4 November... a day of "interesting" travel again. First out of the bush to the civilization of Lusaka, and thence to Livingstone. No one in our group was admitting to failing to file absentee ballots before setting out on our trip....
Because of time zone differences, the TV we saw during our various aiprport waiting times didn't have much in the way of election results news. In the camps, before reaching the "modern" hotel at Victoria Falls, we were blissfully TV, radio, etc. free) (Photos and text © TK Boyd 11/08)
We were, alas, done with "the bush". Our hotel was the splendid, modern, luxury Zambezi Sun. There were zebras on the lawn from time to time, many vervet monkeys who were quickly on anything tempting, and no fences between us and some giraffes... but they stayed out of the central hotel grounds. And the hotel's location? Although we couldn't see the falls, the following should make clear how close they were.....
The map above is to get you started with grasping the geography around the falls. I'll give you a detailled look in a moment. Thank you, again, Google, for the images.
"H" marks the location of our hotel. The first time I was here, I stayed at the Royal Livingstone, just to the north. It, in fact, shares an animal/ security fence with the Zambezi Sun.
The blue line is the falls themselves... more on this in a moment.
The boundary between Zambia (where we were) and Zimbabwe (where the Foreign Office and others suggest quite strongly was not a good place to go in 2008) is little confusing. At this place, it is essentially the river. More on this in a moment.
Above the falls, the river is wide and shallow, flowing over the top of the ground.
The reason for the falls is not so much a cliff, as at many falls, but a huge "crack" in the ground, running at right angles to the flow of the river. The general elevation of the land below the falls is the same as that above them... but below the falls, the river runs through a narrow canyon. That canyon zig zags a few times just below the falls, and then straightens out a bit.
The amazing thing is that the falls we see today are at least the 7th "Victoria Falls". The crack the water falls into today, until "recently" (in geologic terms) was filled with dirt, and the water flowed across it into the next transverse crack downstream. A long time ago, the falls were in the southern most crack. Gradually, the river removed the dirt from crack after crack, working its way upstream. The more detailled image that follows may also help you see what I am describing.
The yellow line above outlines "the crack" into which the water of the falls plunges. Sadly, when we were there, the eastern, Zambian, side of the falls was nearly dry... but that view has its charms, too. The gren circle marks our hotel, the arrow is to my room.
The red cross hatching shows you Zimbabwe. As I was preparing this, I realized that I may have been in Zimbabwe when I went out to "Livingstone Island" (other green arrow). The "x" marks the spot where I sat on the edge of the falls. More on this later!
Notice again the strange topography. The elevation of everything outside the yellow line is more or less the same. The river falls into a crack, and that crack is drained through the narrow connection into the next crack downstream. Previously, the current crack was full of dirt, water flowed across the bit of Zimbabwe shown in the image, and fell into the crack at the bottom of the image.
The white water rafting in the bottom of the gorge is quite exciting! And is not permitted year 'round!
I remember the quides telling us that the water drops about 100 meters. (330 feet). Wikipedia tells me that the mean monthly flow tops out at 3000 cubic meters per second. Which also means that 3000 tons of water flows through that narrow exit channel every second. Niagra's mean annual flow rate is 2400 cubic meters per second. Gentle reader: You are invited to submit illustrations of that number. E.g., "At that flow rate, if you were paid a dollar for each bathtub filled, it would take you {how long} to become a millionaire", or "At that rate, water equal to the weight of the entire population of London flows over the falls in {how long}. Etc.
We got to the hotel at about two in the afternoon, with a "catch breath" afternoon/ evening ahead of us. At the entrance to the hotel, we were greeted by some "native warriors" who seemed to be having fun with giving the tourists a chuckle. I hope you'll agree that the excellence of their garb and grins warrant my inflicting this less than technically perfect photo on you?
I had a late lunch, with Carol. She did an amazing job on this trip. All sorts of things came up, and she coped with them all, hardly even letting on that she wasn't just on a holiday. Airlines have been known to cancel a flight. Have you ever had 22 people in your charge, in a remote area, and learn that the airline had cancelled the route? Not recommended for those who like smooth sailing.
I'm annoyed to find that I don't really have a good photo for you that gives an overall impression of the hotel. This shows some of the rooms, which were in an arc enclosing a central area with an extensive pool (you can see it in the aerial photo), the sumptious dining room with its many buffet stations, the lunchtime poolside cafe and bar, the stage on which musicians were frequently playing for us. Ah well. You'll just have to take my word for it, or go see for yourself.
After lunch, I took a stroll to the edge of the falls, just to get a first taste. As splendid as I remembered them.
While Livingstone, the falls notwithstanding, didn't have all that the bush had to offer, it was very nice to have a little time at the end of the trip to "wind down". My journey home wasn't trivial, and others had horrific odysseys ahead of them... 44 hours for some. And, as you will see, while not getting up close and personal with lions, we were hardly idle in Livingstone!
I forgot, on the ground, to take any good photographs giving an overview of the hotel, but fortunately, I did take a picture of it from the air! (I'll explain how I happened to be over the hotel later.) The yellow arrow shows you the way to the falls, and the yellow dot marks my room.
On the other hand, I have almost too many photos of the small details which abounded to delight the eye, herewith a selection. The sign by the croc by the pool says "Pool is restricted to residents only." Wouldn't it be fun to add the word "human" to that?
Back to the falls! They were, after all, what brought us here!
If you go to southern Africa at the end of the dry season for the advantages that brings you in terms of seeing wildlife, you can't expect to see Victoria Falls, or Mosi-oa-Tunya, "the smoke that thunders", at their annual peak! However, you will see more than an overwhelming wall of water and mist!
The "smoke" name, by the way, arises because of the unusual form the water channel takes. Whereas most waterfalls "fall and flow", at Victoria Falls, the water "falls and blows"... upward. There's a strong circulation of air, carrying mist, up the side of the chasm opposite the wall the water is falling down. Even when we were there, during limited flow, we could see the "smoke" rising up into the air above the chasm.
Forgive the column of text plus two columns of photos layout here. I have my reasons! Have a look at the face of the cliff first. Impressive, no? This face is behind the cataract when the river is higher.
Now notes on the photos in the middle column.
The little bird is a blue waxwing.
The pretty tree was actually at Chitabe, in Botswana.
The bridge spans the channel that drains the crack that the the falls drop into. Half of it is in Zambia, half in Zimbabwe. It is where you can go bungee jumping, if you are so inclined. Two people died in its construction: One worker, and the chief engineer. It was build from both sides, to meet in the middle. Very near the time the two sides were to be joined, it appeared that a terrible mistake had been made... they didn't line up. The engineer committed suicide. Tragic? Wait for the twist: The next morning, after effect of the day's sun on the bridge had drained away into the cool of the night, the two critical members lined up properly. A very sad tale.
And finally, a gorgeous mantis Carol found for me. There's a more detailled photo of him later.
Before you look at the next picture, look again at photo above of the face of the cliff the falls cascade down. Try to get an idea of how big it is.
Does this help? It's a detail of the top of the earlier photo. Those are people you can see if you look closely. I saw peopl eover on that side the first time I was here, and thought "That looks fun!" I didn't realize that this time I'd be over there myself! More anon.
On 5th November, we had a good day, but a little more relaxed than some of our days in the bush. We'd earned a semi-rest day!
In the morning we paid a "proper" visit to the falls, and then went into town to visit the Livingstone museum. It was really excellent, and we were given a guided tour by one of the curators. It had galleries on geology, biology, ethnology, anthropology, the history of Zambia and, of course, Dr. David Livingstone.
A goodly number of letters he wrote were wonderfully mounted for the visitor's enjoyment. The actual letters, not photocopies. They were "pressed" between plates of glass, and mounted in beautiful wooden cases that let you pull one at a time out for perusal. Reading the stories of the explorer's expeditions was fascinating. One passage I found recounted the death of one of the party to fever, and the arrangements which followed.
In the evening, we went on a very pleasant cruise up the river above the falls. It was on the African Queen, which I'm pretty sure was the same boat I did the same thing on my other trip to Africa! Ironically, it was one of the last events of Africa '08, and one of the first of Africa '04. (Note for fellow participants: Yes, that's C and J in the silhouette photo.)
On the 6th, our last day, a number of us availed ourselves of excursions booked through the hotel, rather than by Cornell Adult University. Someone, as always, helped us... but the "deal" was between us and the adventure supplier.
I started the day by going to our neighbour upstream, the Royal Livingstone. It was fun to see it again... it is where I stayed the other time I was at Victoria Falls.
From their landing on the river, we set off in a small boat to "Livingstone Island", for breakfast, a rather nice Eggs Benedict. What I hadn't realised was that a swim before breakfast was also possible. While I hadn't come dressed for swimming, it was still fun to wade in the waters at the edge of the drop. (EDIT: Expand text?)
Next, three of us went up for a quick tour of the area above the falls in a nice little helicopter. (EDIT: Expland text?)
And, grand finale of the trip, many of us went off and visited some domesticated elephants, going for a "game drive" on elephant back. (EDIT: Expand text.) After the ride, we got a little time to interact with the ellies, which was a great treat.
A sumptuous final meal together in the Zambezi Sun's fine dining room brought the day to a close.
The morning of the 7th, we left the hotel at a sensible hour. I'd started the day with an early stroll down to the falls for one last viewing, and photography in the good early morning light. We took a 1:15 flight from Lusaka down to Johannesburg where we didn't even have to leave the airport before catching our various flights home. (EDIT: Expand?)
A very successful trip!
The litter bins in the hotel grounds had "paddle wheels" in the opening at the top. thwarted the monkeys, but they didn't give up trying to find a way to get past them.
The flower of the vine from which curare was extracted prior to its industrial synthesis.....
Gorgeous mantis Carol found for me. You can see another picture of him elsewhere on the back of my hand, giving the scale. Length about 3 inches.
Heuglin's robin, Cossypha heuglini. I photographed this bird at the east end of the falls... the same place I took a similar photo in 2004!
© TK Boyd 11/08. Click here to contact him.