Thursday, 12 June 2025
Victoria Falls is one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage site and this morning we set out to explore this incredible location on foot. Dressing for our excursion, we both opted to wear shorts on the basis that legs dry faster than long pants. To complete my ensemble I donned my waterproof (Gore-Tex) hiking boots by Merrell and Bernie strapped on his trusty Teva sandals. Our guide, Fenella, picked us up from the hotel and ferried us the short distance to the entrance to Victoria Falls, where we were issued with navy blue plastic raincoats or, in the case of some, rain ponchos. Cathy’s was a fetching red, David’s was bright blue and Mandy’s was camouflage.
Setting out with Fenella, our walking tour took us to various vantage points from which to view this natural phenomenon. Facing the Zambian side, each viewing point afforded a different perspective of the falls. Although there was a limited view from the main path, most of us safely negotiated 38 steps to reach Cataract View, which provided us with a great vantage point from which to see the Devil’s Cataract. We walked further along the path, to the statue commemorating David Livingstone, Scottish physician, missionary and renowned explorer of the African continent, who may or may not have been the first European to see the mighty falls on the Zambezi River. Although given this credit, there is doubt as to its veracity! He did, however, bestow the name of Victoria Falls, in honour of Queen Victoria.
A little further along the path we found ourselves looking across the Devil’s Cataract to Cataract Island. Looking from Zimbabwe towards Zambia, the Devil’s Cataract marks the westernmost (left) side of the falls. We re-traced our steps along the main path, venturing into all the viewing points on our left to view the Main Falls, Livingstone Island, Horseshoe Falls and Rainbow Falls, all obscured by varying degrees of mist thrown up by the falls thundering down into the gorge.
As we made our way around Danger Point to ‘view’ Armchair Falls, the Eastern Cataract (easternmost point), Knife Edge and the Boiling Pot, the light mist became akin to a tropical downpour. Well, there are nearly 550 million litres of water cascading 70-108 metres into the chasm every minute and, quite a bit of that bouncing back up into the atmosphere! It was at this point that the Achilles heel of my waterproof hiking boots was discovered. It’s the hole that my foot goes into! The torrential ‘rain’ quickly soaked my socks which conducted buckets full of water to the inside my boots, so that I was squidging around in water filled footwear. Unpleasant! Bernie, on the other hand, was grinning in his wash ‘n’ wear sandals.
I should have given my sandals their first outing for the holiday but … didn’t. Oops, wrong choice, with twenty-twenty hindsight and all that. To add insult to injury we couldn’t see anything from this viewpoint!! Debbie was the only one with any sense, opting to stay on the main path in the relative dry, rather than take the Danger Point loop. Note to future self viewing BIG waterfalls: wear waterproof overpants that cover the top of my waterproof boots or, at the very least, some waterproof gaiters. Or, maybe, just join Bernie in sandals!
From Danger Point we squelched our way to the final viewpoint that overlooks Victoria Falls Bridge, before slogging our way through the rainforest (supported by all the ‘rain’ from the falls) in our water logged shoes back to the entry point. All very wet, but exhilarated from seeing the immense power of these falls. We have now visited Niagara Falls (1997), Iguazu Falls (2016) and Victoria Falls (2025) but … we still haven’t seen the tallest falls, Angel Falls in Venezuela. Gotta have something on the list to aspire to, eh??!
After we handed our glamorous plastic raincoats back, our tour of Victoria Falls was at an end. Fenella, handed us back to Wian for our next activity, an under-the-bridge walk. One member of our group decided that this activity was not for her so Wian set her up at a cafe while he took the rest of across into Zambia. We all had our passports on us, as per Wian’s instructions but, today, the border officials did not ask for our passports. Wian had told us it’s a bit of a 50/50 proposition whether they insist on seeing passports or not.
We walked across the bridge to the Zambian end where Wian left us with our hostess, Namu, while he re-crossed to Zimbabwe to take Marilyn back to the hotel. After a short introduction, Namu introduced us to Mr Georges Imbault, the Chief Construction Engineer who helped build the famous Victoria Falls Bridge. Well, an actor playing that role given that Mr Georges Imbault would be 148 years old if he were still alive!
Georges took us back in time to 1904-05 and told us tales of how this amazing marvel was built and of the men who built it. Cecil Rhode’s dream was to connect British colonies from the Cape of Good Hope to Cairo via a railway. A bridge at Victoria Falls was a crucial component of this plan that was intended to facilitate transportation and trade in Africa.
Designed by George Andrew Hobson and Ralph Freeman, the bridge was prefabricated in England and assembled on-site. Work commenced on each side of the river with the arches eventually meeting in the middle of the gorge. There was an Aussie connection here, with Ralph Freeman going on to work on the Sydney Harbour Bridge later in his career.
After this entertaining presentation, it was time to be clipped into abseiling harnesses for our under-the-bridge walk. Suddenly seeming very sprightly, Georges and his able assistant, Namu, very efficiently manoevered us into spider’s webs of tape and buckles and carabiners. So glad I didn’t have to work out how to put it on myself! After a short safety briefing, it was time to cross the road and venture down to the area under the bridge’s road/rail platform, where we clipped ourselves onto the safety line with strict instructions that we must remain attached to it at all times.
While we were under the bridge, Georges regaled us with many more facts and figures about the structure, including how the deck was raised and widened 25 years after it was built to provide for road transport. Several members of our group were somewhat challenged by their acrophobia, but everyone completed the crossing under-the-bridge back to Zimbabwe successfully. At the mid-point we stopped to watch the bungee jumpers jumping from the other side of the bridge. Gosh, what would the Edwardians who built the bridge make of their bridge being the jump off point for bungee jumping, bridge swings and zip lining??? Our under-the-bridge walk was the tamest of the activities that were on offer.
From the Zimbabwean side we crossed back to Zambia, where our bridge walk experience concluded, with all of us being helped out of our harnesses, before being presented with our certificates to prove that we had completed the historical bridge tour. Wian asked whether we wanted to eat at the cafe in Zambia or return to the Victoria Falls Hotel for lunch. It was decided that it might be quicker to eat at the cafe. Besides, we didn’t have Zambian stamps placed in our passports BUT, if we ate a meal in Zambia, surely we can claim it as another country visited, can’t we?
We only ordered simple fare for lunch, toasted sandwiches and chips but they took A-G-E-S to arrive at our table. While we waited, some members of the group took off their shoes to wring out their socks and tip water out of their footwear. Others decided to risk trench foot by keeping their sodden socks and shoes on. Bernie kept on smiling in his wash ‘n’ wear sandals, his feet already completely dry.
Eventually our food arrived and, with time running out to make our next activity, helicopter flights over the falls, we scarfed those sandwiches and chips down in record time. Mandy ordered a plate of chips and her plate was almost last to arrive. Not wanting to hold everyone up, Mandy put a serviette in the crown of her hat and tipped the amount of chips she wanted into her improvised bowl and said she could eat on the go. When everyone saw how many chips she was leaving on her plate, we descended on them like a flock of seagulls and polished them off. We didn’t want to leave them for the baboons that were hanging about since feeding the wild life only encourages them to hang around the cafe. Well, that makes it sound more like a public service than gluttony, ha, ha.
Wian set a punishing pace back to the Zimbabwean side of the bridge. We barely had half an hour to get back to the truck, pick Marilyn up from the hotel and then drive to the helipad to make our 2.00pm booking. Aaargh! Back at the car park we piled into the truck, before driving to the hotel car park where Marilyn was getting worried about what had become of us. Then we were tearing towards the helipad on the other side of town. We arrived at the level crossing and, of course, there was a train on it!! It seemed like it was going to be OK, that it had almost completed its crossing, but then it started reversing back over the crossing. Poor Wian, we could just about see his blood pressure rising.
Finally, we were across the level crossing and on our way to the helipad, where we pulled into their car park at 2.05pm. Lucky we were flying with the Zambezi Helicopter Company which is the closest one to town. Even so, Wian was stressed out that we were not going to be able to fly because we were five minutes late. The company was very accommodating. We had booked for 22-minute flights over Victoria Falls and Batoka Gorge, but the company said that we could be accommodated on 25-minute flights (for the price of the 22-minute flight) that would take in the National Park as well. Lucky!
We were then treated like royalty, with all the couples split up to go on separate flights, ha, ha. With our late arrival, we were happy to acquiesce to whatever configuration of passengers the staff wanted us to. Cathy, Mandy and Bernard, with two other random tourists making up the numbers, were first off the ground. Marilyn, Steve and I (plus two) headed out in the next chopper and Bernie flew last with four complete strangers. BUT, we all experienced the wonder and excitement of viewing the falls, Batoka Gorge and elephants in the park from the air. AMAZING!
Phew, after back-to-back-to-back adrenaline packed activities Wian drove us back to the Victoria Falls Hotel where I was finally able to peel off my wet socks and shoes to reveal wrinkly, white toes suffering from their extended period immersed in moisture. Not quite trench foot but … a bit ugly! While my toenails were soft I decided to chop them all off. Meanwhile, Bernie’s feet and toes were lovely and dry and for once in our lives, looking better than mine did. So nice to get my feet dried off and I took to my hiking boots with the hairdryer to try to air them out … until I overheated it.
The last day of our tour had already been HUGE and it wasn’t over yet. We met Wian at 6.00pm for the drive to Chinotimba, the largest and oldest township in Victoria Falls, where the group enjoyed a farewell dinner at Dusty Road. The restaurant is a traditional Zimbabwean restaurant where all the food is cooked in the Zimbabwean way, on open fires and in cast iron pots and ovens for an authentic and tasty culinary experience.
The eclectic restaurant is something of a social enterprise which aims to improve the livelihoods of families in the town through exposure to visitors. The welfare of women, female empowerment and raising the awareness of Zimbabwean culture is at the heart of their enterprise which nourishes its patrons with fresh, seasonal and locally sourced ingredients. Yum!
During dinner, speeches were made. Wian thanking us for being an easy going and punctual group of travellers who had made his job easy. We, in turn, thanked Wian for being a fabulous guide, recognizing that he had worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that our journey and all of our activities ran like clockwork.
We drove back to the hotel and said our final farewells to Wian, who will be setting out to drive back to Windhoek before dawn tomorrow morning, aiming to reach the Namibian border crossing before it opens at 6.00am. He has many hours of driving ahead of him, aiming to reach home about lunchtime on Saturday. And he will be doing it all again when the next Bunnik group arrives the following Friday afternoon. The thing with guiding is that you work, work, work during the tourist season and rest and recover in the off season.
Groan! Back in our room, it was time to re-pack our bags for the long haul back to Melbourne. We have been abstemious with our souvenir shopping, so don’t really have much that we didn’t start with to fit into our luggage. However, why is it that dirty laundry takes up so much more room than clean clothes??? The hairdryer had recovered from my earlier abuse, so I blow dried my hiking boots a bit more, ha, ha. Even so, I think they will still be damp in the toes when I pack them last thing in the morning.
Steps: 6,113 (4.00kms)
Hmmn, I didn’t note my stats on African time (same as GMT) and I absolutely achieved all my goals on Thursday. More than 1,840 kilojoules, more than 30 minutes exercise and more than 10,000 steps BUT now my efforts seem to have been reapportioned between Thursday and Friday according to Australian Eastern Standard Time??
