Cataract Island

Yesterday we were quite exhausted when we finally arrived at our accommodation, a two bedroom house we were renting for three nights. A bit later than we did, Likumbi, a friend and colleague of Anne, arrived from Lusaka to join us. We spent the evening getting to know each other a bit better over an Indian dinner, where, as is typical for Indian food, we completely overordered and took home about half of what we had ordered.

Today, we had scheduled for visiting the Victoria Falls, considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world. They are the widest falls on the planet at 1700m, and the masses of water thunder down with immense power, especially at this time of year. Hence their local name - Mosi-oa-tunya, meaning "the smoke that thunders". The falls can be admired from two different sides, one from Zimbabwe and the other from Zambia. We decided to start out the day by driving over to the Zimbabwean side, which is known for having bigger chunks of the falls visible.

At the border crossing, we had a rude awakening. Likumbi, a Zambian local, was not allowed to cross without her passport (which she had forgotten at home), and we would have to pay a fee of 30 USD per person, cash and in US currency, for our visas, which we had to get even though we were only planning to visit for a few hours. We had been largely unaware of this visa requirement, but decided that we would probably not be back in the area of the falls for quite some years, so decided to go for it. Likumbi chose to stay behind and let us proceed without her while she sorted out some errands over the phone.

The first challenge was getting the cash. When traveling in areas with unstable currencies, I always carry 40 USD cash in my wallet to get me out of sticky situations should the need arise. Those came in handy now, and the remaining 20 USD we had to exchange with a border taxi driver at a rather questionable exchange rate. Since we didn't have the car with us, we were walking into the country - a simple feat because the entrance to the falls was just a few hundred meters behind the border. We came upon the national park entrance and were a bit confused. The park was called the Rainforest Park.

After some checking we confirmed that we were indeed at the place from where we could see the Vic Falls, and we also learned that we would have to pay another 30 USD per person park entrance fees - but this time card payments were accepted, fortunately. We didn't have to follow the path for long until we came upon the falls. Well, the first part of it at least. We were fully decked out in our rain gear, and for the better - we got really wet, really fast.

What we could see of the falls was very impressive. Enormous amounts of water falling down into the canyon below. Visibility was rather hit and miss, we were only regaled with sparse glimpses of the enormity of the falls. Usually we could only see a part of it for a few seconds at a time. But those were enough to inspire awe in us from seeing the raw powers of nature unleashed. At some point we were unable to determine if the wetness we experienced came from above or below. Was it raining heavily? Was the mist being pushed up? Did the mist fly up and then got pushed down by rain, doubling the intensity? There was no way to tell, but we did get very very wet.

The park was nicely arranged with a circular walkway, offering great views of everything. Once we had completed the loop, we walked back toward Zambia to meet up with Likumbi at the car, which was parked in the no man's land between the countries. And so, just two hours after acquiring the nice visa sticker in our passports, they were invalidated again by our emigration.Read more