thing we've ever done. We got here super early. For some reason, all the tour buses don't leave until 10. We got here at 8, and we're, like, the only ones.
So we just viewed the falls from the dry side. Now we're going to get wet and try not to ruin the camera in the process because we didn't bring the GoPro.
So.
It is so loud, and all the mist is shooting out of the canyon right here. I'm getting wet now.
We're going over there.
I don't know.
We're getting stoked.
It must really wet.
Probably gonna ruin the camera. Trying to capture this today may be worth it.
Still works.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Check out how much. They say you can see the mist from the falls from over 30 miles away.
Way down there where you can see the little houses is Livingston Island. And then on the other side of that is where Devil's Pool is. So if you've ever seen, like, the really cool picture where people are spread out, like, hanging over the edge, that happens right down there. Devil's Pool. Unfortunately, the water is high right now, so Devil's Pool is closed, and we can't go. It's a big bummer.
You ready for a little hike?
We don't have any water, so. Scary enough.
I Think we'll live. We just passed two men who were very worn out coming back up this trail. Starting to wonder how good of an idea this was. Limbo, limbo, limbo.
Nice.
Not doing that. You wanna go over there?
Yeah.
Can you do this one?
Don't fall and break the camera.
No way I'm doing that. That is a lot of water.
I wonder if that's what we look like to people when we vlog.
I think the boiling point is where the water swirls in a circle right here.
That seems right. All right, we gotta quickly get back up to the trailhead to meet Kivesta. This is supposed to be at 11 and it's already 1025. It's massive and like 15ft away from us. It didn't notice us. Made it back to the top. Like 10 minutes to spare. We just saw a baboon, which we hear are very dangerous.
You are done now.
Yes. It was very nice.
It was awesome.
So Ivesta just picked us up from the falls. We're gonna go back to our hotel, grab our bags, and then we're gonna have a local meal at the Zambezi Ca before crossing the border into Zimbabwe.
We are told this is the best place to come.
You want to taste Nishima?
Yes.
Nishima is busy.
What is bream?
Bream is a big fish.
Okay. Vesta is going to explain what we ordered for dinner. I mean, for lunch.
It's for lunch.
Thank you.
You.
You can explain to him. So you can come and sit here.
This is the fried bream, which is called sashima.
Yeah. That is an entire fish. Yeah. It has teeth.
Crocs.
Cut it into pieces when dry in traditional veggies.
I love it.
Kara, is this your first time trying crocodile?
Yeah, it looks delicious.
The white shampoo here is in shimmer.
Yeah.
It's made out of maize. Pounded maize.
Yeah.
Mini meal.
Corn.
Yeah, that corn. You take the to the hammer meal. They make it like a powder. Then you cook using your.
Your hands.
Yes.
Very good machine.
There's some hard work.
How do you eat it?
You have to wash our hands. Or you can use the fork or.
You gotta use your hands.
I haven't washed my hands.
You gotta go wash them. Yeah.
If you want, you can use a fork.
Yeah, fork.
If you want, you can use hands. But here in Zambia, we use hands.
We use the hands to get one today.
Shimang with the veggies and you also with the meat.
So do I take like a scoop of shima and then a scoop of this and eat at the same time?
Yes, at the same time.
Evesta told me I had to eat with my hands, but he's using a fork.
Peter.
Yeah, I can use my hands, too.
No worries.
I'm just kidding.
That's good.
Oh, it's a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be. Okay. I thought it was gonna be mushy, like potatoes.
There we go.
This is, like, really good.
It's like a.
Bready potato.
They told us shima was the most traditional thing we could eat here.
Yeah, I like it. All right, now for the crocodile.
Try it.
Do I just eat it like this?
Just.
Good.
Is so good.
Time to eat this guy.
How's that fish? Very nice.
Good.
Not fishy at all.
Hey, little guy.
He looks so angry.
Yes.
But this is from the river.
Yeah, from the river.
Cool. Love it.
Nice. Fresh.
All right, we're gonna dig in.
Lunch was delicious. Crocodiles. Fantastic. What's the stuff? The esta.
Is like, the most filling thing I've ever eaten in my entire life.
Expanding in my stomach.
Now it's time to go to Zimbabwe.
We're going to get stamped out of Zambia. Took about two minutes and we're stamped out of the country.
Oh, wow.
That is the falls.
Beautiful.
This is the border now. This is Zimbabwe, this dungeon site.
So we're crossing through right now?
Yeah, we are crossing to Zimbabwe now.
Now we're in Zimbabwe. Oh, it's beautiful here.
Oh, we're getting wet from the falls now. Yeah.
You can see the mist coming up from the falls.
Yeah.
So here's where we're parting ways with Investa. He picked us up from the airport last night, and then we got to ride around with him today. And he's really made our day so much better because we trust him and he's so nice. And so if you come to Zambia, we are going to link his email and WhatsApp number below so that he can drive you around, too.
Thanks very much.
Plus, if you are going to cross the border over land, because he has a private car and he's not a taxi, he can drive you all the way across the the border instead of having to get two separate taxis. So that's been really nice.
Cheers.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. We will miss you.
See you again.
I don't know when.
Yes. One day. Two days, two visas. Let's go.
We're in.
We are officially in Zimbabwe. The entire border crossing took, like, less than 20 minutes. It was pretty painless. This man is giving us a lift to the lodge. What's your name Lucky. Lucky.
We are jamming.
That's it? I think so.
I like what's happening right now.
Hello.
Good.
How are you?
Welcome to Victoria.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. I like your headband.
All right. Welcome to Queen.
Thank you. We just got to the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge in Zimbabwe. Today has been full of adventure and I don't think we can fit any more in today's vlog. So I think we're gonna have to split today into two vlogs.
Victoria Falls is great enough that it should have its own vlog and we're partnering with the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, so we want to make sure they get their own vlog and their own feature. So for that reason, we're ending today's vlog here. And tomorrow's vlog will pick up here. But tomorrow.
What are they doing?
She won't stop taking pictures. Snapchatting. Instagramming.
Let's go.
I could be totally wrong, but these birds look like toucans and sound like cats.
Don't they kind of sound like cats?
Kara, this rock has your name on it.
Resting place.
Just for you.
Thanks.
Nate is most definitely breaking the rules. He climbed over this ledge.
Please come back.
It's coming towards us. Oh, my gosh. Let's get out of here. Is this the exit that's bigger than me?
Oh, my gosh.
I don't think this is the exit.
Yeah, go that way.
It's walking faster. It's walking faster.
Alright, cool. Don't show fear. They can smell it.
