The Main Falls
After breakfast this morning we made our way to the Falls themselves. Along the track from the hotel to the Falls’ entrance we passed numerous men trying to sell us exquisitely carved standard African tourist schlock and a Zimbabwe specialty: defunct 20 trillion Zimbabwean Dollar notes. We passed these up; we had made sure to only carry the park entrance fee with us, so we could honestly tell each and every tout that we had no money for them. We also passed a gigantic steaming pile of elephant dung left conveniently in the middle of the trail. The sheer grandeur of this pile of dung did convince me that we shouldn’t try to sneak an elephant baby home with us. Sadly, we saw no elephants. Note: on the way back from the Falls to the hotel, we saw a pair of ironically beautiful dung beetles working away at a little ball of the now dried up pile of elephant poo.
We crossed over the rail tracks that eventually end up on the bridge crossing the gorge. We navigated a very inconveniently (for us) situated set of tourist shops. Kate spoke in ASL with a man trying to get donations for a local school for the deaf. We made it to the entrance and paid our fee.
A brief note on our preparations for this morning’s activity: we had been warned that we would get wet. Really, truly, soaked-through-to-the-underpants wet. This was apparently true for those folks who bought rain slickers from the touts as well as those who didn’t. We dressed in clothes that could get wet and would hopefully dry quickly. We took umbrellas from the hotel and wrapped all our pocket stuffings (passports, money, camera) in plastic. We were thoroughly soaked by the middle of the visit, but at least we weren’t covered head-to-toe in plastic. Note: if you ever go to Vic Falls, bring a cheap or waterproof camera. We met an Australian dude towards the end that had destroyed his $2000 fancy camera and was none-so-pleased about it. Our cheapo made it through with flying colors.
Soaking wet and happy...
I’m not exactly sure how to go about describing the Falls. For the entire walk around the park, even when you can’t see them, you can hear and feel them. The roar is incredible. It drowns out most other noise. It is as if you are next to a continuous eruption of thunder. Luckily, the only lightning comes from cameras as folks try to get that impossible shot of them with the Falls in the background. Closer to the park entrance, it sounds like an L.A. freeway complete with traffic helicopters (the constant buzzing comes from the tourist helicopters - $125 for 15 minutes per person).
The spray from the Falls varies from torrential downpour at most viewing spots, to a nice mist and drizzle as you move away. The landscape is unbelievably lush: a rainforest with thick wooded creepers, brightly colored insects, birds and monkeys. This is nature and life at their fiercest: in one direction a wrong step will send you to an adrenaline fueled watery demise, and in the other direction, you could get wrapped up in vines and devoured by giganto-ants and locusts, while vervet monkeys sit and laugh at your unfortunate end.
The sight of the Falls verges on the spiritual. The width (over 2 km), height (over 100 m) and volume of water are such that it was difficult for me to make sense of what I was seeing. The water falls for so long that it evolves from a discernible flow into froth into steamy clouds before it hits anything. The roiling at the bottom is invisible, covered by the shifting and somewhat cyclical billows of underpants soaking mist. Each viewpoint shows a different angle. My favorite point was the one where you couldn’t see the falls at all, all you can do is stand and feel their power: the thunder vibrating through your bones and your skin getting wetter and wetter, despite any precautionary umbrella use.
My favorite spot
Soaked through and happy, we walked back to the hotel. An officer of the tourist police accompanied us. At first I was afraid she’d want a tip, but I think she just wanted the conversation. From what we could tell, she really likes Obama because Zimbabweans now have to use US dollars. No, it didn’t really make sense to us either, but it was a nice discussion. Touts didn’t really bother us as much. I guess there is a benefit to walking with someone with POLICE written across their chest.
Kate's so cute!
This evening we went on a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river (above the Falls; the captain of the boat kept making jokes about one-way cruises). It was a fairly small boat. In addition to the two of us there was a couple from Lithuania, the captain, our driver and an additional lady who I presumed was a trainee at the activity company but Kate thinks that our driver, Newton, was trying to impress a lady friend. During the cruise we stopped to gawk at hippos, vultures, the tippy-top of a crocodile head (it didn’t surface any further since it could smell me, and after I ate one of its cousin’s tails last night it was very afraid), plovers (not snowy), and a pygmy kingfisher (?). We had a nice conversation with the Lithuanians, drank lots of local beer, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We got our African Queen on. Here are some pictures.
African Queen!
Apparently, that's a warning sign.
Sunset over the Zambezi
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