Today we took Lucy and Jessica across the border to the crafts market to go shopping one last time (I said that before) prior to our departure the following morning, provided the money came through. We got to the market ad started bargaining away. I bought a malachite chess et for Z$80.00 (US$18) and traded a pair of shoelaces and a pen for a carving of a man’s head and a necklace. Lucy and Jessica had a good time bartering, but only Jessica ended up buying anything – three chess sets. Rich went wind and exited Zambia with a backpack full of malachite jewelry and a chess set. It was only after we’d returned to Zimbabwe that e told me malachite is a semi-precious stone in the U.S. – and I’d been to that market four times and only bought one piece of it!
We’d arranged to meet the girls at the Vic Falls Hotel for their elegant all you can eat buffet dinner, so we cleaned ourselves up and headed over there for our “last supper” before being banished back onto our Parkinson’s disease inducing mode of transport. We had a great dinner with wine and more that two visits to their dessert bar – it was a nice way to end our time at Vic Falls. The girls went to a nightclub, but we didn’t have enough dosh (we were leaving the country) so we went back to the truck and drank part of a bottle of Afri-Coco to top off the evening.
It was a clear night and the moon was out so Rich and I headed to Vic Falls to see the water under the moonlight. Upon our arrival at the top of the ‘Devil’s Cataract’ we found Stephanie and Jim already sitting there on the rocks admiring a lunar rainbow that was formed from the mist. Little did I know that the moonlight could also cause a rainbow effect off the mist from the falls. When you first look at it, it just looks like a white arc, but once your eyes adjust to it you can actually see the colors coming out of it. After much admiration and gawking over the edge of the falls we all headed back to go to sleep – we were finally leaving for Zambia the next day, and it wasn’t just the market over the bridge.