Weekend Photos: Victoria Falls

Hard to believe, but my account of the Great African Adventure is nearly complete! This visit to Victoria Falls should finish it up. But don't despair--I have more photos to share from adventures enjoyed since getting home!

The other posts from my Africa trip are: Arusha, Tarangire National Park, South Serengeti Part 1, South Serengeti Part 2,  the rest of the Serengeti tour,  Ngorogoro Crater,  Mt. Meru, Mt. Kenya, Part 1, Mt. Kenya, Part 2,  Kenya Safari Part 1, and Kenya Safari Part 2.  

 

When we finished our second safari (the Kenya version), we had just one more plan before heading back to the States: a visit to the world's largest waterfall. 

Located on the Zambezi River, which at this point in its long course divides the nations of Zambia and Zimbabwe, Victoria Falls is more than a mile wide--making it one of the largest in the world by width, though it is exceeded by many in both height and volume of water. One feature that struck me, however, was the nature of the gorge into which the water falls, as seen in this model from the Livingston Museum:

The river falls into a gorge that runs perpendicular to the river flow, then flows away in a zig-zag course (I didn't look up the geology that caused this). This permits views of the falls unlike any I've experienced elsewhere, as you can stand on land about the same height as the top of the falls and only a couple of hundred feet away. That is what we did on two days in two different countries.

We flew from Nairobi to Livingston, Zambia, arriving to find that early March was definitely still summer there. Heat made it challenging for us to do anything away from the falls, but we did manage a walk through town to the museum.

Al fresco art gallery along the main street.

This fearsome crocodile is made of bottle caps!

Late in the afternoon we headed to the falls, in order to see sunset there, or as close as we could get (the park closes at sunset, which might make sense given the animals that wander through there).

Visitors are well advised to bring a rain poncho, as spray from the falls soaks everything, making a micro-rainforest surrounding the falls. I didn't realize until we flew back out how dry everything is just a short distance away.

This map shows the features on the Zambia's side. We began with the climb down to the Boiling Pot, then crossed the Knife Edge Bridge to Danger Point, and finished by walking upstream to shoot the falls against the low sun.

The hike down to the Boiling Pot closes 90 minutes ahead of the park closure, in order to give people time to manage the roughly 400' climb back up, so we went there first, to see the river racing away from the falls.

Looking downstream to the Victoria Falls Bridge, one of only 3 road links between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It carries a car lane, a train track, and a foot path, and you can bungee jump off it if you're that sort.

The Boiling Pot is a massive eddy formed as the water rushes through the narrow exit from the First Gorge (the one along the base of the falls) and makes a right-angle turn to continue downstream.

With temperatures well over 80 and what must have been nearly 100% humidity thanks to the constant mist, the climb back up was harder than it needed to be. We were glad to reach the top, and found it a pleasure to get soaked by the spray.

A constant feature on a sunny day, rainbows form in the mist whenever you look away from the sun.

The author, trying to keep my camera dry wrapped in my rain jacket. I ended up putting it in my nephew's backpack, and on the next visit brought my own pack--and poncho.

Thanks to the incessant spray, which at times was an actual heavy rain, most of my photos from this side were taken with my cell phone. Also thanks to the spray, we didn't die of the heat.

Double rainbow.

Into the sinking sun.

 

The logistics of crossing into Zimbabwe took up a chunk of another day, as we had to take a cab to the bridge, go through immigration to leave Zambia, be driven across the bridge to enter Zimbabwe (more customs and immigration), then meet another cab driver--the cabs can't cross the border. Not to worry: our first driver "knew a guy" who met us and all went smoothly. 

Even this short distance from the falls the vegetation was much drier.

The next morning we were up before first light, picked up boxed breakfasts from the hotel, and walked the mile to the falls to be there when the park opened--so we could race for the prime spots to photograph the sunrise. 

A note on access to the falls: each country operates a national park controlling access, with moderately stiff entry fees. The Zimbabwe side, especially, felt kind of expensive: $50 US for a one-time pass, no re-entry. As a result, we planned our excursion carefully so as to be able to do everything wanted in one go.

Pre-sunrise, looking east from the west end of the falls.

First sun hits the water.

We gradually moved around to the east end of the Zimbabwe side, shooting back at the rainbows.

As a final fun and (for me) slightly out of character outing, my brother-in-law and I went for a sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi River. We'd been having issues with our flight home (which totally panicked me as we were scheduled to arrive in SF just 2 days ahead of my son's wedding!), and we thought our tickets were squared away, but the "kids" were still on hold trying to get theirs sorted. Turned out we were wrong, but thank goodness my niece-in-law managed to find all our info and get us booked on a good flight home!

Meanwhile, we were cruising up and down the river in hopes of one last chance of a good crocodile sighting.

The Zambezi Breeze was only half full.

In the end we didn't see crocs, and the cruise may not have been worth it, but food was good and the sunset gorgeous.

Appetizers

Locally made flavored gin. The cost of the cruise included alcohol; they made a killing off of us as neither of us drinks much.

Sunset on the river.

That pretty much does it for the Africa trip! We flew home via Cape Town, SA, so did see some interesting (dry!) country from the plane--and made it in plenty of time for the wedding!

 

The author enjoying our final African sunset.

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
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