Southern Africa - Part6: Victoria Falls

After breakfast we were brought to our plane which was still waiting at the small bush strip of Kanana Lodge. Since it was already warming up we needed the whole runway for our departure and still had to avoid some trees upon climb out. As we had sufficient altitude we turned north overflying the lodge towards Chobe River. As we reached Chobe River we followed it all the way towards Kasane passing hundreds of elephants on our way. Since we were leaving Botswana today for Zimbabwe we had to clear custom and immigration at Kasane Airport. Kasane is a controlled airfield with a long asphalt runway which we were glad to have for our departure with full tanks and a density altitude of nearly 6000ft. Custom and immigration went pretty quick since our safety pilot knew to whom and where to talk to. Leaving Kasane we had to climb to 6000ft altitude which is the minimum height for airplanes overflying the Victoria Falls. Traffic over the falls is primarily separated by altitude with ultralights at the bottom aircraft at the top and helicopters in the middle. Since the temperature was 38 degrees C it took us all the way from Kasane to the falls to reach 6000ft. We did a scenic tour around the waterfall with our skydiving door open in order to take some good pictures. Unfortunately, we had trouble closing the door again during flight so we continued with the open door towards Victoria Falls airport. The airport has a long asphalt runway and a new international terminal where we cleared custom and immigration into Zimbabwe like the other regular passengers.