Mosi-oa-Tunya

I first visited Victoria Falls in October 1996. At the time I was enroute to Europe for my brother Hamish’s wedding in Kitzbuhel. Leading up to the main event, I stopped for a week in Africa with Victoria Falls as my first destination. I transferred there directly from Johannesburg after flying overnight from Sydney via Perth. I stayed two nights from 8-10 October at the now-defunct Makasa Sun Hotel, a few doors down from the iconic Victoria Falls Hotel.

The Falls are known to the Batonga people as Mosi-oa-Tunya which broadly translates as “The smoke that thunders”. It’s an apt name. The Falls are perpetually shrouded in mist that forms as the Zambezi River plunges into a craggy 1.7-kilometre ravine along the Zimbabwean and Zambian border. Their modern name was anointed by Scottish missionary and explorer Dr. David Livingstone who named them after his Queen in 1855.

I arrived in Victoria Falls towards the end of the dry season. As a result, almost two-thirds of the falls were inactive during my visit. Water was only flowing over the Devil’s Cataract and a short stretch of the main cascade east of Cataract Island. However, the scale and magnitude of this natural wonder was evident thanks to an imposing barren cliff face extending half a kilometre towards the Zambian border. I finally saw the falls in full-flood when I returned with my Mum a decade later. 

Without a doubt, the highlight of my visit was a microlight flight I took over the Falls on my first day in town. On a whim, I walked into the office of a local tour operator late afternoon. After a brief phone call with a local pilot, they booked me on the final flight of the day. I was then driven to the airport where I was duly strapped into the rear of a two-seater microlight.

The experience was simply stunning. Imagine this if you can, the wind in your hair as you fly in lazy circuits above the falls. Below you, the setting sun slowly transforms the fall’s rising mist into iridescent shades of orange and pink. It was absolutely magical. The pilot later admitted that he’d finished for the day when the tour operator called. However, he couldn’t resist the temptation of a final flight at sunset.

The following day, 9 October, I briefly visited Zambia. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was just after another stamp in my passport. My brief visit involved walking over the landmark Victoria Falls bridge, passing through the Zambian border checkpoint about 500 metres up the road, and then on towards what is now the Avani Victoria Falls Resort on the banks of the Zambezi River. An hour or so later, I retraced my steps back across the border to Zimbabwe. In the years since, I’ve often debated whether I can truly count this brief excursion as a visit to Zambia.

I then capped off the evening dining on the outdoor terrace of the landmark Victoria Falls Hotel. The hotel sits on the rim of the Zambezi River gorge, downstream from the falls. Its location is perfectly aligned to give visitors a dramatic view up the gorge, past its equally famous arched bridge, to the falls’ misty haze. Sadly, thanks to the dry season, the mist wasn’t visible during my visit.  

Dinner at Victoria Falls Hotel was definitely better than the meal I'd ordered the previous night at the Makasa Sun. In hindsight, I should have known better. I ordered the Seafood Marinara pasta. It was salty and bland; its signature ingredients had clearly been frozen or tinned. In the years since, I've lived by the mantra, "if you can't see the sea, don't eat the seafood".

On 10 October, I transferred to Hwange for my first ever African safari experience. However, before setting off, I booked a morning cruise on the Zambezi River. At the time, I was the only confirmed passenger. As a result, for the tour to proceed, I agreed to pay a minimum booking fee for two people. While waiting for my ride to the river, I met a young woman backpacking alone in Africa. As I’d already paid for an extra person, I invited her to join me at no extra cost. She gladly accepted.

Our river cruise started uneventfully enough. We passed endless herds of hippopotamuses wading in the distance. As we glided along, our boat driver shared how dangerous they were. He warned that they’d attack the boat if we ventured too close. The guide accompanying us reinforced his warning. He claimed more people were killed by hippos than by any other animal in Africa.

Suddenly, without warning, a hippo surfaced directly in front of our boat. These incredible animals can hold their breath for up to five minutes, then stride fully submerged along the bottom of the river for hundreds of metres. Momentary panic ensued as our driver took evasive action to avoid the massive creature and put some distance between us. For a minute, I wondered if I’d end my days as another hippo attack statistic.

One final memory. Every morning, as I went for breakfast, I’d encounter families of Banded Mongoose frolicking around the hotel grounds. These restless creatures were everywhere, with little ones constantly doing battle on the lawn. They stood in stark contrast to the baboons I passed on the path to the Falls. They were more interested in sitting around, people watching as you strode by.

Beverly does Africa

That's it.  Beverly has done Africa. Overnight we departed Victoria Falls to join our connecting flight back to Sydney.  Our return flights went without a hitch and we both slept like babies across the Indian Ocean. Mum is now waiting at Sydney Airport to board her final flight home to Auckland.

We made the most of our final day in Africa with a grand finale helicopter flight over Victoria Falls. Weeks ago we booked the first flight of the day hoping that the weather would play its part. We weren't disappointed. The morning dawned with lightly overcast skies and calm conditions.  It was near-perfect weather for flying.

Our helicopter took off shortly after 9am on a flight route that took around 20 minutes to complete.  The tour company is based at Elephant Hill, about six kilometres north of the falls.  The hill is a low-profile mound rising from ancient floodplains that follow the Zambezi River towards Victoria Falls. Several years ago an impressive five-star resort complex was built on its crest.

As we took off a distant rain shower gave the landscape a wonderfully African flair.  The view was spectacular. We traced the Zambezi River's path towards the falls.  Our route took us over the berths for dozens of boats we'd seen traversing the river two days before and on towards the falls themselves. 

A curtain of white mist hangs perpetually over the falls. For the last two days, we've watched this "cloud" drifting from our hotel dining room. At times the wind had swirled the mist into a jagged mushroom cloud reminiscent of a fading atomic bomb test.  However, from the air, the mist proved insignificant.  It obscured only a small section of the falls giving us an unobstructed view of its majesty and its equally impressive neighbourhood.

Our helicopter pilot flew us in a leisurely circle of eight around the falls, the Zambezi Gorge and the frontier bridge. The falls stretch an incredible 1,708 metres. Only from the air is it possible to conceive of just how far the falls extend.  However, the trailing gorge that's been carved over millennia proved equally spectacular.  A series of jagged Z-shape ravines scar the surrounding plains for more than seven kilometres downstream.

Our flight included ten minutes of safari flying over a nearby national park.  From the air, we spotted several giraffe herds grazing on the treetops, as well as a large herd of elephants rambling through the bush.  It was very cool to see the animals from this perspective after spending so much time viewing them from ground level. Mum loved every moment of our flight. She told me it was one of the highlights of her entire African adventure.  The perfect way to finish an incredible vacation.

UPDATE: April 2024

Our helicopter flight over the Victoria Falls wasn't my first time seeing them from the air.  I was lucky enough to enjoy a similar experience in 1996. For a retrospective post on this first flight, follow this link.

Victoria Falls - a photo essay

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of sightseeing.  We've taken two separate walking tours along the crest of the falls, gone bush with African elephants, and traversed girders underneath the local frontier bridge.  I've posted photos of our elephant excursion in a separate post.

Today's excursion to the falls was perfectly timed. We arrived at the national park entrance just as the sun broke through the clouds. As a result, the falls had a delightful sheen, and vivid rainbows were visible from several vantage points. We walked as far as the rock platforms overlooking the spectacular "Corner Viewpoint". This is where the Zambezi River turns south and begins weaving its way through a gorge it's carved over millennia. That's us above with the gorge entrance visible to the right.

The disposable ponchos are essential gear around the falls.  Their thundering water throws up a cloud of mist that eventually settles like drizzling rain. Depending on the wind direction, you can shift from clear skies and sunshine to wet and shaded conditions in just a few metres.  I'll post more about this bizarre experience shortly.

Our bridge walk was a magical experience. Much to our surprise, we were the only people on the tour. As a result, we enjoyed a private guided tour that took us down grated stairs by the bridge's foundations in Zambia, along a northern gangplank underneath its road deck, and then up onto the deck in Zimbabwe. 

The gangplank offered spectacular gorge-framed views of the falls and a fascinating close-up look at its girders and other infrastructure. We then spent time watching fearless tourists bungy jumping off the bridge, while others screamed their way along a Zipline strung over the gorge.

We learned that the bridge was actually prefabricated in England, shipped to Africa via Mozambique, and finally opened after 14 months of construction in 1905. It's 198 metres long, with a main arch spanning 156.50 metres at a height of 128 metres above the lower water mark of the river in the gorge below. Interestingly, it carries a road, railway, and footway making it a vital transport in Southern Africa.

There's honestly nothing I could write that would tell the story better than the images I've posted here.  Therefore, I'll leave you in peace to admire the scenes we've been enjoying.

Finally, here are a couple of images we took on our first afternoon at Victoria Falls. The weather was rather inclement when we arrived in Zimbabwe, so we only ventured out briefly to get our first glimpse of the falls. These two images were taken overlooking the Devil's Cataract along the fall's western boundary.

Hippos on the Zambesei

Today we've flown to Zimbabwe where we'll experience the magic of Victoria Falls.  After a full day of travel, we finished the day with a boat ride on the Zambezi River. For almost two hours we cruised along the riverbank, passing swampy islands while watching Hippos at play, before enjoying a spectacular African sunset.  This is clearly a popular activity. Our boat was joined by a flotilla of others, each packed with tourists like ourselves.