The smoke that thunders

"The smoke that thunders" or Mosi-oa-Tunya, is what the locals call Victoria falls and it certainly lives up to its name! Even though we're approaching the winter/dry season in Zambia, Josh and I were lucky to catch the falls when it was still huge and thundering.

The falls are about 1.7km wide when the river is flowing at it's peak and are 360 feet high. The mist from the falls was just huge! I can't imagine what it's like during the middle of rainy season.

We had 3 lovely days down in Livingstone, the town named after the Scottish explorer who is believed to be the first European to set eyes on the falls. We were able to live it up and stay at a place right near the falls by using my local address and cell # for a "resident's discount." This allowed us to walk to the falls, located 500 meters down a path from our room, a few different times. We had the chance to see them at different times of the day and I think both Josh and I agree that the last time we went was the best...it was early in the morning before we left on our last day and we caught a nice rainbow arching of the falls (picture above). From the Zambian side of the falls, you can get super close and compeletely drenched as you walk across the "Knife's edge bridge" to a tip of land that juts out towards the face of the falls. Josh and I got soaked the first day we went down and luckily had some plastic bags to wrap our cameras in. Being so close, you can't see the entire falls unless you get up into the air by helicopter or ultralight, but even the quarter of the falls we could get a glimpse of were quite breathtaking.

Sadly, we never saw the falls from above, at $130 per person for a 15 min ultralight flight we decided we'll save that for a time when we have extra money to burn someday. But we did walk across the border to another bridge that divides Zambia and Zimbabwe and saw the falls from across the canyon, which afforded a wider view as you'll see from a picture below...

On Friday, we did a whitewater rafting trip on the zambezi river below the falls. Not only are the falls themselves beautiful, but the canyon and gorge that has been created below the falls is also magnificent. Most of the rapids were class II and and III at this time of year b/c the water is still high. There was one class V that we capsized on and I think I drank half of the zambezi river at one point when I got stuck under the raft for quite a while. Nothing like the sense of drowning to get your adrenalin to kick in! Happily, we made it out in one piece. :)

We also spent a day in Botswana doing a river cruise and game drive in Chobe national park (only 1 1/2 hrs from the falls).... I never expected to see so many animals!! It was really neat, expecially for this Discovery channel/Animal planet nerd :). The park is known for having an abundance of wildlife, including elephants, hippos, crocs, giraffe, all sorts of antelope, lions, and on and on. The guides said the only two species missing from the area are cheetahs (b/c there are too many trees and not enough open space for chasing game) and rhinos (due to poaching).

It was a great few days and we were sad when it was up.....Alas, we'll both be back in DC soon!

My time here is sadly almost over - I leave on Friday to head back home.

And for Josh, I think more than 3 days in one time zone will be a welcome relief...we just counted and he's been to 8 countries in the last few weeks: England, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Zambia, Botswana, Italy, and Zimbabwe (if you count walking over the bridge for 5 min, haha :)).

I'll have another post or 2 from my last week here so stay tuned!

Soaking wet after running across the knife edge bridge

Looking across at the falls from a bridge crossing into Zimbabwe.

On the Chobe river in Bostwana. We caught a herd of female and baby elephants coming down for their first drink of the day.

Sunset cruise on the Zambezi river above the falls.

Our last morning at the falls...sad to leave!