June 28-30: Victoria Falls

Our first stop in Zimbabwe is Victoria Falls, one the world’s 3 largest waterfalls, depending on the criteria used, containing the largest continuous sheet of falling water and extending in total just over 1 mile wide – making it one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. In the wet season, the spray from Victoria Falls can rise more than 1,200 feet above the falls and can be seen from up to 30 miles away. The falls vary in height from 233 to 360 ft. What makes the falls particularly spectacular, to me at least, is that the waters fall into a narrow slot gorge along a fault line that extends the length of the falls and then exists through a relatively narrow gap. Thus, you can view the falls from the opposite side of the slot gorge and be surprisingly close to the falling sheet of water – which has its pluses and minuses. On the plus side, it feels like you can almost reach out and touch the falling sheet of water. On the negative side, you are so close to the falls and the spray that not only do you get soaked, but the falls can be partly or mostly hidden from view in the spray. Here is a couple of shots of us on the walk thru the narrow strip of rainforest (due to the spra) to view the Falls:

For the action lovers, here is a video of the falls from our visit (note, there is minimal narration as I could not be heard over the roar of the falls most of the time, but know that as the video progresses we are moving across the face of the falls from west to east on the Zimbabwean side of the falls, which extends about halfway across the width of the Falls):

Victoria Falls video (5 minutes)

Victoria Falls is situated on the Zambezi River – the “Great River” in the language of the Tonga people – which is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa, and has a watershed that is about half the size of the Nile River watershed. Here’s what the falls look like from the air (again, borrowed from the internet), so that you can see what an amazing natural wonder this really is. Note, we walked on the face opposing the Falls from the leftmost or western end of the Falls to the midway point where the River exists the slot:

We camped right in the middle of town at the N1 Lodge and Campsite. It was a surprisingly nice setting with a grassy lawn, lots of overhead shade trees, fantastic ablution facility, a pool and sushi bar on site only a stone’s throw away – which we took advantage of – and all within sight and earshot of the town’s hub of arts and crafts shops, not to mention the local brewery right across the street that was like a magnet to Mark. While Mark was drawn to the brewery, I was drawn to the street marimba group that performed daily for donations and invited tourists like me to join in on a marimba:

Marimba fun in Victoria Falls (30 seconds)

It turned out that Mark and Kirsten’s last full day with us was also their 32nd anniversary. Congratulations Mook and Kirsten! For their celebratory dinner, we went to a community-based and centered restaurant named “The Dusty Road” located in the oldest township of Victoria Falls housing a mojority of the local residents. Here’s the happy couple:

The restaurant was only recently openned by a white Zimbabwean women that grew up in country but travelled and worked as a cook all over the world, and eventually returned to her homeland and ended up settling here in Victoria Falls to open this restaurant. It is a unique restaurant. The venue is like an extended home that is constructed in part out of recycled materials of all kinds, many of which are very clever and ingenious creations, like that shown here:

The food is all based on traditional native foods, mostly made from native plants. They show you all the native plants, seeds, etc. that are used in their dishes and give a little background on them. Here is a sampling of the grains and seeds used in the meals:

All the cooking is done in traditional style by local black Zimbabweans. All the food was excellent. At the end of our meal we had a surprise visit by a group of local kids who sang and performed for us, as shown here in this snippet of their performance, which was endearing:

Zimbabwean children’s performance at The Dusty Road restaurant (1 minute)

Unfortunately, Victoria Falls was the end of the line for Mark and Kirsten and so we had to bid them a sad goodbye as they headed back to Nairobi and then immediately on to Oregon for a month:

So long Mook and Kirsten, it was great to share Botswana and VicFalls with you.

Nancy and I are on our own for the first time and we are off to Zambezi National Park. See you there!