After an eventful day of traveling by bus from Maputo to Johannesburg - including a bus breakdown and a police search of all the luggage - we took a flight out to Victoria Falls. We had discussed a lot about whether to visit the Falls from the Zimbabwean side or the Zambian side, and we had received different opinions from those we asked. In the end, the Zimbabwean security situation seemed stable enough and the Zimbabwean side offers more extensive views, so that is the choice we made. The worst we expected were problems with electricity supply and phone connections.
We arrived in the Zimbabwean town of Victoria Falls mid-morning. The flight was uneventful and life seemed calm. There were signs of the economic problems which have now resulted in Zimbabwe having no currency of its own in use - the local supermarket took US dollars, rand, even Botswanian pula ...but no Zimbabwean notes. And people were pouring over the border to Zambia to do their shopping. As we walked towards the Falls, we had offers to exchange our rain jackets for souvenirs. Someone even wanted to take my shoes in exchange for a carving (given the state of my shoes, that was a close call).
We had seen the spray rising from the Falls from a long way off and, as we approached, the roar was tremendous. At times, it felt as if it was raining. We learned that the water was running at 10 times its normal volume - a 50 year high. We thought we were in for something spectacular. And indeed we were. But it was not so much a visual spectacle. The water was so fast that the spray obscured most views of the Falls. Clad in our heaviest wet weather gear, we walked from one observation point to the next, suffered deluges of water from above pounding down on us, and waded through streams of runoff. Our reward was an occasional glimpse of the Falls from behind the veil of spray, but almost too quick to capture on camera (we feared for our camera anyway, with all the water coming down).
We finally found a couple of vantage points which were far enough away to allow us some respite from the "rain" and the briefest of views of the bottom of the Falls - a very narrow chasm, which may account for the amount of spray. We also walked a little way upriver behind the Falls and got a sense of just how fast the water was moving. Very, very fast. We came away from the Falls with an impression that we had been exposed to something spectacular - we had heard them, felt them, but just not quite been able to see them.
The next day, we decide to try our luck on the Zambian side. In the dry season, most of the Falls are not even visible from this side. But maybe the wet season would be different. We walked across the border bridge, entered Zambia on day visas and went into the park which surrounds the Falls. Just as on the Zimbabwean side, the spray was incredible. I don't think I have ever been so wet in any rainstorm. And the views were no less elusive. The Falls were teasing us. The spray swirled around, opening up tantalising views for the briefest of moments, and then snatching them away. Again, we knew we were seeing something great - if only we could see it! A bonus on the Zambian side was a trip down to the river level to view the waters as they churned away from the Falls. Here we saw a section of river appropriately called the Boiling Pot. The name said it all.
We returned to the Zimbabwean side and, later in the day, went upriver from the Falls to do some canoeing. It was a long slow journey by truck through a Zimbabwean national park to reach the put-in point. The park was almost totally empty of major wildlife - very different from our experience in Tanzania and we realized how lucky we had been there. The canoeing was fun. Our first time in inflatable canoes, which were ideal for the rapids we encountered. We had been warned to watch out for hippos and crocodiles, but they must have been keeping their distance because we had a relatively tranquil journey and enjoyed the sunset. After a few hours, we finally reached our take-out point about 1 km above the Falls - a point we certainly didn't want to miss.
Next day, we took a flight back to Johannesburg and on to Cape Town where we plan to spend a few days. Victoria Falls had been well up to expectations, even if we couldn't exactly see them.
Simon
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