Travels thru Life: 7/17 & 18-- Victoria Falls

On our way to the bus taking us to Victoria Falls, we saw more wildlife along the road than the three previous trips combined, including a small band of elephants climbing uphill.

Baobob tree

Elephants going up a hill

After lunch near the falls, we took about an hour hike past the various viewpoints - 16 in all. We were loaned long rain coats, which were definitely needed as protection from the vast quantities of mist coming up from the falls. There were double rainbows all over too. It was really pretty spectacular.

Monkeys and baboons tried to steal bits of peoples' lunches

Mist and rainbow

In some places the mist was so heavy, you couldn't see the falls

Mist obscures a main section

We walked back to the hotel to do a bit of shopping and were assailed by any number of street vendors, one of whom offered to trade his wares for Jim's shoes. Another was willing to trade for a baseball cap, which we had one of, but decided he didn't like the look of our cap. Without jobs or pay for doing jobs, the economic situation here is quite desperate. It could get worse. They currently use US dollars for currency because their own got so devalued. In October, they will start issuing their own currency again, and any dollars in a bank will convert, so there is a lot of fear about the results.

7/18 -- We took a 15 minute helicopter flight over the falls this morning. I normally enjoy helicopters, but this time I was led to a backwards facing seat and the first half of the flight was frustrating (aside from the fact that I don't like traveling backwards) because we had no view of the falls from our side. The second loop over the falls was better since we could see them now, but the other passengers got the dull view. I also realized that most of my photos showed the reflection of my bright pink coat. This was probably the most disappointing part of this tour.


From the helipad, you can see the mist of the falls even before you get there.

The upstream side of the Zambesi

The falls suddenly drop off into a narrow gorge.

Here you can see how narrow the gorge is.

This is the widest section with significant water flow. It is
heavier early in the year.

The east side of the falls is already starting to
taper off. Before the rains start in October, it
is almost dry.


Victoria Bridge and the gorge below the falls.

Looking to the left, you can see the zigzag gorge the Zambesi
flows thru. Each of these zigzags is a former falls location.
Most of the plateau is basalt with sandstone dividers that erode
and cause the collapse of each section.

Our helicopter....

On our way back, the bus dropped us off at a shop we had scoped out the day before but didn't have credit cards or adequate cash to cover our desires. We started walking back and discovered the aggressive vendors must have been sleeping in. We ran into our van driver from the helicopter tour and got a ride the rest of the way. My feet thanked me -- we haven't been able to walk around much here and kind of overdid it yesterday.

Later in the morning, we went to the famous Victoria Falls Bridge, got a live dramatization of its building and then a tour underneath. We were outfitted with safety harnesses with two clips to a cable on the bridge because there were several transfer points where we unclipped and reclipped one carabiner at a time. We saw someone bungee jumping from the bridge too. Immediately after that, we took a zip line across the river toward the bridge. My other zipline experiences have been in trees where we had to brake for ourselves. Here, there was someone who came out to catch us and haul us back, so it was much easier.