We ride to the Smoke That Thunders!

We roll out early and head to meet our bike tour.  They have a pretty big bike for Charlie to ride, and he managed to get on it, the only other option was to double up with one of us, which would have been too much for what turned out to be a LONG ride!

Our guide took us from the center of Livingstone to the falls, along the Mosi-oa-Tunya (smoke that thunders) road.  We rode through parts of the viilage where the locals live, everyone pointed at Charlie and waved.






We paused at the Zambesi River where we could see the mist from the falls in the distance, it was exciting to know we were riding to them, but it looked pretty far in the distance so we were hoping we could make it!

Our excellent bike tour guides, Wazee on left and Patrick on right.

Lots of baboons at the place where you enter the National Park...the ones with babies were very cute, although they are real pests, you can't have any food or they will harass you.

We first see the falls from the famous bridge.  that runs between Zambia & Zimbabwe.  We technically crossed into Zimbabwe but never across the border!

We watched crazy people bungee jump the bridge.  Our guide told us that he was there the day that the lady from Australia had the bungee cable snap...she lived to tell the tale, it is on youtube if you'd like to see it!

We got a quick snack to give Charlie some energy before we headed on our 12K ride back to town-a long way for six year old legs to go!  The guides explained that all the guys (passing us on bikes loaded down with charcoal and various supplies) were headed for the Zim border to sell whatever was on their bikes.  They get a better price in Zim and can make as many trips across the border in a day as they like without paying charges.  These guys LOVED Charlie, they cheered for him, stopped to talk to him, took pictures of him, he was the celebrity of the day.  They told us that they had never seen a boy so young ride that road.  The bike trip was really amazing and made us feel like we had earned our trip to the Falls, I was happy to have learned about it from a blog post on the area! (thanks bloggers!)

We were pooped when we made it back to town had a fabulous lunch, Greg tried the local beer which had a great label!

We decided to drive back & do the walking part of the Falls while we were hot, and the sun was shining!  (evenings and early mornings were quite chilly!)

The Knife Edge Bridge was very cool, you walk across very close to the Falls, and the spray is everywhere, rainbows too!  We all have our raincoats, get totally soaked, super fun!

We stopped for a sundowner at the Royal Livingstone Hotel, the hotel interior was right out of a movie set of old Africa.  Here is Greg looking over the river from the beautiful deck at the hotel.  Again the mist from the falls in the background.

Great day had by all!