ZimbabweWelcome to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe... this Covid theater was getting tiresome:
Passport lines here take forever, between the three visa options and it being, well, Africa. Most people don't know what kind of visa they want, and even if you do they still tediously explain all the options to you. Then you pay, forms are filled out in triplicate, stickers are stuck in your passport and a huge binder, and 40 hours later you are finally ready to wait in line once more, this time at customs. We got the KAZA visa, which for $50 allows you to bounce between Zimbabwe and Zambia as many times as you like, plus do a day trip to Botswana.
Our driver met us at the airport and we had a quick drive to the lodge for lunch and a short rest. There was a fair amount of wildlife hanging around the grounds right in front of our cabin, including this Southern Bushbuck:
Common Warthog:
When I was a young wartHOOOOOOOOGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!
After eating and settling in, our driver was back to take us to one of the most incredible sights on earth: Victoria Falls!
While Victoria Falls is not the highest waterfall (that would be Angel Falls in Venezuela), nor the widest (Iguazu), it's considered the biggest due to its height and width combined. And indeed the sheer scale is difficult to comprehend: it's over a mile wide and 350 feet high.
I get asked every now and then how Victoria Falls compares to Niagara. My answer is that to say both in one sentence is blasphemous... Take Niagara, make it twice as high and half again as wide, drop it in a tropical rainforest, and most importantly, dynamite the piles of disgusting high-rise hotels destroying the views, and you might have something approaching Victoria Falls.
I have to say that Zimbabwe has done a masterful job in laying out Victoria Falls National Park. While the falls themselves are mostly on the Zambian size of the border, the best views are to be had from across the gorge in Zimbabwe. The national park is not too large, and at its core is the is brilliantly-designed strip that runs along the falls.
A short walk from the main gate takes you through the forest to a statue of Dr. Livingstone (I presume), the first European to see the falls and the one to name it after Queen Victoria:
From there the path begins to run along the gorge with 16 numbered viewpoints. Normally, I can't stand the idea of being told where to look at something from - it is my universal experience that anything marked "photo spot" is bound to be the worst view of a place. Here however I found an exception. Each viewpoint offers a different experience, and is cleverly designed not to be repetitive or boring. Some (especially in the beginning) give you a small but tantalizing view of the wonders to come, some frame the falls in spectacular foliage, some take you right to the edge of the gorge with smashing views of the main falls, and so on. One spot is even positioned right where the typical winds blow the most mist, so the views are terrible but you're guaranteed a refreshing shower even on a hot and sunny day.
This park map makes the whole layout very clear:
Here's the first viewpoint - Devil's Cataract is to the left, and the main falls are just off in the distance:
A little further along:
A similar view, framed by jungle:
Yet another view:
If you look at the picture of the Livingstone statue above, you'll notice that he is standing in a dry, mostly-brown forest. That is indeed the prevailing habitat around here - except for the area directly across the falls. The perpetual mists have created a micro-ecosystem of a thin strip of tropical rainforest:
Continuing on, we come to a spot across something rather interesting:
Let's zoom in a bit...
Are those... people?
Why yes, yes they are:
The spot we're looking at is Devil's Pool, and these psychos actually swimming at the brink of the biggest waterfall on earth.
In a couple of days, one of those psychos will be me.
I must admit that seeing the pool from this angle really brought home the insanity of it all, and I got serious cold feet. I am deathly afraid of heights (yeah yeah, cue the jokes. I'm sure I've never heard them before!), and this was a good 350 vertical feet out of my comfort zone. For now suffice it to say (spoiler alert) that I went through with it and it was one of the most incredible things I've ever done.
Anyways this whole drama is still a few days in the future, so back the the Zimbabwean side for now...
Devil's Pool is accessed from Livingston Island, which acts as a barrier during the dry season. This means that the right half of the falls is reduced to a trickle. Instead of rushing waterfalls you are instead able to appreciate the sheer scale of the gorge:
For comparison, here's a different view of the same area when I went back during the wet season a couple of months ago - you couldn't even get close to the edge:
There's no question that the falls are incredibly more powerful in the wet season (duh), but in my opinion the dry season is still the better option of the two. I feel that you can appreciate the beauty of the falls more, as opposed to seeing just a giant wall of water hurtling into the mist (which is a lot stronger now and blocks most of the falls from sight). And of course, if you want to do Devil's Pool, that's only possible during low water.
The sun beginning to set:
By this point we had explored the entire trail and it was getting dark, so we turned back. All in all we spent about three hours at the falls, which is really long enough to see it all.
This park ranger and his ancient rifle was keeping us all safe at the main gate:
Our driver was waiting for us to drive us to the lodge, but my friend wanted to stop by a bar for some drinks. As it turned out our quick stop turned into an hour or two, as we made friends with a bunch of randos who were traveling together and kept on buying us tequila shots. One was a Lithuanian TV personality (I looked him up afterwards, apparently he's some sort of big deal there by the Litvacks). The other had a goal of taking a picture of his naked butt in every country on earth (I kid you not - he showed me his Instagram. I'll spare you the link.). The third once traveled to Columbia just so he can snort a line of coke off Pablo Escobar's grave (video link available by PM; payment terms TBD).
Suffice it to say it was an interesting couple of hours:
I don't drink, so I was a bit steadier than my friend when we finally got back to the lodge. Got a good fire going, grilled the steaks directly on the coals, and I gotta say it came out incredible:
Thus endeth our first day in Zimbabwe.
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