Date of Entry: November 18th 2016
Date of Writing: April 17th 2017
I wake up in the beautiful air conditioned coolness of the Rainbow hotel and head down to breakfast for my last goodbyes with the group I’ve spent the last three weeks with. The breakfast buffet is excellent though not quite the level of the one in windhoek. We all say our goodbyes most people flying back to south Africa or somewhere else. I myself have made sure to spend a solid few days in this are with plans to head across the bridge to Zambia today. I’m not done with Victoria falls yet.
Before leaving the hotel I relish every minute of the AC until the 10 am checkout time and then bring my bags down for free storage before heading out on foot to Victoria falls. Just like yesterday the city is full of people begging and selling trinkets on the street. I’ve donated a few of older clothes the night before but the Zimbabweans are very persistent and before you know it I’ve bought some old Zimbabwean dollars from before their huge crash including a 5 billion dollar bill. It’s a weird souvenir trading off a tragedy in their country, but I suppose it has mass appeal and a few american bucks goes a long way to the people here. After half an hour in the stifling heat, I make it back to the falls, today in a better mood with bluer skies, excited for my freedom and what the next three months holds. The falls might not quite be Iguazu at this time of year, but they are amazing.
I take a long pause sitting at one of my favourite viewpoints and pulling out my computer to start a new book which sadly hasn’t progressed much. I need to get back to writing longer fiction as I have lots of Idea, but life and this blog constantly gets in the way. Eventually after a decent first few pages I pick up and continue along the trails.
As I walk along the trails I again find myself imagining the falls in flood season. Guess I’ll have to make it back. The only thing ruining my good mood is the guard rails of the trails painfully set back from the edge of the cliffs, maybe in high water season they are more appropriate but here they are beyond frustrating, and, perhaps foolishly I let the frustration mount, then, waiting for an empty patch on the trail, I vault over the fence and into the woods. (Definitely just made myself sound too athletic.)
The shots above are taken from before leaving the paths, and are nice enough but my bold play turns worth it. I reach the edge of the woods to a section of long grass (wet from the spray) and after some careful examination dash out of my cover as quickly as I can manage safely and head closer and closer to the edge of the cliff, finding a little crevice to hide myself from other viewpoints and edge closer and closer to the cliff edge marvelling as twin rainbows take shape in the chaos of the gorge below. I manage a few rapid fire pictures despite the incredible mists swirling in the air then shield my camera from the water and just lie there looking down from the edge, heart racing. It’s probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done, what with the risk of falling, and of course the risk of going to Zimbabwean jail.
I make my way back up away from the gorge heart still racing, staying low so as not to be seen, and then I’m back into the woods. There’s only one problem, going in I could wait for an empty path before heading into the forest, here there’s no way to see, I just have to emerge on the path and hope no guide or guard is there waiting for me. A few breathless moments later I’m hopping over the low fence and am lucky there’s just a pair of tourists a fair distance away. From here I continue along the paths alongside the gorge to the viewpoints I’ve not yet visited.
As I continue along the trails I look across to the Zambian side where almost all the water falls I see a group making there way out across the rocks, this time not a lone local fisherman but a group of tourists in swimsuits, they’re heading to where I’m going to go the next day, the devil’s pool atop the falls. I snap some pictures of their epic perch and just wish there’d been someone on the other side taking pictures and videos of my adventure earlier today.
As I continue out into the early afternoon sun out to where the falls are only trickles now I still feel exhilarated from y escapade and the incredible beauty of the falls. I snap some photos from the viewpoints and walk singing along to music in my ears now that the rush of the falls has at least partially subsided.
Near the end of the trail in the curb in the gorge I ignore some signs and take a seat on an outcropping rocks just sitting there feeling the earth below the air around me and the falls in the distance. I spend a long time there, despite about 40 degree heat and take pictures for a few others who come and want my seat, one of them does the same for me. It’s an amazing place, now imagine all the rock around me covered in falling water, and yes, I have to come back in flood season.
After maybe 50 minutes I continue along the trail, utterly parched the drinks I bought in town exhausted. I head to the bridge and snap a photo of the border I’ll be crossing later tonight. That done I head back to the main falls for my last hour or so in Zimbabwe watching rainbows form and disappear as the water eternally falls.
Eventually it’s time to go if I’m to have any chance of crossing the border before nightfall tonight. It’s hard to leave the falls though, the rush, the mist, the visual, it’s impossible. It takes me longer than it should but eventually I say my last goodbye to this side of the falls. I walk back into town find some more cool drinks and start to feel sick to my stomach but press forward anyway, picking up my stuff at the rainbow hotel and taking a taxi to the border for somewhere around 6 dollars US. At the border getting out of Zimbabwe is quick and because I’m feeling ill I grab a 2 dollar taxi across the bridge easily. At the Zambian side I wait a while but it’s air conditioned then pay for my visa (about 50 USD) and am on my way. I walk a ways up the road and hop in a shared taxi full of friendly Zambians which drops me right at my awesomely named and equally awesome hostel right near a mall in Livingstone, Fawlty Towers. More Zambian Adventures coming soon.
