Africa-4 Waterfall!

From Mala Mala we went to the nearby Skukuza airport, we got on a small plane, which held only 12 passengers, and flew to Nelspruit, where we got on another plane and flew to Livingstone, Zambia. You have heard of Livingstone. “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

Livingstone is the biggest city near Victoria Falls, which is on the Zambezi river. The best place to view the falls is from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, across the border. The Zambezi river is the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Our flight was truly memorable because our pilot circled around the waterfall before we landed, and I was up against the window taking photos. A very impressive waterfall, even from a distance.

Immigration services took forever in Zambia, with only two employees who took forever… Our tour company had arranged for a driver, and we were met at the airport and driven to the border, where we went through the ramshackle Zambian emigration station, and were then handed off to Zimbabwian drivers. They drove us across the no-mans land between the countries, to the ramshackle Zimbabwe immigration station. This included driving across the iconic Victoria Falls Bridge, envisaged by Cecil Rhodes, of Rhodes Scholarship fame, which was finished in 1905. Surprisingly, the bridge is a one lane bridge for auto traffic, and it also has a railway track.

 

Our hotel, the Victoria Falls Hotel, was an old colonial hotel, and it has an amazing view of the bridge. We then met our guide Cynthia who gave us a tour of the waterfall. She was great, giving us history of the falls, the bridge, and Zimbabwe. Susan and Cynthia hit it off talking about politics, women’s issues in Africa,  and sociology, while I was preoccupied taking photos. And the photos were amazing! When we got to the first view point Cynthia was so excited: “There are rainbows today!” There was so much water, it was astonishing. Much of the water rises up into mists or clouds, despite the blue sky. And multiple times we got brief, but very heavy, rainfall from these clouds. Sometimes the clouds obscured the waterfall for minutes, and then the waterfall and the rainbow were revealed again.

I even got pictures of double rainbows!

Cynthia suggested I take a video to record the sound of the waterfall.

Our guide got us these heavy duty raincoats to wear, and we needed them. I also had a large plastic Ziploc bag for my camera, and I needed it during the heavy squalls!!

The waterfall was amazing, and I see why some include it as one of the Seven Wonders of the world. Livingstone named the waterfall in honor of Queen Victoria, but there is also the indigenous Tonga name, Mosi-oa-Tunya “The Smoke That Thunders.” Cynthia said told us this name, and we had to record her saying it. Her dialect includes a Click, which is a sound we could not make. An interesting thing about these clicks. Children do not learn them from hearing adults speak, but must be taught how to click.

The best time to see animals when on safari is early in the morning or late in the day, so we had been getting up very early for our game drives. It was very nice to sleep in the next day in Victoria Falls. After a leisurely breakfast we went to several craft markets, and had lunch at a local microbrewery. Good IPA, and interesting tacos where the “tortilla shells” were made from beer batter. We also saw an interesting adventure sport, where people can get into a cage and go underwater with crocodiles.

Victoria Falls is a major tourist destination because people want to see the waterfalls, and other tourist activities developed. There are boat rides on the Zambeze river and safari tours. We met people who took what they said was a wonderful helicopter ride, at $200 per person for a fifteen minute ride. And there are “adrenaline sports,” ziplines across the Zambezi gorge downstream of the waterfall, and bungee jumping from the Victoria Falls Bridge. Needless to say, we did not partake. We asked our guide Cynthia if she had bungee jumped, and she said yes, she had to do it as a guide, and she was so frightened and hated it.

That afternoon we went on a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river, above the waterfall. There was wine and snacks, and we saw hippos and crocodiles on the riverbank, and an amazing sunset. We met some nice people from Santa Monica and we ate dinner with them later.

We really liked Victoria Falls. Next stop is a safari camp in Botswana.

Susan and David