“One cannot resist the lure of Africa.” – Rudyard Kipling
As you approach you began to hear a distant rumble. Ahead of you a plume of mist arises from seemingly nowhere. By the time you reach the edge of the cataract, the sound becomes a deafening roar and the mist a hard rain. Across the gorge, the river, which is over a half mile wide, plunges 360 feet down the side of a narrow gorge, which is only 80 to 240 feet wide. You are often rewarded by the sight of a beautiful rainbow gracing the sky over the falling water. You have arrived at Victoria Falls.
Victoria Falls is the largest curtain of water in the world—and one of the world’s Seven Natural Wonders. The Zambezi River is more than 1.25 miles wide when it cascades over the lip of a large basalt plateau and plunges as much as 354 feet. The flow has been slicing slowly through this plateau for some two million years.
“…creeping with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent… and saw that a stream of a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet, and then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards… the most wonderful sight I had witnessed in Africa.” David Livingstone
Famed explorer David Livingstone, the first European to see the mighty cataract, named it for his queen, Victoria. However, the name used by the African residents of the area, Mosi-oa-Tunya, which means the ‘Smoke that Thunders,’ seems a much more accurate description of this natural wonder.
The perfect name for these falls that are nearly twice as high as Niagara, one and a half times as wide, and generate three times as much water. As we made our way by small plane to Victoria Falls the views included watching the mist sprayed into the air from these crashing waters from more than 50 miles away. At peak flood times, 1.4 billion gallons of water per minute pass over its edge.
“Nothing but breathing the air of Africa, and actually walking through it, can communicate the indescribable sensations.” – William Burchell
There are trails along the ledge overlooking the gorge and the falls and as you walk through the rain (spray from the falls) the views get better and better with each turn. Most of the group looped back about halfway through but Dad and I continued to the end stopping at each viewpoint for different angles and views of the five main cataracts. The rain forest-like ecosystem surrounding the falls was particularly lush, fed by Victoria’s perpetual rain like spray.
They warned us ahead of time that it is a good idea to wrap your camera equipment, cash, and other valuables in plastic. Well I didn’t too that great of a job and when I switched lenses to be able to better photograph the falls with my wide-angle lens I failed to adequately zip my backpack and now have a useless 18-200 zoom lens that I actually ended up carrying all through Spain & Italy in the hopes that it would dry out. Lessons learned the hard way!
Victoria Falls was the culmination of two and a half weeks of African Safari, full of amazing places we visited and unique one of a kind experiences. Our trip touched just a fraction of what the continent has to offer. It included four countries and we had the opportunity to visit Hwange National Park, Kafue National Park, Chobe National Park, Moremi National Park and the Okavango Delta. Each area was different and unique and each had differing animal and human populations, problems and issues.
“In Africa you have space…there is a profound sense of space here, space and sky.” – Thabo Mbeki
Of the four countries in Africa by far my favorite was Botswana – with just over 2 million residents and the home of Chobe, Moremi and the Okavango Delta it is a country that really seems to have it’s s*@t together. And why not? At the time one of the poorest of nations Botswana gained it’s independence as a country on Sept. 30, 1966. Then in 1967, a mere 6 months after independence, diamonds were discovered, and the entire economic base of Botswana changed overnight (a coincidence? – I think not). Botswana now has one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Botswana’s history has also been defined by its relationship with other southern African nations. In the 1970s, the relationship was one of contrast—Botswana was seen as a more liberal, more open country that it’s neighbors. Today Botswana is still one of the few African nations to specifically guarantee freedom of speech, press, and religion in its constitution. Revenue from the government owned diamond mines allows the country to provide its people with health care, services and free education up through college.
In Botswana it’s not only the human residents that are cared for but also their wild counterparts. Botswana is indeed one of the success stories in wildlife conservation on the continent. 45% of the country has been set-aside as national parks and wildlife reserves.
It has the largest population of elephants in Africa with about 200,000 individuals. To protect this large herd, along with other iconic wildlife species, the government has put in place strong measures to protect wildlife against criminal threats such as poaching and trafficking.
In 2014 Botswana’s President Ian Khama enacted a ban on all hunting in an effort to march his country towards a new model of African tourism: “low impact/high value”.
Botswana believes that by protecting its animals and minimising humankind’s footprint on the natural world, it can turn the country into an exclusive tourist destination that brings in far more than it loses from the ban on hunting. So far it seems to be successful albeit not without some problems.
There are certainly issues (what country doesn’t have them) but overall Botswana seems to be a model for Africa.
As we wrapped up our African adventure it was with heavy hearts that we bid goodbye to such an amazing country.
“When you leave Africa, as the plane lifts, you feel that more than leaving a continent you’re leaving a state of mind. Whatever awaits you at the other end of your journey will be of a different order of existence.” – Francesca Marciano
Wow. Thanks Dana for taking me along on your journey. Makes me yearn to go on an African safari. Xoxoxo. K
Fabulous narrative and photos. Sorry about your lens. This adventure is calling me. What tour company led it? Elizabeth Carpenter
It was with Overseas Adventure Travel, have been using them for a number of great trips!