Monday, August 12, 2019
We started the morning off with a lavish breakfast buffet at the Kingdom Hotel, after allowing ourselves to sleep a bit late following our long journey. We walked over to the Victoria Falls National Park, paid our entrance fee, and went inside; it was perhaps 9:30 am. Given that the park opens at 6:30 am, and we typically like to be early birds, this felt very late indeed. But the crowds were pleasantly (surprisingly) manageable.
There are a total of 16 viewpoints on paths that face the falls, and we did them all, starting on the western side of the park where Livingstone’s statue is, and working our way east toward Zambia.
This is your first view of the Falls as you enter the park, facing east and looking down the gorge.
The Zimbabwean side of the Falls stays relatively full of water all year, but the Zambian side dries up during low water season.
This year is drier than normal at the Falls due to recent drought, and we did indeed notice, as we walked from west to east, that there was less water.
We were particularly intrigued to see the Livingstone Island viewpoint, as it gave a good view of where we would be swimming in the afternoon, at Devil’s Pool.
By the time we reached the final viewpoints, we were well out of the rainforest surroundings that thrive in the misty environment on the western side of the park, and into the dry rock face area on the eastern side.
This is looking down the gorge from east to west – i.e. the opposite end of the gorge from when we first entered the park.
You can also visit the Falls from the Zambian side, and there are a number of trails to walk there as well, but at this time of year there is nothing to see there but dry rock face. Still interesting in its own right, but not as impressive as the flowing Falls in Zimbabwe.
After a few hours of checking out every last vantage point, we returned to the main park gate area. We took a break for some drinks at the on-site restaurant, which was surrounded by vervet monkeys trying to snag a meal. There are a few small shops and craft vendors clustered around the park gate as well, and before we left we purchased some old Zimbabwean bank notes as a souvenir. These are pretty much worthless due to hyperinflation in the local economy.
We then made the trip across the bridge to Zambia on foot. This required us to be stamped out of Zimbabwe at the border control station, and then after we crossed the bridge, we were stamped in on the Zambian side. The border control stations were busy places, full of cargo trucks waiting to pass, touts trying to make a living by selling goods and services to tourists crossing the bridge on foot, and a number of baboons. There is also a bungy jumping outfit in the middle of the bridge, though we were not lucky enough to see anyone jump while we were there.
We continued walking after reaching Zambia, and went as far as the Royal Livingstone Hotel. Along the way, we had our first real wildlife sightings.
Quite by accident, we came across a number of giraffes, zebras and impalas grazing at the side of the road. We were actually quite close to the animals, and it was pretty exciting for the kids to see their first African wildlife.
We were still a bit early for our Devil’s Pool excursion, and it had been a long hot walk across the bridge under the blazing sun, so we stopped in on the sun deck at the Royal Livingstone for another drink. There were elephants grazing along the river on the Royal Livingstone property.
We caught a lift from the hotel to the launch site for the Tongabezi Devil’s Pool excursion. After signing our waivers, we loaded into a jet boat, and headed downriver, towards the precipice of the Falls.
A bit of backstory about our decision to visit Devil’s Pool: originally, we had no intention of going. In fact, the Pool is not normally open in August, and we knew this when we booked our trip. It sounded like an adrenaline junky activity, which is not really our style. But then the pool opened early due to low water levels, and we gave it a second thought.
We also did some research. Tongabezi has been running these trips for about ten years, and each year about 10,000 people visit the Pool. There have been no deaths on the organized tour. That was reassuring.
Back to the story. The spray of mist that hung in the air over the Falls grew larger as we approached. We pulled ashore on Livingstone Island less than ten minutes later, and were greeted with a local drink brewed from maize, for ‘energy for the swim’. We then got a brief tour of the island, including a visit to the Livingstone memorial plaque and an opportunity to pose for some photos from this, the Zambian side of the Falls, across from where we had been in the morning.
There were a total of 24 people on our excursion, but we were split into smaller groups of about 8 or so in order to do the swim. We got a safety briefing and then it was our turn to go, and we were given very specific instructions regarding how to swim from Livingstone Island to a smaller island that’s used as a jumping-off point for the Devil’s Pool.
The swim isn’t long, perhaps 30 meters or so, and though there is some current in the water, it doesn’t feel like you are in danger of being pulled to the edge. It’s also probably shallow enough that you could touch bottom the whole way, or pretty close to it. Although you should probably be comfortable being in water in order to go on this excursion, I don’t think you need to be a strong swimmer; a doggie paddle or breast stroke is fine.
After landing on the smaller island, we started entering the water group by group. It’s a bit of a scramble down some rocks, and then a small jump into the Pool, and a swim over to the lip of the Pool where you can sit to pose for photos. The water is deep here, about 12 feet.
There is definite current here as well, and I felt a bit shaky trying to sit up on the ledge, but despite the spray and the deafening roar of the water around us, at no point did I really feel in danger of going over the Falls.
We lined up as a family of 4, took a few photos, and then the kids and Chad each did one hanging over the edge of the Falls; I was ok to pass on that opportunity! Here’s Mallory taking her turn. She originally said she wasn’t going to get into the Pool at all, but as the day progressed she felt more comfortable with things, and wound up really enjoying herself.
Soon enough, we were back on dry land, having survived our swim in Devil’s Pool.
We had booked the afternoon tea excursion to Devil’s Pool, so next we were treated to some food and drink. The tea consisted of both savoury and sweet treats, and was much tastier than I expected.
We also had a drink included, so this was where we had our first gin and tonic of the trip – it would not be our last.
Eventually it was time to pack up and leave the island. I made a quick trip to the Loo with a View – an open-air toilet that does indeed face the Falls – before we took the short boat ride back upriver. Tongabezi had called a taxi to meet us, and the driver took us back to the international border. We completed the actual crossing on foot, just as twilight descended.
We were back to our hotel before dark.
We cleaned up a bit, and then had wanted to go check out a few shops in the area – but upon exiting the hotel, we realized just how dark it was. There were no street lamps, and no lights from local businesses. The entire town was in the midst of a power blackout. (The hotels all have generators, so it wasn’t immediately apparent to us.) It did not feel like a great idea to be stumbling around in the dark, and there was very little that was open to see, anyway. So we returned to the hotel and grabbed a snack at the pool bar before calling it a day.
Cook Family Travels 