Victoria Falls

Chris' family has arrived into Victoria Falls, ahead of our tour around Botswana and a tiny bit of Namibia.

Today, we head to the Falls themselves. When Chris' parents, David and Clare, were here 30 years ago, there was little tourist infrastructure. You could just walk right up the Falls, with no barriers or anything.

Things are different now. Nowadays, you have to pay USD35 to get near the waterfall, which just seems outrageously expensive for a natural wonder. We pay up though, since it would be silly not to see the big waterfall if you're in Vic Falls.

Ahead of us in the queue for the tickets, an elderly American traveller is trying to work out the payment system. Since Zimbabwe doesn't have a currency that foreigners can use, most transactions are made in US Dollars. But! The ticket office won't give change. The man therefore has to barter for his ticket. After a lot of back-and-forth, the guy pays for his ticket with a mixture of USD and Botswana Pula. He also gets 3 bottles of Coca Cola in place of change.

In truth, we were a little nervous about the state of Victoria Falls. The media in the UK had reported that there was no water, that the falls were dry. BBC news footage showed videos of the waterfalls with zero water running over it. On the way across to the falls from the Zambian side, we saw rivers that were bone-dry. Had we come all this way, and paid 35 bucks each, to see bare rock faces?

We needn't have worried. The falls were thundering. The cascade was so intense that at one point we sheltered behind a rock, thinking it was raining. We hid for a good few minutes before we ventured out and realised it was just the spray from the falls. The sheer power of the water is unfathomable- and this was the dry season.

Most of the fences stopping you from dropping into the Falls are just prickly thorn branches, twisted into the shape of a fence. At one section, however, there is no fence, and it's possible to lean out over the edge and look into the raging water below. It's a rush.

The next day, we decided to drop into the Falls. To do so, we signed up for the Gorge Swing- a cross between a bungee and a giant swing set. There's a terrifying 70m drop into the falls, before you're caught by the swing and thrown across the river. It is pure adrenaline, and the views from the bottom of the swing are outstanding.Read more