Victoria Falls 2 (8-21)

Sunday was the day for the falls. I had booked a package that included three activities: a 12-minute helicopter ride, a walking tour of the falls, and a tour of the historic bridge. It was a full, but wonderful day.

The day began with the helicopter ride—my first. I had thought about doing it sometime, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Six people are in the helicopter—one in front and five in the back, with four having a window seat. Although I felt bad for the man in the middle, I was glad to be at a window. 

The helicopter does a figure eight above the falls so everyone sees views from both sides. 

I enjoyed the views of the river, 

seeing where the sunset cruise had gone 

as well as the canyon and dry landscape after the falls. 

It’s amazing how far away the mist can be seen, and it’s the dry season with less mist. 

As we were above the falls, it was fun watching the rainbow move as we moved and had different sunlight angles. 

It was also fun to see the historic bridge that I would be walking across later in the day.

As soon as I exited the helicopter, the guide for the walk met me and took me to the van. We had a small group of five—four Italians and me, which was nice. I realized that there wasn’t much advantage to having a guide. Other than giving a bit of history about the bridge, he just took us from viewpoint to viewpoint. He did answer questions, which was helpful. It seemed that the main advantage of having booked the tour was having transport there and back. I hadn’t realized that it the tour would be on the same path that anyone can walk on without a tour. But the guide was pleasant and I enjoyed talking with him.

On the way to the falls we stopped at the Big Tree. It’s a famous baobab that is 1000-1500 years old. I’d been wanting to see baobab trees; so now I have. After seeing this one, I recognized others along the road.

Victoria Falls is the highest and widest of the three continuously falling falls (Niagara and Iguazu being the other two) using some special way of measuring the combinations. 

Standing near the main sections, it is easy to understand its indigenous name “the smoke that thunders” as one looks at the volume of mist and listens to the sound of the waterfall. In those sections there was a lot of spray, and things got wet quickly. I had to be careful to dry my camera before shutting it. And I needed to dry my glasses.

Following our guide’s suggestion, we took the short path to the far end so we could reach the viewpoints with mist on the way back when it was hot. That end of the falls—near and in Zambia—is sparse these days, as it’s not the rainy season and the last rainy season didn’t have as much rain as usual. The drought in southern Africa is here, too. Because of the low rainfall, the falls are at about 45% capacity; whereas they are usually between 65% and 70% at this time of year. I had read that this time of year is recommended for visiting because during and after the rainy season the mist is so heavy that you can’t see the falls. And as the year goes on, the amount of water coming to and going over the falls decreases. Even though the falls were not completely full, they were still spectacular.

At one of the first viewpoints, which we went to last, there is a constant rainbow. It was fun to come upon it unexpectedly. 

At that end of the path, you can also walk to a view of the Zambezi River going into the falls. It’s so peaceful.

After finishing the falls walk, I was delivered to the pickup point for the historic bridge tour. We had to wait quite a while because there were many people signing up to do bungee jumping and the swing and slide which also take place on the bridge. Again I was with a small group of seven—a British couple and an Indian family. First we had a monologue about the man who built the bridge. This was a good introduction to its history. The bridge was built 110 years ago and is still in use. It links Zimbabwe and Zambia and is part of what was originally conceived as a Cape to Cairo railroad that was never completed. The border is in the middle of the bridge, and we had to submit our passports to enter Zambia for the couple hours of activity. 

The bridge is 130 meters above the river. The walk is on the original catwalk below the top of the bridge, which was a surprise to me. 

We wore a harness that has links that attach to a cable on the bridge. As we walked, we unfastened the links one at a time to move them past the bridge structures and refasten them. After doing this a few times I got into the rhythm and really enjoyed the walk.

When I arrived back at the guesthouse, my bag had not been delivered. Since it was after 5:00, I gave up on getting it that day, and the manager drove me to a Seven to Eleven store to purchase a toothbrush and toothpaste, as I couldn’t go another night without them. Then at 7:15 my bag arrived, which made me very happy.