Victoria Falls

After our brief snow shower while changing planes in Johannesburg (or Jo'burg if you're a local), we were very happy to arrive in sunny, warm Livingstone, Zambia, the home of Victoria Falls. The falls are formed as the "mighty" Zambezi river, which runs along the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, drops into the gigantic Batoka gorge. They are considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and we absolutely agree! They were beautiful and really something to see. The falls are spread over an area about a km wide, and the gorge is narrow, so you can't get a photo of the whole thing, or even half, unless you are above them.


To quote Lonely Planet, when one comes to visit the falls, you have the option to "Zim or Zam", meaning you can see the falls from the Zimbabwe side or the Zambia side. It was recommended to see both sides, so that's what we decided to do. Now of course this would be easy to do if the two countries "shared" access to the falls and made it an open border just at the falls. But that is just not the way things work in Africa, and therefore we took the recommendation from our guide books that you simply have a taxi drop you at the Zambia border, walk over to Zimbabwe and see the falls. Sounds straightforward enough, yet as we walked along a kind of desolate road and didn't see any other tourists, we became a bit nervous that maybe this wasn't as easy as people said. And we just didn't think we had made a wrong turn, as this was the only road around, with no turn-offs. But once we saw some other tourists who were walking back to Zambia, we were reassured that "yep, it's just s few more km's to the border and then into the park". In regards to whether it was a problem to get into each country, the answer is no. Both countries were MORE than happy to take our money for visa fees and park entrance fees to see the falls (after leaving Zambia for 3 hours, we had to pay the $50 visa fee again when we returned). Our first day we saw the falls from the Zimbabwe side and the second day from Zambia. We loved seeing it from both sides.


Victoria Falls is so powerful that it is constantly creating a fine mist of water as the falls crash upon the rocks below. The amazing result of this is that a rainbow is almost always present at certain points of the falls, depending on the sun. And if you were wondering, you can see a different rainbow on both the Zimbabwe and Zambia side.





There is a bridge over the lower Zambezi built 100 years ago that is an impressive place to see the gorge. Halfway across is the border between the 2 countries, and there is a station that is a popular place for bungee jumping. (We passed.)





Upstream of the falls, the Zambezi is quite a slow river and that also includes the area directly above the falls. If you are adventurous enough, and brave enough, you can walk across the Zambezi, right at the edge of the falls, in order to get some amazing views you wouldn't see otherwise. The only brave one in our group of two was Hugh. Happy to show you his impressive pictures below, as proof that he stood at the edge of the falls, and made it back safely. Hugh may look happy and appear that he is enjoying his view from the edge, but if you ask him, he'll say he had to fight instinct to make his hand stop gripping the rock he was sitting on in order to look more relaxed for his pictures. I am so glad he had a good time and I am so glad I waited on shore, safely enjoying the view from land.





Zambia had a few amazing overlooks and a cool walking bridge to view the falls, but more of the actual falls are located in Zimbabwe, including the tallest waterfall, and so that makes probably makes Zimbabwe the winner overall. But if you come visit, we would recommend Zim and Zam. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Wedged between Zambia and Zimbabwe