The Smoke That Thunders

We've spent the last few days at Victoria Falls, or as its known in the local language, Mosi-o-Tunya, the Smoke that Thunders. Victoria Falls is on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, and is over a mile wide and 300 ft tall. The water falls into a gorge which is equally steep on the side facing the falls, and flows out through a series of other gorges, each of which was a previous location of the falls. The western side of the falls, and the land facing it belongs to Zimbabwe; the eastern side of each belongs to Zambia. Due to the placement of the border, and the location of the river's exit from the 1st gorge, Zambia has more of the waterfall (at least when the flow of the river is high - the Zambian side completely dries up in the dry season), while Zimbabwe has more of the land facing it. Because so much water is falling into a narrow gorge, there is a ton of mist spraying up and out of the gorge (hence the local name), which depending on the wind obscures the view of all the falls from any one spot, and provides business for people renting out rain jackets to visitors.

We spent a day in the parks on each side of the falls. On the Zambia side, you have a more limited view, but the hiking trails are more interesting. Our first sighting of the falls was at Eastern Cataract, where I took out my camera to take a picture and realized I had left my memory cards at our lodge! So, it was a quick taxi trip back and forth, and we returned for take two of our first Vic Falls sighting.

We continued on across the plateau where we picked up ponchos and headed into the spray. The plateau narrows and drops down a bit to what is called the Knife's edge, and there is a bridge built across it where most of the spray is aimed.

This isn't just a light mist, it's a full on torrent of rain. Sometimes the spray coming up from the falls is exactly strong enough to keep the falling raindrops suspended, and you can watch the drops dancing and floating through the air. From here, we went around to the plateau on the far side of the 2nd gorge, which was drier and offered a longer view to the bit of the falls you could see through the exit gorge.

Finally, we walked down the trail to the bottom, and an area called the boiling pot, where the river turns out of the exit gorge and into the 2nd gorge. Here the river flows in a circular current as it runs straight into the wall of the 2nd gorge,

and we could again see a portion of the falls through the exit gorge.

On the Zimbabwe side, all you can do is walk along the plateau directly opposite the falls, but you see several different cataracts. The first, westernmost one seemed to have the most flow through a small area. A little further east is the main falls, followed by Horseshoe and Rainbow Falls,
before reaching the end of the Zimbabwean plateau at a spot called Danger Point, where you can see across to Zambia into the 1st gorge, exit gorge, and the Boiling Pot and 2nd gorge.

Quite a spectacular spot. With all the mist and a clear blue sky above, there's almost always a rainbow somewhere.

Connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe more than 400 ft over the 2nd gorge is the Victoria Falls Bridge, a steel arch bridge built in the early 20th century. Aside from providing access over the river, the bridge is now also the site of Victoria Falls bungee jump. Here in Vic Falls, you can participate in just about any activity you can think of, from bungee jumping and paintball to walking with lions and river cruises. For one of our activities, we decided to get a view of the fall from right above them....in what is called a microlight, which is basically a hang-glider with a motorcycle engine and propeller. We were lucky to get in the air as it was a windy morning and they suspended flights just after we had both taken off. This (or a helicopter) is the only way to see all the falls at once,
and we could also see the zigzagging series of gorges downstream. Above the falls, where the river flows through a maze of islands, we could see hippos and elephants.

For our second activity of the day, in the afternoon got to experience some of the five star treatment in Africa. We headed over to the Royal Livingston Hotel to have high tea at Livingstone Island. This is the spot where in 1855 David Livingstone became the first European to view the falls. From the hotel, we took a short boat right to a small island in the middle of the river and right on the edge of the falls...and got a view from the edge strait down the falls. After hiking around the edge of the Falls, we had a fancy treat of high tea with lots of delicious savory and sweet bites.

After our trip to the island, we stuck around the Royal Livingstone to enjoy some of the high living. We sipped cocktails as we viewed the sunset, then treated ourselves to a crocodile appetizer. (It's better to have crocodile stuck in your teeth than to be stuck in the teeth of a crocodile.)

The zebras even paid a visit to the pool deck at the hotel.


After completing our 360 degree view of the Falls from all angles, we left the five star accommodation for our tent, and went to bed wondering how comfortable the beds at the Royal Livingstone a