Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in the world. It is twice the height and half a kilometer longer than the more popular Niagara Falls. Located along the Zambezi River, this massive spectacle is also the national border of both Zimbabwe and Zambia. The water flows past the nearby town of Livingstone in Zambia, and comes crashing into the lower-elevated portion of the Zambezi River, which runs alongside the town in Zimbabwe, disingenuously named ‘Victoria Falls’.
The best place to view the falls is Victoria Falls National Park. In the wet season (Mar – May), it rains often in the plains northwest in Zambia. As a result, groundwater collects from large swathes of land, trickling into the Zambezi River. The river leads to Victoria Falls, where 4700 litres of water pours per second, leaving the air is full of spray. The perpetual downpour makes it impossible to get your camera out without getting it wet; the intense spray also makes it difficult to view the falls. If your budget allows for it, you may want to get a helicopter ride in order to fully appreciate the grandeur of the falls.
Mosi-Oa-Tunya, literally meaning “the smoke that thunders”
Visiting the falls at the end of the dry season (Jul – Sep) is a great option. While you may not be able to experience the full power of the falls, you can take pictures safely. Also, options for a number of interesting side-trips and activities open up. The first of them is the Lunar Rainbow walk. A Lunar Rainbow is a naturally occurring phenomenon where light from the moon refracts through water particles in the air and forms a rainbow.
A number of factors are required for the walk to be possible –
- The dry season (it is dangerous to walk the park in the dark during wet season)
- A full moon (for sufficient light)
- Absence of clouds
- Sufficient spray in the air (not too much, and not too little)
As a result, only 3 months a year during the dry season does the park conduct Lunar Rainbow walks at night, and only for the 3 days during the full moon, subject to cancellation due to cloudy weather.
The 30-minute Lunar Rainbow walk costs a hefty USD40, but it is a good place to make friends if you have with you a camera that has wide apertures, and a reliable tripod.
The next side-trip available only in the dry season (September, particularly), is a swimming trip right at the edge of the falls. Known as the Devil’s Pool, Livingstone Island boasts naturally forming water bodies, where water build-up before gushing down the falls. A local whom we stayed with used to access the pool when he was younger. He mentioned that in the not-too-distant past, this area was public, and anyone could simply swim over. Today, Devil’s Pool trips are managed by the Royal Livingstone Victoria Falls Hotel, an upper-class, very expensive hotel, which conducts such trips for USD100 per person.
So here we have it, two amazing experiences on each side of the falls – the Devil’s Pools upriver in Zambia, and the Lunar Rainbow walk downriver in Zimbabwe. With the river separating the two countries, how do we cross the border? The answer is via the Victoria Falls Bridge. Envisioned in the early 1900s by none other than Cecil John Rhodes, the governor of all British African colonies, Governor Rhodes had this bridge built as part of the British Cape-to-Cairo masterplan – a railway connection connecting the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean in South Africa.
The customs post at Zambia is situated about a hundred meters before the bridge starts. If you are not looking for it, you might just walk past it. It is likely that you could walk back into Zambia after getting your exit stamped in your passport and no one would notice/bother.
For the adrenaline junkies, Shearwater Victoria Falls operate a bungee jump business right in the middle of the bridge. Because the bridge lies between the customs border of two countries, they boast that it is the only place in the world where you can jump through a rainbow into No-Man’s-Land.
Sign indicating start of Zimbabwe along the bridge.
Sign indicating start of Zambia along the bridge.
The gateway to the northern side of Victoria Falls in Zambia is the city of Livingstone. It is a bustling city, which within lies a very good museum that houses articles relating to the European discovery of Africa by Sir David Livingstone – The Livingstone Museum
The city also has a rather touristic curios market, where you can conveniently get South/East African souvenirs. However, if you prefer a good bargain or wish to bring your business to people who live in villages outside the city, you may want to visit the ‘Victoria Falls Craft Market’. It is a large market and slightly off-the-grid; if you intend to visit that place, get creative and bring along some common consumables. We ran out of Zambian currency but managed to barter with Panadol and 2 blue pens.
The southern entrance to the falls lies in Zimbabwe and is via the town ‘Victoria Falls’. It is quaint and almost every business operates in tourism. Flying into Victoria Falls airport is the most efficient way of visiting the falls. Trains operate from Victoria Falls down to the city of Bulawayo. A word of caution when taking the trains is that they are colonial-era and can be quite eventful. These are the first trains in colonial Africa, the rails that brought the first European travelers from the Cape to Cairo.
For our ride from Victoria Falls, we were supposed arrive at 9am at Bulawayo. However, it turned out to be a 24 hour ride, where we arrived at 7pm due to multiple ‘unforeseen’ events. At first the train had to move slowly possibly because the tracks were not well maintained. Later on in the wee hours of the morning, a train somewhere on the tracks derailed. Because working hours only started 9am the next day, the mechanics from Bulawayo took a while to arrive. Later on in the day, we hit a cow and was in for another lengthy delay. All these time, we were stranded in the wild safari plains with wildebeest and leopard tortoises.
Taking a walk in the safari while waiting for train to be fixed. Did not meet any lions.
Leopard Tortoises
First Class Sleeper Cabin
Economy
At the time of our visit to Zimbabwe, the country was led by President Robert Mugabe and was just 2 months before a military coup that would finally remove him from 40 years of premiership. Under Mugabe, the country went into hyperinflation, where inflation was more than 100,000%. The country has experienced 4 revaluations of the Zimbabwe dollar.
Now that you are acquainted with the natural and human environment where the greatest waterfall on Earth exists, good luck with your preparation to experience the Victoria Falls!
Definitely, what a great blog and revealing posts, I definitely will bookmark your site. Best Regards!
I’m extremely pleased to discover this website. I wanted to thank you for ones time just for this fantastic read!! I absolutely enjoyed every part of it and i also have you bookmarked to see new stuff in your site.