The Smoke that Thunders
Trip Start
Sep 08, 2003
1
36
37
Trip End
Ongoing
Livingstone, Zambia
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
What is it?
(and no its not Emma after a bad case of dysentery!!)
Answer: Victoria Falls.
After collecting my bag at the airport in Lusaka we went to the bus station and boarded a 'wait until full bus' (you get your seat and wait until enough people have piled on that even the driver only has half a 'cheek' on a seat - then you leave!)
The bus company predicted 8 or so hours, I added an hour too as with all African transport, and was therefore amazed when we arrived in Livingstone after 6 hours! How did that happen? The road from Lusaka to Livingstone must be to Africa what hyper-space is to Starwars!
We arrived at Jollyboys hostel in Livingstone, clean and friendly with a lit up swimming pool (which looked distinctly like a pond!) The rooms situated around a courtyard with a sunken sitting area in the centre, complete with beanbags, bar and Tv. A very amiable security guard even walked us into the nearby town to get dinner. Livingstone has obviously benefited from the steady flow of tourism, the roads lined with shops, banks, restaurants and bars, all however covered in a fine layer of sand giving it a weathered look. The new prestige Livingstone Museum looks out of place - it has yet to acquire its sand blasting!!
At Jollyboys hostel they didn't speak highly of going to Zimbabwe to see the 'other side' of the falls, just last November they had introduced a visa for UK citizens, not yet in any guidebook and 55 dollars we had not budgeted for. For the same price she reasoned - go up in a helicopter and fly over it! This idea really caught my imagination, what an opportunity! Angela however really wanted to go to Zimbabwe, I had mixed feelings. I felt much more comfortable in Zambia, liked the country and their policy of giving any evicted Zimbabwe farmer land in return for passing on their farming techniques and skills. I had also heard from other tourists that British people were made to feel very unwelcome in Zimbabwe; not only was our visa the most expensive; we could not change money into the local currency and would need to be very safety conscious. Did I want to give this country 55 dollars?? I tried to reason with myself that Victoria Falls is such a prime tourist destination that nothing too bad could happen there, another tourist pointed out later it was more likely to happen there....maximum impact! Hmmm!
We decided to compromise, or in this case... do both! With a bit of careful budgeting, perhaps buying food to cook in the hostel as opposed to always eating out, we could afford it. Angela would do the helicopter ride with me, and I would do Zimbabwe with her.
The hostel gave us a free lift to the entrance of the Victoria Falls Park. (and advice on how to get the taxi/bus back later. Tip: the 'wait until full bus' is much cheaper and gets full quickly even during low tourist season. The bus drops you back in the centre of Livingstone).
The sound of the water was the first 'sense' awakened as we walked past the souvenir sellers and through the park gate. Shouting to each other already, the water boomed in the distance, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to get closer! We took the recommended route down the steep path to the 'boiling pot' the huge surging rotating mass of water at the bottom of the falls. It looked like the plug had been pulled from under it, the falling water refilling the 'pot' as it tried to rotate and empty. As we descended the cliff path, I saw my first view of 'Bungee Bridge' (the highest bungee in the world) over the swirling water, clambering over the boulders, slippery with spray, to the waters edge. The slow climb back up the cliff made me very glad we had taken the hostels advice to visit the 'boiling pot' first, despite a desire to get straight into seeing the 'Falls'. I knew we were about to get very wet, and the thought of doing this climb in soggy heavy clothing did not appeal.
The Boiling Pot is the most strenuous part of the experience and it makes the first sight of the falls all the more impressive. Watching other visitors come back to the main path so wet they were wringing out their hair and clothes; we paused to put on waterproof clothing and put cameras away. The path then opened out and peering through the trees I stared and watched a 'million litres of water a second' plunge over the edge, and I turned into one of my children from Usa River. Language reduced to a monosyllable..... Wow!
We had arrived in Zambia during the rainy season increasing the amount of water at the falls. 'High Water' it was called, I thought 'High Spray' might be more accurate! The footbridge to 'Knifepoint edge' was like a bridge to another world, I couldn't see the end for all the thick spray blowing across, the colorful anoraks of people before me disappearing into the mist. By they time we had undertaken the brave journey across the slippery footbridge into the unknown I struggled to lift my chin off my chest to look through the spray. My eyelashes were plastered to my cheek, my hair was drenched and I could feel water running down the back of my legs into my boots from the top! So much for waterproofing them on the outside! I wistfully thought it might be nice to see the 'Falls' at another time of year, but the 'kid in me' really quite enjoyed getting totally wet in order to see such an awesome landmark - the increase of water meant we were now practically walking through it! Wow!
Returning to the park gate we hit on the idea of hiring an umbrella (highly recommended! and perhaps wiser to do from the start!!!) for a dollar, so that we could go back and keeping the camera dry, get the ultimate 'drowned on tour' photograph in front of the mists and pounding water of the falls. Laughing with Angela as we tried to stop the water running off our faces and into our mouths; we smiled for the photograph, one of life's 'never to forget' moments! It will have pride of place in the album, and I expected that next week on the next part of the tour when we swapped the wettest place in Africa, for Namibia one of the driest. We would want to be back here! I just couldn't wait for the next adventure... To see Victoria Falls from the air.
