Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
After a short flight from Kruger International Airport, I made it to Victoria falls after a slight delay. Because of the delay, I rushed to meet my guide so he could transfer me to my hotel then to the river cruise that was booked. There are a few activities that everyone does when visiting Victoria falls for the first time and one of them is a sunset river cruise. The cruise was on the Zambezi river which is the river that the falls sits on. This river cruise allows you to coast along the top portion of the falls enjoying the sunset and see the animals that are along the river banks. Victoria Falls sits in the middle of a national park, so there is plenty of wildlife around.
The next day, I went for a stroll on the Victoria Falls viewpoint walk. This walk has a bunch of stopping points along the way to allow you to see the falls from different vantage points. Because I’m visiting the falls in the dry season, only 20% of the falls are currently flowing. The peak water flow would be after the wet season in March/April which shows a completely different picture of the falls.
The aerial photos taken from my helicopter tour later that morning really shows how small the percentage of the falls is currently flowing. In the below left photo, you can see a small portion of the falls that is currently flowing. During the peak season the entire cliffside is overflowing with water making Victoria Falls holding the record for the World's largest sheet of falling water. For comparison, Victoria Falls is twice the height and 1.5x the width of Niagara falls.
For some history, over the millions of years Victoria Falls has been “moved” due to erosion. Each of the zig and zags were to have believed at one point in history these were one where the falls stood. As the river flows into the fall it erodes at a particular point and slowly chips away a section of the falls. In the corner of devils falls (the falls to the very left when facing the falls) has a chasm already starting to form. (can be seen in the right below photo) People believe that this is where the next falls will be created in roughly 10,000 years time.
So now that I’ve seen the falls from the ground via the walk, and in the air via helicopter, what’s the next way to see the falls? I obviously have to go to the devil's pool!
Devils pool is a small tide pool located at the top edge of Victoria falls. To get here, you first need to cross the border into Zambia then get on a boat to go to Livingston Island. From here you will need to swim to the pool/edge of the falls. This was an amazing and thrilling experience. The guides that show you how to get there are amazing. Once we got to the island, we changed into our swimsuits and all our valuables were put into a locker that was shared with the group. The only thing we carried was our phones and towels. When it was time for the swim, we left our towels on a rock and gave our phones to one of the guides that placed it into a waterproof bag. We then followed two other guides that showed us the path to the pool. It was a 20 yard swim but we had to swim up current so that we would swim in a straight line and climb over some rocks then you were at the pool. Once we got to the pool, the guides showed us a safe area where we could sit and enjoy the view while each group took their turn getting photos at the edge. The guide that took our phone would take our phone camera and take A LOT of photos. He took over 250 photos and gave me some poses to do as well! Overall the guides were awesome and the experience was super safe. And would recommend it to everyone even if you are not a strong swimmer.
