May 11: Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls. Not the town, but the falls themselves. The falls
are the result of a sort of crevice across the course of the Zambezi
river. The water falls from eighty to a hundred meters to find
a new course at the bottom of a deeply cut valley. May sees the
high water mark of the Zambezi, and you can see the site of the
falls from miles away. The spray from the falls rises like a huge
cloud of smoke. Before leaving Botswana, we had been told that
we wouldn't be able to see anything through the mist.
After paying admission (once again, payable only in foreign currency),
we start the stroll up to the falls. There's a small museum near
the entrance that looks a lot like a little National Park Service
museum with local curios and mounted examples of trees and wildlife.
Even there, perhaps half a kilometer away, you can hear the falls
and start feeling the spray. The Zimbabwean bank of the river
follows an L shape; the river flows parallel to the upright and
falls right before the crossbar. The path (passing a statue of
Livingston, prompting an obligatory "Dr. Livingston, I presume"
joke) leads to a point a little bit before the angle in the L.
From there, the view is remarkable and not terribly obscured by
the mist. There were also a lot of rainbows.
A partial view of the Falls
Following along the crossbar of the L, however, is where the view
goes from remarkable to awe-inspiring. The path runs through a
patch of what is for all intents a strip of rain forest a few
yards thick, occasionally breaking out into small cleared observation
platforms. From those posts, you can see the entire width of the
falls themselves. Or rather, you could see it if they were narrow
enough to see all at once and if there wasn't a constant mist.
As foretold, there was a heavy spray, indistinguishable from a
heavy rain, which often obscured the falls, but the wind often
cleared the spray, leaving a stunning view. We got soaked and
spend a while back at the entrance drying out, but it was more
than worth it.
After heading back to the house to change into dry clothing, we
went on a mostly fruitless search for Penzo pottery. Penzo, a
brightly colored style, is produced in Zimbabwe and we had been
told that there was a factory outlet in Victoria Falls, but we
appear to have been misinformed. While there, Naomi, Callee, and
Antone took a brief stroll into the adjacent crocodile farm. We
pulled them out when we noticed that you actually had to pay admission
to get in, but there was nevertheless a bit of illicit crocodile
viewing.
We finished the day with a sunset cruise on the Zambezi. It was
terribly, terribly civilized, with a good spread of hors d'ouvres
and many pictures were taken (although not by me; I neglected
to bring a camera). We were also briefly in Zambian waters, bringing
our country count for the trip up to four.