I was told to go take a hike...: Victoria Falls and Livingstone, Zambia

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted something but I haven’t had internet for the last week. Right now, I’m in Lilongwe and will be here for the next five weeks volunteering. I’ll post about that once I start but until then I’ll post about Victoria Falls now and about my last week in Nkhata Bay later in the week. For now, here is about my trip to Victoria Falls; Livingstone, Zambia; and getting Stephanie to the airport so she can head back home to Texas.

On Tuesday May 9th, Steph and I flew from Lilongwe, Malawi to Livingstone, Zambia via Lusaka (the capital of Zambia) on 15-20 seat propeller planes. I’ve never been on such a small commercial plane and it was a wild ride. We got to walk on the tarmac to and from the plane and it seemed as if the pilots were fighting to keep the plane from skidding out when we landed. There weren’t many on the plane, but I did meet the defense attache for the American ambassador to Zambia one of the flights. It was interesting to talk with him about what he does and what it’s like living in Zambia. We got into Livingstone mid-afternoon, picked up by our hostel (Jollyboys), and settled in.

The whole point of the town of Livingstone is to serve as a tourist place for Victoria Falls, one of the seven wonders of the natural world. On Wednesday, we saw Livingstone, went on an hour long town tour organized by the hostel, the Livingstone Museum (focus is on Zambian history and people and the famous Dr. David Livingstone), and figured out what we wanted to do for the rest of the week. By chance, this was during a full moon so along with two people we met at the hostel, we headed to see the lunar rainbow (aka moonbow). A moonbow is a rainbow made by moonlight, and it only happens at Vic Falls near the full moon. After some drinks a nice hotel on the Zambezi River (the river that feeds the falls), we headed to the falls. It took about an hour after it was dark to really see the moonbow. It is hard to get a picture of it (but see below for the best one we got) but it looks like a very ethereal rainbow. You can see it but you can’t really see much detail with it.

On Thursday, we back to the falls to see it during the day. This was one of my favorite places in the world! It somewhere where you can spend hours soaking in views, scenery, and power of the waterfall. It reminds me of Yosemite Valley, the Alhambra, Machu Picchu, Stonehenge, or Crater Lake because these are all places you can visit time after time and never get tired of seeing them. This time of year the falls are running at full capacity so it is difficult to actually see or get a good picture because of all the mist that is churned up. In the local language, Victoria Falls is known as “Mosi-oe-tunya” or “the smoke that thunders” and the mist definitely looks like smoke and it definitely sounds like thunder. The falls are so big that we saw them when we flew in and from some places around Livingstone.

We walked all around the national park to experience the falls and get good views. One trail you walk on a bridge that goes right through the the middle of the mist. As a result you get soaked, and it feels like you are walking through a rainstorm. It was truly crazy to do this trail because of how wet and misty it was.

Next, we walked on the Victoria Fall bridge, saw some people bungee jump off it, and even got to cross over into Zimbabwe, though unofficially. It is cool because you get to experience the ruggedness of the canyon that houses the Zambezi river below the falls and see how fast and how much water flows through the river. After exploring the bridge, we went for drinks at the Royal Livingstone Hotel which is a premium hotel located right next to the falls. We saw giraffe and zebras in the grounds of the hotel and had drinks right next to the river. It was well worth the $4.50 beer for the views and animals.

Our last day in Livingstone was spent exploring Livingstone some more and getting ready for our bus ride to Lusaka the next day. Steph had her flight back to Texas on Sunday out of Lusaka so we needed to get her there via a 8 or 9 hour bus ride.

This is more or less the partial week spent in Livingstone so enjoy the pictures of it below. I will post of my three day bus trip to Malawi and time in Nkhata Bay later in the week.