From Kasane (Chobe National Park) Daniel and I took a taxi to the border between Botswana and Zimbabwe. After crossing the border on foot, paying for a single-entry-visa and filling out various documents, we had to look for another ride to the town of Victoria (Vic) Falls. It didn’t take long until we found a local, who was willing to take us for some extra money. The car was old, but not completely filled up with people or luggage so we didn’t mind the hours ride.
Vic Falls is a town, which was just build for tourists visiting the waterfalls. You notice it by the number of hotels in town, numerous people trying to sell you their old currency (billion and trillion dollar bills, which were in use during the massive inflation in 2009) or other souvenirs and by the relative cleanness of the town.
The Victoria Falls or, as the native people say “Mosi-oa-Tunya” – the smoke that thunders – was originally not on my list of things to see in Africa, but I’ve heard great things about them from other travelers. Additionally, it’s considered to be one of the seven natural wonders of the world, being the largest waterfall in the combination of width and height (area of flowing water).
However, since it is almost the end of the small dry season, there was not a lot of water and almost none on the Zambian side of the falls (they are located right at the border). The low water allows you to take a special tour to the Devil’s Pool, where you can sit in a natural basin at the edge of the waterfall. Unfortunately I missed the chance to go there (accessibility only from the Zambian side), but that makes it a great reason to come back!
The amount of water is still enough to be impressive and to allow for river rafting downstream of the falls. So Daniel, Teemu (from Finnland) and I decided to do a day trip of rafting, which included more than 19 rapids (some bigger ones consisted of several smaller ones) up to class 5,which is the highest difficulty, if you don’t count class 6 (like Niagara falls). It was a lot of fun and quite interesting, because the water and the oncoming wind were warm and we were happy about every wave entering our boat.
