As we left our dirt road and turned onto the highway to head towards Livingstone, there at the side of the road was another spectacular sight, a group of women singing at the side of the road. Again our driver, Eustance, this time, was belted with cries of ‘STOP!’, which he of course, considerately did.
We sat transfixed, once again, listening to the wonderful sounds of African life.
We had to take our leave and so, headed directly to Victoria Falls upon reaching Livingstone; they being only a couple of km’s out of town. As soon as we parked, we noticed an abundance of baboons around and were told to keep everything close, as the varmints were tricky and would swipe things out of your hands, or through openings in car windows. I was startled by one, that popped out of a garbage receptacle as I passed! We paid our fees and entered the park with the roar of the falls deafening us. We passed a queue renting rain capes and I considered renting one, but then thought, ‘how wet can it be?’
After a stop at the first look-out, we headed down a set of stairs, each stair taking us lower and into a fine mist from the falls. Patricia & Brea went ahead for a few minutes, then came running back, soaked to the skin.
“Ah well” thought I, ever the pessimist, “I’ll just tuck my camera under my shirt, and step around the worst of it”. Two minutes later, I realized what a foolish thought that was; there was no stepping around the mist, the lower we went the harder it came down! As we made our way to the Knife edge bridge that spanned the chiasm between our side of the falls and Livingstone island, I was soaked, finding myself almost blinded by the force of the spray. We all began to fear for the items in our backpack’s, (mine in particular was my passport) but as there was nothing for it now, we continued onto the island to the special vantage point where visitors have the finest view of the Eastern Cataract and the Main Falls as well as the Boiling Pot where the river turns and heads down the Batoka Gorge, where we were able to view some crazed souls bungee jumping off the 111m high Victoria Falls Bridge that joins Zamia with Zimbabwe. Once on, there were a few areas that were drier and even some where no mist reached, ah, blessed sun beating down to dry me out a wee bit. Just as I was starting to warm and feel like I was not walking in wet diapers, it was decided that we should head back. Crossing the Knife edge bridge this time was even more harrowing, as the breeze had picked up and between slipping on the algae clinging to the walkway, and the even stronger force of the blinding spray, I clung to Utant for dear life, fearing I was going to go over the side. As we reached the main lookout our worst fears about the contents of our backpacks looked like they might be coming true. Colin lent over and water poured out. Christy was beside herself with worry, as their expensive camera and computer were within. Much to our relief, most articles were fine, although I still have a small spot of Zambezi water dried within my LED screen, and most everyone’s passports were water logged to some degree. Infact as we left Zambia the following week, the passport officer took one look and commented ‘ Visiting the Falls were you?‘ After everyone checked their backpacks at the main lookout and the required ‘group shot’ with the spectacular Falls in the background, we headed back towards the parking area.
At one point we noticed a large group of very excited people, surrounding an older gentleman, taking pictures with him and shaking hands. Eustance spotted who it was an became excited himself; as it was the first president after colonization, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, who had been visiting Livingstone to work with his AIDS organization and was taking a supposed break for the day. Eustance and Maria managed to have their pictures taken with him and there is one of myself, shaking hands as I passed. This was a very great honour to anyone in Zambia, let alone to foreigners, such as ourselves. One of the last things Eustance mentioned as we left Zambia later the next week, was to make sure he received a copy of the picture of himself with the president.
Did you know:
The Victoria Falls are just over 1 mile wide (1.7 km) and 355 feet (108 m) high. During the wet season over 500 million liters (19 million cubic feet) of water plummets over the edge into the Zambezi River. This incredible amount of water generates a huge amount of spray which shoots 1000 feet into the sky and can be seen 30 miles away, hence the name Mosi-oa-Tunya (Smoke that thunders).
After leaving the park Charmaine and I made a quick dash to the truck and did a quick change of our pants, so we at least felt somewhat more comfortable. We went across the street to the Mukuni Victoria Falls Craft Village. The vendors can be really pushy however, yelling for your attention from all sides, which after a short time, and a few purchases, was too overwhelming for me. The first purchase I made, was I’m sure the best of the vendors day, my not enjoying bartering, so I think they made out like bandits. The rest of my purchases I made sure to have Utant, Eustance, Helen or Lydia with me to wage the battles and was able to get much better deals. We had a quick lunch at the pizza joint and Subway at the Falls Park Shopping Centre, and stocked up on food stuffs at Spar, for the following week. Needing some extra Kawacha I decided to try the bank machine up the mall, much to my chagrin. It all seemed to be going well, my card popped out, but no money or receipt. Put me in a bit of a tizzy, I can tell you, especially as I was unable to reach MasterCard to report it, with the hotel not being able to call outside of Zambia, and both Maria and Utant’s phones failing. I managed to Skype Tom with the info and asked him to report it for me. Then were off to another street of craft vendors, who were as pushy and loud as the bunch at the Falls. Without our great Zambian friends along, we would never have got the deals we did. Next we were off to the Crossroads Lodge for the evening. Most of us rushed around trying desperately to get internet connections, and for most of us it was working, but so slow it was hard to get anything done. I felt I spent more time waiting for things to work properly, than I managed to upload. It was a frustrating evening, in what we had hoped would be an easy time of getting blogs updated and being able to get a hold of friends and family. I found that when I had put Shaw web mail on Ang’s laptop it hadn’t downloaded any of my email addresses which was also very frustrating, but we all got done what we could. It was a great night in other regards, with clean big rooms, hot water and great showers The Sunday morning was a rush, as ¼ of the crew went on Safari, another few slept in and I went on my ‘wild side’. There was another quick stop at the street craft market, for those last, “I wish I had bought that” items, then we were off back to Kalomo.
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