Devil's Cataract

I was already exhausted when I got on the overnight train to Victoria Falls and after getting very little sleep on the train with it bouncing along the tracks, and noisy shouting from people on the many platforms we stopped at, I was in a worse state by the morning. This was an 'authentic' African experience I could definitely have done without. I got up at around 6am, ate some cold pizza from the previous night and drank some of my fast diminishing water. I had been suffering with a headache since the previous night and couldn't wait to get to Victoria Falls but the train was painfully slow and seemed to stop every few minutes. I mused that it would have been far better to have driven in the truck to the falls.
After a few hours in the very slow train I started to wake up and cheer up. We passed through the Victoria National Park and saw warthogs close by and elephants in the distance before arriving at the station where we walked to our campsite called Victoria Falls Rest Camp. We were pleased to have brunch cooked for us by Often and then had a debrief of the many available activities at Victoria Falls by a lovely local woman called Joy. After this, Joy kindly showed me to a local dentist where I made an appointment to get my broken tooth checked to see if it would last until I returned home to England. I then got my possessions together and walked down to the entrance to Victoria Falls, paid my $30 dollars entry along with my fellow travellers Vincent and Kristin and entered the park. The various views of the falls are numbered and each view became more spectacular as I worked my way along. Enormous quantities of water courses down the river Zambezi and flew off the edge of the falls into a giant dark chasm below. This caused clouds of spray to rise up from the chasm and literally soak us all to the skin. We caught up with more of our fellow travellers, Lauren, Brian and Tigger - we all laughed at how wet we were getting as we worked our way along the falls. The views continued to be awe inspiring all the way along and it was almost incomprehensible how long the falks are and how much water must be continually pouring over them. We saw what they call 'Devil's Piool' on the other side where we would be diving into a pool right on the edge of the falls the following day and peering over the edge. We walked back along the falls by a drier path and saw antelope and a group of warthogs with many young piglets to remind us that we are in a wildlife park. Elephants can also be seen walking down the town's high street to drink in the river.. Walked on over to the other end of the falls where there were more stunning views back up the falls. Here you could get above the river and see it pour over the edge and down into a giant narrow gorge that is over 100 metres deep in places. Lauren and I stayed on to continue looking and taking photos of the falls and were rewarded when the sun came out and we were able to take photos of the rainbow that appeared in the mists of spray created by the falls awesome energy and power. We also walked back down the falls to see again the wonderful views of river tumbling headlong into the giant gorge. We stayed eight up until closing time at 6pm and reluctantly left. On our way out we saw two tame antelope pass close in front of us which was special to see.
On our way out of the Victoria Falls Lauren spotted a sign for the.Lookout Cafe which had been recommended to us by Joy earlier. We walked about 400 metres down a dirt track and eventually found the cafe/restaurant which was beautifully constructed and designed with high vaulted wooden ceilings and decorative lanterns. We were met by a very friendly waiter who showed us to seats with an astonishing view over the river gorge below the falls. We had cocktails and a wonderful dinner while watching the sun go down in the far distance and swifts circle in the sky overhead. The sky slowly darkened and we could see lightning flashes in the distance as stars began to appear in the sky above us. Great 60s Motown music played on the sound system and the whole scene was pretty idyllic.finishing off another wonderful day in the glories that Africa has to offer. We decided to walk back to our campsite using a phone torch to guide our way back down the dirt path. However, as we left we were stopped by a member of staff whi told us that it was dangerous to walk there at night as animals from the park such as elephants and buffalo could be roaming there. We checked with the reustaurant waiter who confirmed it was dangerous. We felt a lot like naive tourists and gratefully accepted the offered lift back to the campsite in a car.
We helped each other put our tents up in the dark, and I got a shower and retired to my tent to write and get an early night ahead of a 5am start to visit the 'Devil's Pool' and swim up to the very edge of the mighty Victoria Falls - Lauren and I couldn't decide earlier who was more daunted by the prospect.Read more