Saturday 30 December 2017. Photos (Victoria Falls & Zimbabwe)
Highlights: Helicopter Flight over the Falls, Night Game Drive (Rhino sighting)

Today was the day I fulfilled one of my life ambitions in going on a helicopter ride and I got to do it over the magnificent Victoria Falls!

Victoria Falls is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and I got to see it from the air which gave me a great opportunity to take in the scale of this natural wonder. You can see the video here. I had previously visited the Falls on the Zambia side so I knew it was a significant site but the scene from above was even better.

The helicopter rife was only for 12 minutes of which abut 3-4 are taken up getting there and going back but the 8 minutes over the Falls and the Zambezi River were worth the roughly $180 USD (I booked this in a package deal so can’t be precise). The Falls create this great mist for the rushing water which in turn helps create a rainbow that you can see from above. The flight itself was incredibly smooth, I’m sure they take extra care being a tourist flight so no sudden and unexpected movements.

I did the helicopter flight in the late morning which allowed me to take in a night game drive in Stanley Livingstone Private Park around 3.30 pm. The drive is combined dusk and night. During the dusk part of the game drive we found and got up really close to the very exclusive rhino (video here). While I had seen one earlier on the trip it was in the far distance, this one was walking in front of our 4WD. A rhino encounter was the very reason I signed up for this optional activity and it delivered.

We also encountered baboons, elephants, zebras, various antelopes, colourful birds, a tortoise and giraffes but the rhino was the major highlight. During the drive we stopped at a nice look out point and the guide bought out beers and wine while we watched the sunset over the park. From here we travelled to a different section of the park for a very nice dinner and finally some more night driving. While we didn’t seen any predators on the night game drive I was still extremely happy with the first part of the experience. A great day.