Zambian side
Zimbabwean side
Whitewater rafting. July 1996
When we were planning our trip to Southern Africa, friends who had traveled there before said, "if you are headed that way, you MUST include Victoria Falls." Truer words were never spoken and our days at the Falls might have been the best part of that entire trip!
We arrived in Johannesburg to extremely cold weather - enough to make us re-evaluate and re-plan the entire trip immediately on arrival. In a bid to feel warmer (yes, it was that cold), we got on a flight to tropical Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. We booked a hotel at Elephant Hills Resort and then threw caution to the wind. All our plans were basically in the crapper. However, sometimes out of chaos the best new plans emerge!
Our hotel was a short distance from town, but we could not walk there due to the wildlife on the road, especially the very dangerous cape buffalo. The hotel provided us a shuttle for the short trip into town. We also had to be sure we locked all our windows and balcony doors due to the baboons who never missed a chance to wreak havoc (and I mean destroy) a hotel room for which the guest would then be responsible! It even happened to a room while we were there. Clearly, Africa was a serious place.
The main attraction was Victoria Falls, of course. We weren't there during high water on the Zambezi River, so the flow was not "great", but it was still thunderous. The river meets a canyon (a BIG canyon) at a right angle and flows over the edge. It is an enormous waterfall, higher than Niagara, with a massive flow tumbling into a canyon like one would find in the American Southwest. Standing on the opposite side, the ground actually shakes from the force of the water. During floods it must have been terrifying! So much mist is created in and around the falls, that it supports a microclimate in the surrounding dry and scrubby area. Plants and animals exist in that misty environmental bubble that are found nowhere else on earth.
Victoria Falls is the best waterfall EVER. Others are superlative in other ways, but nothing tops Victoria Falls. The original people living nearby thought of it as a god, Nyami-nyami. I could believe it, too. Speaking to superlative moments in life - Victoria Falls was one of mine.
We walked across the bridge into Zambia just to take a photo of the canyon and falls. The river turns at more than 90 degrees right after the falls, so that perspective was the best for viewing. I am still not sure I can say I actually visited Zambia or not (I did have my passport stamped) [see: Labadee]. Brian and I both agreed that visiting the area from the Zambian side might have been better because, although Zimbabwe had the lion's share of the hotels and safari agencies, the Zambian side was far cheaper and just less developed. The Zimbabwean side was fully developed for mass tourism, maybe almost too much?
We did a walking tour of the Falls Park and later in the afternoon took a pontoon boat ride organized by our hotel on the upper Zambezi to see hippos. Hippos are extremely dangerous and kill more people in Africa than any other mammal. The pontoon boats could not easily be flipped and indeed the hippos charged our boat. No matter how safe we were, having a huge, angry animal nearby was not calming. We also floated down the river dangerously close to the edge of the falls, but the guides explained that the falls' crest in low water was extremely rocky, making it almost impossible to breach. I wasn't interested in testing the theory. Nonetheless, the hippo viewing was exciting. At tour's end we chugged up the river at sunset and observed African wildlife on either side of the Zambezi River. That was the stuff of dreams - we finally felt, "wow, we are in Africa!"
Our hotel was adjacent to a golf course where players were assigned a guard with a rifle in case of wildlife incursions. The guides explained that animals were rarely if ever shot. It was usually enough to shoot the gun into the air and scare off any would be attacker. Again, I was not wanting to try out that theory. All of our safari guides explained the same thing on subsequent trips into the bush - the gun was not to shoot the animal. It was just to scare it off (but rifles did have real bullets, just in case).
We took two safari tours. The first, we crossed the nearby border to Botswana and saw Chobe National Park. The next day, we went up the road in Zimbabwe and visited Hwange National Park. The number of nearby parks and countries was amazing. Had we more time, we could have gone to Angola and Namibia as well. In the end, I would recommend that if the political situation is stable enough, being based in Victoria Falls would allow a traveler to experience many different sides of Southern Africa based in one place. Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola all come together near the falls. I almost wished we had made our entire vacation there.
The parks themselves were filled with wildlife and we sometimes wondered if it were all somehow staged for tourists. We came across prides of Lions, herds of elephants, and lots of buffalo. The impala were like mice - everywhere. We rode in open jeeps (with rifled guards) and got pretty close to most of the animals. Were they just inured to those loud contraptions that roamed their turf with lots of camera and binocular wielding tourists? Those were our first safaris and definitely the most impactful. Not exactly what we expected (not sure even what we expected?), they were impressive. This was Africa and not a safari park in New Jersey.
The one thing left to try was white water rafting. Brian and I were experienced having done it in Costa Rica, Nepal, and New Zealand. The Zambezi below the falls was Class V. We were daunted. They were taking newbies on a Class V river? We had only rafted up to a Class III. We knew it was sheer madness, but then when would we have this chance again? In a land with no tort law, the sky was the limit! We decided to do it. It was my birthday celebration, too!
We paid our money, received the briefest of explanations on the boat, and set off. At the first set of rapids we flipped. We all made it back into the raft and one woman with us finally realized the true danger of what we were doing. She was freaking out (seriously). She saw stairs on the opposite bank leading out of the canyon and said she would jump out and run up the stairs. The guide said "That is Zambia, the border guards will shoot you". Yes, that really happened! We physically had to restrain her while still trying to manage the rapids. We came to a point where some people could leave, but it was over an hour's walk out and no one brought good footwear (for white water rafting, who would?). That woman would have walked out barefoot! A few left our raft, and the rest stayed. The worst rapids were to come. The guide explained what to do and then said we had to make it to shore right after because the next set of rapids was class VI and was "too dangerous."
We almost made it the whole way but flipped again at the end. I went down in the water and I mean wayyyy down in spite of having a life vest. The advice was to be calm and let the water swirl around until you popped up again. I did and I was far from everyone. They were screaming "swim swim swim". I was getting close to that next set of rapids. I swam like my life depended on it (it did) and I finally made it back exhausted. Brian was in fits of laughter. I was not amused. I remember writing to people later that I was certain Nyami-nyami had claimed me for sacrifice. It was one of the most terrifying travel experiences of my life and I never went white-water rafting after that.
It all happened on my 35th birthday. That made it all the more memorable.
Victoria Falls was definitely a life high-light and it was totally unexpected. It is a place I would return to as well. Zimbabweans were lovely, friendly people. The food was excellent, too.
We took the plane back to Jo'burg and hoped the weather had warmed up. The main part of the trip was supposed to be South Africa and NOT Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, our weather karma was not good.
It ended up snowing!
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