zambia

Victoria Falls (2018)

The Victoria Falls Bridge, inaugurated in 1905; conceived as a crucial link in the British Empire's pan-African railway routes. The 'boiling pot' - a spot where the water in the river is supposed to get particularly violent. They made it out that this was gonna be a crazy tough hike so, me being me, I jumped at the chance - only to find that it was a short walk down to a spot where there's a few waves and a bunch of backpackers getting ready to go rafting. Smh. Nice view of Vic Falls Bridge here tho. After a wasted trip to the underwhelming 'Boiling Pot' I decided to work my way back up to higher ground so that I could finally set eyes on the Falls themselves. Here's my first sighting! The Falls are stunning. So many superlatives that could describe them, let your imagination run wild, it all rings true. It's the largest waterfall in the world. It's not as high as Angel Falls, not as wide as Iguazu, but when you factor in the whole size of the place, it works out to be the world's largest sheet of falling water. And it is fucking beautiful, to boot. DOUBLE rainbows?!?! Might've gone a little bit crazy with the panos here, but you can't blame me. Here's the first of a few. It's the way in which the Zambezi cascades down the edge here... separating into all these elongated fingers of rushing water that kinda separate out enough to expose the rocks over which they're falling... that contrast of impossibly pure white and deepest brown, stretching on interminably. But you can only stare at like, half of the falls in Zambia, and I'd messed up my visa planning so that crossing back into Zimbabwe would've been a particularly wasteful expense. Leaving this god-awful selfie of me here (though jaw appropriately agape at one of nature's most spectacular wonders) cos it shows you how DARK I was at this point in my African adventure. I think I was about three weeks in at this point? Also still sporting the dumb 'spear' pendant that I'd bought for myself in Kenya to feel at one with the region. *rolleyes* Did my best to work my panos in order to try and capture something of the scale here. It's impossible, though - the Falls go on far, far to the left of what's in this image, over into Zimbabwe, where their force was significantly greater than in Zambia. (This was the 'low water level' season here, which makes me wonder just what this looks like when the water levels are 'high.') Obligatory shirtless pic in front of one of the most spectacular sights on Earth, woop! The old bridge again! And yet another pano. Must reiterate how impossible it was to capture the real scale. The fact that the water levels were 'low' actually added to its beauty, but I have no experience of the high water to compare that to. Looks like I'll need to go back. A casual 100m+ drop visible here. Is there such a thing as too many angles of Vic Falls? Nope. Another pano. This one gives you a glimpse of what things are like on the Zimbabwean side on the far left, where the true might of the Falls can be seen. Here's an even closer look. The indigenous name for the Falls is 'Mosi-oa-Tunya' (which, imo, is much >>> than naming one of nature's greatest wonders after such a dour old twerp of a monarch) - it means 'the smoke that thunders' in the local language here. You can kinda imagine what it must be like when the water levels are high based on what's going on over in Zim there, no? That little pool of still water on the bottom left is known as 'Danger Point', iirc. It's the deepest point here. "The Smoke That Thunders", yep. Although you can't really make it out, you're constantly being sprayed with vapour as you're staring at this. Which was actually very cooling at this time of year, given how hot it was when I was here! More Falls angles. There's a statue of David Livingstone first 'sighting' the Falls here. I actually don't mind Livingstone as key figures from the Age of Emprie go. He was a pretty decent chap by the standards of his era, so I felt he deserved the posthumous honour of a Reehan selfie. One more shot of the mighty Falls before leaving. One of my fave sights in the world. Fun to see these fellas on the way outta the park! There's shit tonnes of baboons round here. I walked around the site for a little while after. I kept on bumping into this local dude and he kept on offering to help me jump the fence and swim/walk over to a point called 'Angel's Pool' - which is basically like a shallow version of the famous Devil's Pool where you can actually swim at the edge of the Falls. I was really, really tempted (adventure!), but knew full well that everything you read about the Falls advises you to do the very opposite of following locals that offer you cut-price activities when there! Licensed tour operators are the way forward when you're dealing with nature at its most powerful, imo. Kili taught me that. Sadly, this was pretty much all I did whilst in Zambia. I'm sad to have spent such a short time here, but time was sth I was running out of, and I knew getting across Botswana was gonna cost me at least two or three days. After returning to my hostel, chilling for a while, and grabbing some lunch, I jumped into a combi over to the border, where you have to get a ferry across the Zambezi river over to Botswana. Quite a fun border crossing, as far as they go! More on that at some point in the future.

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