Marc’s initial reaction to this was that it was completely girly and not a patch on the flying fox, gorge swinging, etc. But we couldn’t be more wrong...
When the two of us, Sally & Belinda arrived at the Royal Livingston Hotel, we knew this was going to be a good trip. We settled down on the veranda of the luxury 5 star hotel, by the river drinking cocktails. Then we jumped on the tiny speed boat over to the island. The next 30 adrenaline filled mins were awesome.
We were welcomed onto the island with a traditional maize meal drink and then went to the EDGE of the falls to take a few pics – this was pretty scary: no safety restraints, nets, even a bunge cord would have been nice. We were just 3 ft from the edge of a 110m drop. It doesn’t sound much – it only takes 10secs to run, but you fall a lot quicker ;) The best was yet to come.
The guide asked us to get into our cozzys and said we were going to sit in a pool on the edge of the falls. Cool, we thought. Not so cool when he said we had to swim there!!! To expand – we had to climb into the Zambezi about 10 mtrs from the EDGE of the falls, swim across the currents heading over the falls, then climb onto the next island (only visible during the low level water season), only to jump off this into our pool. This pool was a MAX of 3mtrs from the edge, and ½ mtr from the sweeping currents that make up a major part of the low season falls. When you jump in you can actually see over the edge of the falls, hoping its not the last thing you ever see!! The guide reassured us, no living thing has ever been lost over the edge… reportedly… well maybe a few cows… but not on his tour ;)
Most of us did the jump, but it was a bit scarey for one, Evelyn ;) Once we were in the pool, you needed a very good friend to hold your legs whilst you peered over the edge, into "The Smoke That Thunders"…. We both did this, trying to see the bottom of the falls, but the mist was so heavy you could only see rainbows in the clouds of mist. We then swam back, which didn’t seem quite as scary now ;)
Throughout our adventure, some mentalist guides were taking photos for us. At the start, we wondered how they would swim across without soaking the cameras – well, they didn’t swim, they jumped between rocks, walked along the edge, without battering an eyelid!! Insane Behavior!!! Whilst our heart beats returned to normal, we had some Pimms, scones and strawberries ;) If the excitement was too much, there was the "loo with a view" – its basically a straw cubical looking over the falls. We then caught the boat back, dodging the hippos coming up as dusk was drawing in.
We sat in the hotel gardens watching the monkeys playing, hippos surfacing, and another beautiful sunset Next day, we saw the falls in the more traditional way, from the safety of the national park in Zambia. With it being low season, Ev got the best views from Zim, though the falls are still very impressive from here. And we got to see Livingstone Island, some rafters and a nutter bungee jumping. We had a few hours here to end our incredible experience at Victoria Falls.
If you want so more stats on the Vic Falls / Smoke that Thunders / Mosi ou Tunya then follow the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Falls
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