Day 9, July 2, was our last full day in Africa. We woke up in Livingstone, had breakfast, and made our way to The Elephant Café, an elephant sanctuary experience along the Zambezi River.
The Elephant Café is connected to a herd of rescued African elephants, each with its own story. The herd is unusual because it includes older bulls, females, younger elephants, and calves living together, which is not the typical structure of an elephant herd in the wild. Guests can meet the elephants through a guided, reward-based interaction while learning more about their behavior, histories, and relationships within the herd.
One of my favorite moments was watching an elephant pick food up from the ground, shake the dirt off with its trunk, and then put it into its mouth. It was a small action, but it showed precision and intelligence.
Baboons moved through the background while we were there, including a mother with her baby near the river. After seeing them so often in Livingstone, their presence felt like part of the landscape rather than a surprise.
After leaving The Elephant Café, we returned to our hotel in Livingstone, checked out, and began the transfer from Zambia into Zimbabwe. Along the way, we even spotted a zebra from the bus, one more small wildlife surprise tucked into the day.
At the border, we stamped out of Zambia, drove through the stretch of “no man’s land,” and crossed the same bridge we had photographed from below during the Boiling Pot hike. This time, instead of looking up at it from the river, we were driving across it into Zimbabwe. We stamped into Zimbabwe and continued on to Victoria Falls, where we checked into our new hotel.
The hotel was beautiful, and once we were settled, the pace of the day shifted. Most of our required program activities were finished, so lunch felt like the beginning of a slower final stretch. I celebrated with a piña colada, which felt very appropriate after days of packed schedules, border crossings, school visits, hikes, and early mornings.
After lunch, the rest of the day was open, so Jamesia, Lisa, and I decided to see Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side. After visiting the falls from Zambia, hiking down to the Boiling Pot, and seeing the lunar rainbow, I wondered how different it would feel from this side. It was absolutely worth going back.
The Zimbabwe side gave us wide views of the falls, the gorge, the bridge, and rainbows stretching through the mist. In some areas, the spray was so heavy that we needed ponchos, and even then, we were still getting soaked.
I loved seeing the bridge again from a new angle. Earlier in the trip, we had photographed it from below during the Boiling Pot hike, then crossed it by bus when we entered Zimbabwe. Now we were looking back at it from the trail, with the falls and gorge around us. That bridge became a fun little thread connecting several parts of our time in Livingstone and Victoria Falls.
Walking the path, we stopped at all the viewpoints, taking pictures, laughing in our ponchos, and trying to capture something much bigger than a photo can hold.
We moved quickly through the falls, hoping we might still have time to visit Elephant Walk Shopping before our 5:15 dinner reservation at The Lookout Café. We did not end up having enough time, so we called Bambino, who had driven us from the hotel to the falls earlier that afternoon. He picked us up again, wearing his leopard print vest and crown, which made the ride feel like its own little event.
The Lookout Café was a beautiful place to spend our last evening. The view from our table looked out over the gorge, with the bridge in the distance and the light beginning to soften. Before we even made it inside, we were greeted by a group of warthogs grazing in the grass out front. To reach the grass, they had to kneel on their front legs, which made me laugh.
At dinner, Lisa and I ordered “double rainbow” drinks, which felt fitting after a day of elephants, border crossings, Victoria Falls, mist, rainbows, and one last evening in Zimbabwe.
After dinner, Jesse, Graham, and I went to a local brewery. After so many planned activities and group experiences, it was nice to end the night with a slower conversation in a place that felt more local. I tried a Zambezi beer, which seemed like an appropriate final drink after enjoying some memorable adventures near the river that shared its name.
It was a full-circle kind of day without trying too hard to be one. We started with elephants near the Zambezi, crossed into Zimbabwe over the bridge we had seen from below, returned to Victoria Falls for one more look, and ended the night with a beer named for the river.
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