An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Geez, these malaria pills are supposed to make us drowsy, and we’ve never slept worse than on the nights we’ve taken them. . .
We woke up around 6:00am to get to the airport on time. Our two flights were uneventful, and the pilot on the ComAir flight into VF even got permission to go a bit out of the regular flight path and gave us an aerial view of the Falls. We then waited about 30 minutes on line in the hot airport while the three civil servants scrutinized and stamped all documents for the two commercial flights that had just landed. (Like anyone’s going to want to sneak into here illegally). We finally arrived at our hotel, which was not exactly the “little gem” we had been led to believe, but we were happy to crawl into any bed at that point.
First, though, we went downstairs to their restaurant and had lunch of a Stouffer’s-like chicken tetrazini and a vegetable mixture in a tasty pastry shell. We then veged out for the afternoon, watching stupid American movies on the one non-cartoon channel. During the late afternoon, we were visited by some local residents who paraded outside our window: first some meerkats, looking like large ferrets with ringed fur, who traveled in an extended family of about 25, and some warthogs looking remarkably ugly, but running quite fast at times.
At about 6:15, Milton finally got the strength to go outside and walk the 10 minutes to the Falls so he slathered bug repellent all over (sunset being the riskiest time) and went out, first to find a few baboons sitting on the front lawn, then to find that the park closes at 6. Went for a short walk around the town, which is about 2 or 3 blocks big, with a few restaurants, many outfitters, and some tired-looking apparel shops. When I asked at the 7-11 (the one grocery being already closed) when they expected to get more bottled water in, I was told “I don’t know, maybe 2 or 3 days”. Then it was back to the room for some reading and an early bedtime.