Victoria Falls

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Hi again. I just got back from a trip to Livingstone, which is Zambia's tourism capitol as it is very close to Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls lie right on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe and are one of the world greatest waterfalls. It was an intense couple of days, but sooo much fun!

Last weekend the EduSport peer leader from Kalingalinga held a two-day workshop in neighboring Mtere. They do this every now and then, as it is part of building up a bigger alliance of peer leaders and including larger areas of Lusaka. The workshop lasted from about 8am to 3pm both Saturday and Sunday and included several topics, such as promoting EduSport and its projects, including "Kicking Aids Out!" and "Go Sisters". It was a very interesting workshop to attend and the peers made sure it had the seriousness topics such as HIV/Aids need, as well as entertaining the "students" with occasional dancing, singing or games.

So, after that tiring weekend I decided to take a few days off and go to Livingstone. I took the 7-hour bus on Monday morning and arrived in the city named after the famous explorer in time to sit down and arrange activities for the next day.
The possibilities were endless: Rafting, Tandem Kayaking or River Boarding in the Zambezi River, Abseiling down the cliff, Gorge Swing, Bungee Jump (second highest in Africa), Helicopter flight, Microlight flight, trip to Livingstone Island, Fishing trips, Game Drives, Quad Bikes, Lion Walk, and so on. Just as numerous the options, the prices high, ranging from $45 for a "Booze Cruise" (self explanatory) to $300 for a 30-minute helicopter ride. So it's not hard to spend your money around here, let me tell you.

I decided to go for the Lion walk in the morning, which sounded incredibly tempting to me. And it was the experience that I had expected, and more. To begin with, we were just a small group with a guide talking a stroll through the wilderness of Zambia before a few guards joined us. A few moments later, four lions from the age of 13 months to 2 years, appeared through the thick bushes, walking straight towards us. They didn't stop until they were just one or two meters away from us, seemingly oblivious to our presence. At that point, I didn't feel fear, just awe at being in the presence of an animal that easily could slap me to death with a little swing of his enormous claw or, even better, just bite my head off. A moment of fear came later on, while posing behind one of the lions relaxing on the trunk of a tree that had fallen to the ground. The guards had instructed us to stand behind the lions for taking pictures, and pointed a stick towards their nose when they turned around to look at you. Then, normally, they would turn back the other way and leave you alone. So I was standing behind the male lion, named Luigi, posing for a picture. He slowly turned his head my way and looked at me with his big eyes. My eyes were fixed in his for a moment before I realized that I needed to point the stick at his nose. And so I did. But Luigi didn't bother a second about turning back. He just stared at me. I still don't know whether he was simply pleased with me stroking his back, or if he saw a crispy honey-fried chicken on my neck, like Mr Bean in the Christmas episode. But he would just stare at me, as if we were having a stare-down contest. At that point, even the guards started braking out in a little sweat and tried to get his attention away from me by making noises and slapping him on the head (they can do that, the lions don't seem to care). It seemed to work, but just as he turned his head he must have found my stick very annoying and nudged his head around to bite for it. I admit, then I felt my heart pumping a bit harder. After that episode, I tried to keep a little distance to Luigi and rather hang out with Linda, one of the females who I was getting along with quite well. She didn't even mind me holding her tail while walking.

After the lions I was allowed to go into the fencing where they kept the Cheetahs, who the guides said were not as aggressive or dangerous as the lions. There were four cheetah, two to four years old. One of them was really not fond of having a stranger in his territory and flashed his teeth while making all sorts of hostile noises, so I made sure not to step on his feet. Again it was one of the females who didn't mind spending some time with me and we ended up sitting together, almost spooning, for nearly 30 minutes. She especially liked licking the salty sweat from my arms while I scratched her under her chin. It was almost like sitting there with a big dog with spotted fur and the black stripe running down from his eye like the trace of a black tear. Locals say it's the face of Africa...

It was not even 9am when the transport delivered me back at the doorstep of the hostel in Livingstone (I had been with the lions and cheetahs for about 2 hours), and still much to do. I planned to spend a few days there and calculated doing at most four of the activities, having to keep an eye on not spending my whole travel budget just in this town. My choices were going to Livingstone Island, walking with the lions, doing a Microlight Flight, and rafting in the Zambezi, in that order.

Livingstone Island is a small island (during the rainy season, now it's possible to walk out to it from one side, so more like a peninsula) on the edge of Victoria Falls. What draws people there is the chance of jumping into Devil's Pool, a natural pool of - almost - still water right on the edge of the falls. It is possible to jump into it and then swim to the rock that keeps you from falling down 108 meters into what is called the boiling point, where the water crashes into the lake and is redirected upwards to form the white watery cloud Victoria Falls are known for. The Microlight on the other hand is almost like a parachute, just with a motor. It would fly me over the falls, letting me get the bird view of the area. Rafting in this area is one of the worlds top ranked white water rafting spots, if you need proof just look it up on
'www.youtube.com'.

But when I left Lusaka, I decided on just bringing my small backpack, packing it with the essential stuff only. Somehow I managed to forget all my credit cards in the safe in Lusaka and had to correct my plans in Livingstone. So I took a trip out to the park in which Victoria Falls are located. There I got some nice shots of what usually are 3,000 tons of water per second streaming down, but right now it is the end of the dry season, meaning that only 3% of water is in the river, and thus, in the falls.

It is still an overwhelming view, and just imagining the amounts of water that can crash down there makes you straight out dizzy. The good thing with the dry season is that it is possible to walk out to the edge of the falls without getting wet. So I walked along the edge (1.7 km long in total, I walked maybe 0.5 km) out to Livingstone Island. Right next to it is the only spot of the falls that always has a good amount of water falling down, no matter what time of the year. And in between those two points is Devil's Pool, my highlight of this trip. To get out there, we had to swim in the actually quite warm water to reach a series of stones that form the pool. This is only possible to do from about August to January, as at other times of the year the water is too high and too strong and will drag you out over the edge. Arriving there, we emerged from the water of the river into the cloud that rises from the gorge. And then we jumped straights towards the edge of the cliff, into the pool of water that is calm enough so that it is safe to swim in it without being taken by the force of the Zambezi. What a crazy thing to do, and what a crazy feeling it is to sit right on the edge of Victoria Falls, the 108-meter drop behind you and tons of water rushing down just a couple of meters to your left. To give a little impression of what force this is, the guide told me that he saw a grown elephant trying to cross the river and being flushed down all the way to the Devil's Pool, where he finally got some ground to stand on. But nonetheless, after a few minutes of intense struggle, he didn't stand a chance against the water, pushing his body down to crash in the river below. This was apparently just a few years ago, and at the same time of the year, so not even when the river is at its greatest.

This was a day filled with so many intense "WOOOW"-moments that it's hard to express on paper (or a blog for that sake), but if you EVER have the chance, come to Vic Falls to experience this!

Unfortunately, as I was limited with money as mentioned, those were all the activities I was able to do. It is quite a shame that I didn't get to do the microlight and rafting, I think those would have been more mind blasting experiences. And I was not really able to buy much on the market either. But apparently they had adopted a little from the "new" Zimbabwean economic strategy of barter trade. Walking through the shops people kept saying how they liked my shoes and socks and my t-shirt.
Until I realized what they were implying I was rather a bit appalled by this, as i thought they were mocking me for whatever reason. But once I got started, it was hard to stop. As I mentioned earlier, I only brought essentials to Livingstone: 2 t-shirts, one shorts, one pair of socks, my shoes and the usual (passport, camera, cell phone etc). I started trading away my socks, thinking that they were not really important, I could go without socks until I return to Lusaka. Next thing I traded away some pens, an apple, half a bottle of water and a bar of soap for a couple of African necklaces and some homemade spoons and whatnot, before a guy quite stubbornly asked to trade something for my shoes, shorts and t-shirt. He wouldn't accept that I needed clothes to get on the bus back to Livingstone, but eventually I convinced him that I needed my only pair of shoes and my shorts to get back to Livingstone and Lusaka without being thrown out of the bus being mistaken for a drunkard who lost his pants and shoes. But he did get my t-shirt, which meant that I had to sit in only shorts and shoes on the 20 minute bus ride back to Livingstone.

And one of the things I traded my stuff for was Zimbabwean money. I am now a multitrillionaire! I have a note that actually says 100.000.000.000.000 (One hundred trillion) Dollars! Of course, the money cannot be used anywhere anymore, but who cares? It is actually less worth than toilet paper in Zimbabwe, so people would not bother buying toilet paper if they still had some notes lying around in the house.

That's all for now! Don't forget to subscribe and get an email sent whenever I update the blog!
Cheers!

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Photos

luigi
he's staring at me. not good...

Vic Falls during dry season
This is where 3000 tons of water fall down per second during the wet season. Now, it's pretty dry as you can see. There's only one spot where water falls consistently throughout the year, resulting in the white cloud in the background

Comments

[Becky]

Thanks for the help!
Traveling (partially) around the world with my boyfriend in June and Africa is one of our main stops. I was looking for some help about Zambia and your blog was great. I look forward to hopefully being able to do the Devil's pool. Thanks for sharing :)

[olerad]

Thanks!
Thanks for commenting! i know you'll have the greatest time in Africa! I've been quite a few places so far, but nothing has captured me like this continent.. if you want to jump into devil's pool, make sure you come in the dry season! in the wet season, its "flooded". thats the thing about vic falls, if you come in the dry season, the amount of water is really not much, but it allows you to jump into devils pool. if you come in the wet season, the amount of water in the falls is ridiculous, but it prevents you from jumping into devils pool. have a great time! Ole