Livingstone I presume?

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to Livingstone, Zambia is a short and relatively painless journey, if you do it the way we did it with a pre-arranged shuttle service, but even if you just get a taxi at either end and walk cross the border, it should be ok - it just depends on how much luggage you have and the weather that day. For us the private shuttle transfer from door to door was cost effective and took a lot of the hastle out of things (More on this at the bottom of the page).

Victoria Falls town is just a couple of kms from the border with Zambia, so getting there is simple. Livingstone, is the first town you come to when entering Zambia at this border, but its about 12km from the border. On both sides you will find taxis and shared buses that you can get to take you to the respective towns.

It was about 1pm as we drove in to the town of Livingstone, and we were surprised to see on the grass verge of the main road several zebras happily grazing. Our driver said that it was common to see animals in the town but they tended to stay in the outskirts, and usually only came in towards the end of the day. Unlike in the town of Victoria Falls, other wildlife was less common in the main parts of town as they tended to stay near the Zambezi river which was near the border - at least we could walk about without fear of bumping into buffalo or elephants here.

Livingstone has a really different feel to Vic Falls. It's a larger town with what appeared to be a lot more traffic cutting through it. Where Vic Falls is all about the waterfall tourism, Livingstone seems to support a wider community and sustains schools, standard businesses you would expect to see in a town and it has a sizeable bus station.

We were staying at Fawlty Towers Hotel, a hotel that had a hostel vibe about it, but unlike its namesake, was a decent place with some good facilities and a friendly, helpful team. The gardens were beautiful - it was like walking into an oasis off of the dusty street outside and each day we would watch the gardeners working and try to figure out what they were doing with scaffolding up the trees - turns out they were harvesting unripe mangoes to prevent monkeys, babboons particularly, from coming in to the property as apparently they can't resist a sweet mango. There was a nice pool area, a bar with the loveliest barman called Prince and a cafe that served complimentary english breakfast (well, close enough) and then pancakes with lemon and sugar each afternoon (how british is that?).

We spent our days exploring the streets of the town and all it had to offer - which is not very much if I'm being honest. Livingstone is a town you pass through, not one you would usually choose to spend a week in, but sometimes you end up in places like this and it does you the world of good just to stay still. We found a little restaurant round the corner that we liked so much, we visited twice. We visited the Livingstone Museum and added to our basic knowledge about Dr Livingstone and his expedition through Africa and the discovery of Victoria Falls. What struck me personally was his wife Mary Moffat who married him in 1845, and then joined him on his expedition for 7 years, with 4 children in tow. She must have been a resilient woman to have travelled so far from the relative comforts she had known. Learning about her has added a bit of perspective to my own travels which whilst at times can give me anxiety, any issues that arise just can't compare to the challenges faced by the Livingstone expedition; excessive tiredness, 24hrs on a bus or a difficult border crossing are the modern excuse of something to complain about.

Wandering the streets, Gaz spotted a local taxi being pushed up the street and dashed over to offer a helping hand. Soon there were several people all pushing this taxi up the street and into the distance. Gaz thought they had broken down, but they had simply run out of petrol and when they reached a petrol station they happily got on with filling up the tank. Running out of fuel must be fairly standard here because no-one other than Gaz was surprised. I love that he instantly pitches in and helps anyone that needs it wherever we are. In truth I try to do whatever I can as well when I see something I can help with. In this way it feels like every community is our community and that feels like the right way to be.

In some places we travel, there are opportunities to support local people through volunteering. In Livingstone we had learned of a school that welcomed travellers to go and support the English lessons and interact with the children, helping them with homework, computer skills and sports. We planned to go but when we were trying to arrange it, the school explained that all the children were involved in exams that week so they couldn't accommodate us. Given our limited time in the area it wasn't going to be possible. These opportunities are not just about giving your time to benefit others. We of course get a lot out of the experience as well - on a simple level it makes us feel good to feel like we've helped; we're only human. Whilst this time we couldn't get involved, I hope we will find further opportunities to give back while we're on the move.

The most amazing experience we had while in Zambia was a trip up the Zambezi river in a small power boat. We would recommend this to anyone, it was such good fun and really good value. I think it cost us approximately US$100 pp for a 4 hour experience which I thought was steep, but man it was incredible and i would do it again in a heartbeat.

We were picked up from Fawlty Towers and transferred to the river jetty about 30 minutes away. We boarded a small power boat with about 8 other people (a group of entrepenuer Zambian business owners and their wives/girlfriends) that we got on really well with. They were straight on the complimentary beers and wine and I immediately thought 'these people are my kind of people!'

We headed up the river at around 4pm and immediately had the privilege of seeing a herd of elephants bathing up to their ears in the deep water. It was wonderful just to see them doing their thing and then making their way out of the water. We also passed a number of Hippos but we kept quite a distance away and didn't linger because they are so territorial and are likely to become aggressive.

We passed some small islands in the river and on one bank we saw a herd of small antelope. After cruising the river and exploring the different channels and seeing a few more groups of elephants heading into and out of the river we landed on one of the small islands at about 6.30pm to have some food and stretch our legs. Before we could jump out, the guide left the boat and walked around the island area to check that no hippos had come on to the land; at this time of night they tend to come on to dry land to graze throughout the evening. Once we were given the all clear, we headed on to the island and stood chatting, getting to know one another, and sharing experiences while we sampled some Zambian finger food.

There was a lot of laughter and as the sun started to set we clambered back into the boat to head down river towards the rapids.

The guide increased the speed of the boat and skirted around the islands and after a few tight turns (great fun) headed the boat up across the rapids which was indeed fun but a bit disconcerting when the boat hit a rock and my phone flew across the boat as we were thrown all over the place.

It was a great tour and although we had been on safari to Kruger National Park when we were in south Africa, this river safari was a completely different experience and it was great.

Soon enough our time in Livingstone was over. We had decided to travel to Namibia by bus. A bus ride of 24hrs - not for the faint of heart, but definitely the cheapest way to travel almost 1500km (about US$30 each).

The bus was due to leave the bus station at 8am, so at 7am we loaded up with our backpacks and walked to the bus station about 1km away. We found a few other obvious backpackers lingering around and they were waiting for the same bus (always reassuring). Soon enough someone yelled the word Windhoek, the capital of Namibia and the destination for our bus, so we made our way over to find an oversized modern shuttle bus with about 20 fairly roomy seats. We loaded up the bags into a trailer and settled down to say goodbye to Zambia, and hello to a new country.

Getting across the border at Victoria Falls, from Zimbabwe to Zambia

Private Transfer

We booked and paid for this online after searching for the best deal. We had a text conversation on WhatsApp to finalise the details and the driver picked us up promptly. He was very friendly and professional, driving us to the border, guiding us where to go and who to speak to. Our bags stayed in his car with him while we got our passports stamped. Then the driver introduced us to a new driver who would take us the 1km across the border bridge and stay with us to our hotel. So we transferred our bags, hopped into the next car and travelled across the bridge to the Zambian border control office. Here we jumped out, had our passports stamped and then our driver took us the rest of the way to our accommodation in Livingstone. It was really straight forward.

Cost: US$35

Things to note: The crossing between the border posts is about 1km. It goes over a long bridge from where you can get incredible views of the Falls (in the dry season you won't see much water from this viewpoint, if any). Vehicles are not allowed to stop on the bridge, so if you travel over by vehicle you won't be able to take photos.

Walk / Bus / Taxi

The border is walkable from Victoria Falls town, especially if you are based in the north of the town and don't have much luggage. We have big backpacks (14kg) but we're usually ok to walk a mile with these if needed, however the weather was very hot while we were there and our accommodation was about 3km from the border, so we decided against walking.

Taxis to the border from Victoria Falls town are available. If you get a taxi to the border, you will need to walk across the bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia and this is very doable, but again depends on the ammount of luggage and weather conditions and how you feel about that.

When you pass the Zambian border control office, you will find taxis and shared buses available a little way up the road on the left. Here you can get someone to take you to Livingstone if needed.

Cost: Taxi to border US$5-10; Taxi from Zambian border to Livingstone US$20-25

Things to note: If you walk across the bridge with your luggage, in the right seasons you will have an amazing view of the falls. And if you're lucky, you may also be on the bridge when a train comes over it (vehicles are not allowed to be on the bridge when the train comes, but pedestrians can be). There is also bungee jumping from the bridge, so you never know, you may get lucky and see someone taking the plunge.