01.13.2006 – Livingstone, Zambia

Victoria Falls is one of the most awesome sights I have ever seen. I’ve always loved waterfalls and saw Niagara as a child. I’ve seen many others that I really liked, especially, of course, the many spectacular falls in Yosemite Valley. But this is something else!

I went out to see the falls for the first time on Thursday afternoon, right after I checked in at the Zambesi Sun. It’s only a short walk from the hotel. It was breathtaking, with dozens of falls similar in width to (although certainly not as high as) those in Yosemite, especially Bridal Veil, one next to another, with short spaces of rock in between. Then, as you look farther down, toward the Zimbabwe side of the Zambesi River, the main falls, a Niagara-type wide falls, can be seen, although there is so much water hitting the bottom of the gorge and coming back up as thick mist that parts of the main falls are shrouded in mist and can’t be seen clearly.

The combination of this mist, which rises like smoke all the way above the top of the falls, and the sound of the roaring water give the falls its local, traditional name: Mosi-oa-Tunya, “the Smoke that Thunders.” It’s a much more fitting name than the one that David Livingstone gave it when he became the first white man to see the falls in 1855 and named it after Queen Victoria. My guide told me that Livingstone is the only town in Zambia that retains its European name, because of gratitude to Livingstone for bringing the falls to attention of the outside world and so leading to later tourism. There must have been a time after Zambia became independent in 1964, however, when the country did not hold such a favorable view of Livingstone. A statue of him overlooking the falls was taken down and sent across the river to what was then the white rebel government of Southern Rhodesia. Eventually Zambia sought the statue’s return, but Zimbabwe would not give it back. So in 2005, for the 150^th anniversary of Livingstone’s first seeing of the falls, Zambia put up a replica on its side. Now Livingstone’s likeness looks out over the falls from both sides.

Wild animals roam the hotel grounds. Right after I arrived, I saw what I thought was a baboon running across the lawn. (I learned later that they are actually vervet monkeys.) When I saw the first one, it was “Wow!” Soon, though, I had seen so many of them that it was like bison in Wyoming—you quickly move from being excited about seeing one to: “Ho-hum, there’s another buffalo.” These monkeys, of all ages, abound at the Zambesi Sun and the Royal Livingstone, its sister (and much more luxurious, to the point of a personal butler with your room) hotel. When I walked down to the Royal Livingstone, I found two monkeys on one of their marble tables, one lying on its back being groomed by the other, who was eating the insects it picked off its partner. Guests at the hotels are cautioned not to leave windows open, because monkeys will come in and rearrange the furniture, break things and steal items. I also saw impalas on the hotel property and two giraffes munching on leaves at the tops of trees.

On Friday morning, my guide took me on a walking tour of the Zambian side of the falls. The first thing that struck me was that there was noticeably more water coming over the falls than there had been on the previous afternoon. Later, when I returned on Friday afternoon, there was much more water falling than there had been in the morning, and still more when I returned for a final look before leaving on Saturday morning. By that time, many of the separate falls on the Zambian side had merged. By Saturday morning, the spray and mist from the bottom of the gorge was beginning to shroud parts of the falls that had been clearly visible the day before. There had been a great deal of rain upstream on the Zambesi River during the previous weeks, so I think I lucked out and got here at just the right time, as the water reached a high level, but not quite the point at which the mist would make the falls difficult to see. Click here to see brief film of Vic Falls with a rainbow.

The rainbows over the falls were beautiful and frequent. I was taking one photo after another. Click here to see some of the other photos I took at Victoria Falls.

When you walk along opposite the falls, you are drenched by what seems like rain, and is—sort of. It is created by the mist that rises up above the top of the falls and comes back down as rain. The almost constant rain creates its own mini-environment across from the falls: a very small rain forest in what is otherwise a fairly dry savanna.

While looking at the falls, I thought about how this is a place I had wanted to see for so long and I needed to pause and realize that I’m really here. “Soak in the experience,” people say. Well, I literally soaked in this experience!

After finishing the Saturday morning walk on the Zambian side, we went over to Zimbabwe. The nation and its economy have been all but destroyed by the policies of President Robert Mugabe. The Zambian kwacha isn’t worth much ($1=3265 ZMK), but it is like gold compared with the Zimbabwe dollar (US$1=92,524 ZWD). As a result, when you cross the bridge between the countries you see many people walking in both directions, Zambians going to Zimbabwe to buy cheap goods and people from Zimbabwe taking things to sell in Zambia. Women walk along carrying large items on their heads. It is strange to see modern plastic tubs and supermarket bags being carried on heads in the traditional African way.

A different guide took me for a tour of the Zimbabwe side of the falls. The views are better from this side, especially of the main falls and of the Devil’s Cataract, the westernmost part of the falls.

After that, I was taken to an African village in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. It contains examples of dwellings and other structures, as well as implements and weapons from Bushmen and four tribes that live or lived in Zimbabwe. It was all very interesting, but the most interesting thing to me was something I recalled hearing about before, although I don’t remember where. The men of the Shona people engage in making iron in a forge. Women are not allowed to participate in this manufacture. Nothing unusual about that. What is different is that the mud forge is made to resemble a woman’s body, with breasts, legs, and a hole between the legs from which the iron is taken—another clear example of men wanting to have creative power like women. The forge is their “womb” and women are not allowed to participate in this male “birth” of iron.

I made it safely back across the bridge and out of Mugabe's Zimbabwe without incident.

On Friday night the power went off in Livingstone. The hotel has a generator, but it cannot handle the air conditioning, so I spent the night without AC.

I saw that Victoria Falls is listed as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, and that made me curious about what the others are, so I looked it up. I was surprised to find that Vic Falls is the fourth that I have seen, the other three being the Grand Canyon, the Arizona meteor crater, and the Matterhorn. The three I have not seen are Mount Everest, Ayer’s Rock, and the Great Barrier Reef.

Victoria Falls certainly ranks with my favorite places in the world, along with the Lauterbrunnen-Interlaken-Jungfraujoch area in Switzerland, Fiordland National Park in New Zealand, Moraine Lake in Alberta, and Yosemite and Glacier National Parks.

On to Botswana.

RSM