Victoria Falls

During our trip to Kasane, we took a day-long excursion to Victoria Falls, which is a mini-bus drive of about one hour from Kasane, not including a seemingly endless and archaic border crossing process to enter Zimbabwe. The falls are fed by the Zambezi River, which starts in Angola and flows eastward toward the Indian Ocean. The border between Zambia and Zimbabwe follows the Zambezi (say that five times fast!). The Chobe River, which runs along the border of Botswana and Namibia and passes through Kasane, is a tributary of the Zambezi. The confluence of the Chobe and the Zambezi is at a point where Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia all meet at a single point in the middle of the Zambezi (similar to the Four Corners area in the Southwest, but much wetter). Oddly, Namibia has a thin appendage called the Caprivi Strip that follows the Chobe River east to this point. Back in 1890 the Germans acquired the strip from the British in exchange for Zanzibar to provide a means of navigation from German areas of south west Africa to the Zambezi and ultimately the Indian Ocean. However, the plan failed when the British took control of Zambia and Zimbabwe and thus the Zambezi. Lots of "Z's" in this part of the world.

The best thing about visiting Victoria Falls is that your safety is in your own hands! This make the falls particularly thrilling when you have a young and impulsive child or two older children that are constantly pushing each other. Or both. There are no warning signs, stainless steel railings with pickets spaced a maximum of four inches apart, or park rangers telling you where not to walk. Many of the overlooks along the trail do have thorny acacia branches woven together into low fences - a nice African aesthetic - but that's the extent of the safety features. One wide section has nothing at all. On the other hand, the relative lack of safety measures makes the visitor to Victoria Falls more attentive, the experience more real. This is not television; if you do not pay attention to the real cliff at your toes, you may plunge over 300 feet to your death! As my high school physics teacher, Mr. Vanasse, used to say, "It's not the fall that will kill you, it's the sudden stop."

The main portion of the falls

Nice guardrail!

Note the people in the upper right of this photo

The falls create a constant spray that fills the chasm and billows upward with the wind making it difficult to get a clear view of the actual water or take pictures. The flow is quite low this time of year, so the visibility was relatively good, but at the expense of a large section of the falls being dry. The mist creates a virtual rain forest on the opposite (viewing) side of the chasm and was a nice reprieve from the heat.

The jungle-like edge of the chasm

The rim trail

Thrill-seeking is a major attraction at the falls.  From the Zambia side you can access a spot called Devil's Pool where you can wade or jump in right at the lip of the falls. The photo of Devil's Pool below is from across the chasm on the Zimbabwean side. You can also bungee-jump from the bridge that spans the chasm below the falls, though we did not see anybody doing it.

Devil's Pool

The bridge below the falls

Water break

Bathroom break

Soaked from spray and sweat!