Merry Christmas from Zimbabwe!

Devil's Cataract, Victoria Falls

A few days ago, finding ourselves with a securely-situated boat, safely tied up at the Royal Cape Yacht Club, we rented a car for a few weeks and decided to travel north to the confluence of the Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Zambia borders to check out one of the seven natural wonders of the world:  Victoria Falls.  Like others in that august category, such as the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef, it is impossible to describe or adequately capture on film the magnificence of the Falls, described as the longest sheet of flowing water in the world.  We spent the morning walking up and down the length of the falls, getting periodically drenched by the spray lifting upwards over 100 meters from the bottom of the gorge, and shouting to make ourselves heard over the din of the falls.  Factoid:  the annual water consumption of New York City falls into the gorge every 3.5 days.

The Botswana-Zimbabwe border crossing 

It was a hard drive getting here; Victoria Falls is 2400 kilometers – about 1600 miles – north of Cape Town, through increasingly dry and desolate landscape. We transited two borders – Botswana and Zimbabwe, each crossing requiring us to fill out a myriad of forms for our visas, our computer and camera, and our rental car.  Happily, and consistent with the reports of other travelers, we experienced no requests for “extra” payments – only the slightly bored and somewhat patient interactions of customs and immigration officials the world over. 

The roads were, on the whole, excellent, although as we moved into the more rural areas of Botswana, the highway warning signs focused on the need to watch for wild animals straying on the roads, and, to watch for potholes big enough to swallow a car.  We passed several elephants grazing along the two-lane, undivided highway, and were forced to stop for a group of 9 giraffes crossing the highway in stately leisure. 

Once in Victoria Falls, there were additional warnings about the road conditions.  In fact, my all-time favorite Lonely Planet sentence reads as follows:  “Mugging is not such a problem in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, but at dawn and dusk wild animals such as lions, elephants, and warthogs do roam the streets away from town center, so take taxis at these times.”  We’ve got a rental car, and since we are staying away from town center at the Victoria Falls Backpackers hostel, we drove to a local resort last night to listen to one of Zimbabwe’s finest musicians, Victor Kunonga, play for the well-to-do at the fancy Elephant Hills Resort in a Christmas Eve concert/dance. We kept an eye out for lions, but were spared the need to brake for wildlife.

The Zambezi River; Victoria Falls is just upstream on left

This morning, Christmas morning, we woke early to join a group rafting the mighty Zambezi River.  After a strenuous walk down a 900 foot cliff, we launched the rafts at the base of Victoria Falls, and over the next 5 hours, ran some 25 rapids, including a number of 4, 4+ and 5-rated rapids, as the Zambezi continued its eastward run to the Indian Ocean.  It is fair to say that for Jennifer and me, each experienced rafters, that the Zambezi’s combination of sheer rain forest cliffs on either side, its volume of water (we were the last run before the rainy season’s required cessation of full-river expeditions), and the number and intensity of its rapids made running the Zambezi a top five adventure experience for each of us.  What a way to spend our first Christmas away from our kids – while we miss them dearly, this was a nice way to take our mind off the distance between us this Christmas.  

Of course, we also miss all of our extended family, as well as our friends, and we wish you all a very Merry Christmas from Zimbabwe! 

Some additional pictures of Victoria Falls; once we regain internet access in a few days, we'll post photos and stories from the rafting trip, as well as our upcoming trip to Botswana's Kalahari and Okavango Delta areas.

Main Falls, Victoria Falls; Zambia is on the far shore

Rainbow Falls, Victoria Falls -- to the right of Main Falls

The Zambezi falls into a 1.7 km long crevasse, creating Victoria Falls

Rainbow at Devil's Cataract:  Peace on this glorious Earth!