Victoria Falls charms Knight Rider

From Patrick Chitumba in Victoria Falls

POPULAR American actor, singer and businessman David Michael Hasselhoff, popularly known as Michael Knight, was in the resort town of Victoria Falls on a three-day private visit.
He was expected to leave Zimbabwe yesterday.

The Hoff, as he is known these days, rose to fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the leading actor in the popular television series Knight Rider, alongside his famous car KITT.

He was also part of another popular series – Baywatch – alongside blonde beauty Pamela Anderson.
Hasselhoff, who was in the company of his fiancée Hayley Louise Roberts and his cousin Nicholas Jean Corjon, said he was in the country to enjoy the splendour associated with one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Victoria Falls Rainforest and the mighty Zambezi River.

These are among other adventures that make the resort town the tourism hub of Southern Africa.
In an exclusive interview at the five-star Victoria Falls Hotel, where he booked in soon after his arrival from South Africa, Hasselhoff said this was his second visit to Victoria Falls.

“I was here in 1986 with my father and I will always want to visit this place. “I am here to show them the beauty of what God made, the Falls, it is so beautiful.”

He added that he had fond memories of Victoria Falls with the most vivid one being when a monkey entered their hotel room.

“Back then, there was a sign written that when a monkey enters a guest room, you should report to management.

“So one day we walked into our room and found the monkey. We called management and they came and took it out and it was such an experience,” he said.

He said he also remembers that he once bartered a pair of tennis shoes for an elephant tusk but was quick to note that things had changed.

“Right now there is the moratorium on the trade of ivory and I believe it is good for the protection of the wildlife. The last time I was here I traded my pair of tennis shoes for ivory,” he said.
Hasselhoff added that he was touched by the fact that people in South Africa and Zimbabwe still recognised him for the role he played in Knight Rider.

“I also visited South Africa during the apartheid era to show support for the people who were fighting against it and what I have learnt is that the people want to see a happy world where there is love and friendship.”

Hasselhoff also said his visit to Victoria Falls might prove worthwhile since he intended to propose to his fiancée while bungee jumping.

“I proposed to her when we were in South Africa when we were under the ocean in a cage watching sharks and she refused even after I had told her that I was going to open the gate of the cage and we will be eaten by sharks.

“I even proposed to here in front of charging elephants and she still said no so I will again propose, as I do bungee jumping or the swing,” he said.

Hasselhoff also said that he was hoping to do white- water rafting in the Zambezi River together with his fiancée.

“For the next three days we are here in Victoria Falls and we intend to do a lot of adventure activities as we have a lot of fun with my fiancée and my cousin, as we see the world together.

“So basically we are having more of fun than anything here in Victoria Falls it is very spiritual. I think that sitting on the edge of the falls is the closest that you’ll ever come to God. And you’re going to want to jump. It is so powerful, you’ll just want to give yourself back to God ,” he said.

Source: Victoria Falls charms Knight Rider (27/09/11)