Funny how sometimes you need to zoom in close to get the big picture. Victoria Falls may not be the world’s highest or wildest waterfall, but it’s the largest. The waterfalls are a UNESCO World Heritage site, too, and we always go out of our way to try and see anything on the world heritage list.
We booked a day trip from Botswana over to Victoria Falls so someone else would do the driving and deliver us to the right border offices to get our day visas. (We had a border permit for our rental car for Namibia over into Botswana, but not for Zimbabwe.) The Botswanan driver parked the van at the border, walked us to where his Zimbabwe colleague was waiting, and handed us off to him.
Victoria Falls wasn’t at full force when we visited but we still got soaking wet from the mists blowing over from the other side. We were happy to be wet as it was over 100 degrees that day.
Our visit coincided with the dry time of year, and I admit : I was a little disappointed the falls weren’t bigger. But I wandered around anyway, admiring the site.
Uwe’s responsible for the photos when we’re traveling. He creates the best images possible, while I just take snapshots with my cell phone. Uwe was enthralled, and busy finding the right angles for his camera. I enjoyed watching him at work (at play) and snapped a couple pics of my hubby doing his thing….
And then, when I looked in the viewfinder hoping I’d managed to get a few shots that didn’t include my thumb in the upper left hand corner, there was the breathtaking sweep and scope of Victoria Falls, dry season or wet season or any season. Even the fuzziness in my photo is supposed to be there – that’s the mists blowing up from Victoria Falls. Maybe the best photo I’ve ever taken with my phone!
Perspective really is everything.
NOTES: © 2023 Jadi Campbell. Uwe’s photos of our trips and his photography may be viewed at viewpics.de.
My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded and The Trail Back Out.
Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.
Author Bram Stoker was born on November 8, 1847 in Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland. In 1897 Stoker gave the world Dracula, the vampire from Transylvania. Undead, the vampire must drink blood and transforms himself into a wolf or a bat at will. In Stoker’s honor here is an excerpt from my first book, about the 2,000,000 wrinkle-lips bats Uwe and I saw when we visited Thailand. – Jadi
It was dusk when the car came to a stop on a plain with no one in sight, the sun a bright red disk sailing below the horizon. Gabe got out of the car just as the first bats emerged from the cave.
These were followed by more, and more, and more, an impossible number of flying mammals swooping and looping in ribbons across the skies.
“Each bat will cover up to 200 kilometers of hunting grounds tonight before they’re done,” the guide told him.
There was not a single other human being anywhere, no buildings, no roads, no signs of human civilization, only the twisting spirals of the bat colony in the air.
The men stood for over two hours as the bats sailed overhead. Gabe waited until it was too dark to make out the shapes of the bats before he turned away, images of flight burned onto his retinas and his memory.
Pam follows several mudlarks on Instagram and she was beyond excited to learn that the Museum of London Docklands was hosting the city’s mudlarks for two days when we were there.
Pictured here is mudlark Sean Clark, who takes part in a long-standing (and previously grim) activity. 
It’s an easy bus ride from the capitol Riga to the museum. Go to my post 
Existence was harsh and hard, like the overcast skies much of the day we visited. [2] Along with simple huts, the site includes windmills.
A store building is filled with dowry chests and traces of Latvia’s long history serving in the Hanseatic League.
The town to see whales is Hermanus. We walked from our hotel to the jetty where we’d catch a whale watching boat. The scenery included local art.
