Victoria Falls - Zambia

 My flights

I flew with a low cost airline in South Africa called Kulula very early in the morning from Cape Town airport.  I had checked myself into the nearest hotel to the airport called Road Lodge, at GBP 40 per night.  It was literally a 10 minute walk to the terminal building.  My flight was to Johannesburg where I got a connecting flight with British Airways (code sharing with Kulula) to Livingstone, Zambia.  Johannesburg airport is very modern and large with lots of shops and good restaurants.  They play popular music  over the speaker system in the airport.  Any louder and it would be like a massive disco.

Livingstone Airport, Zambia

The British Airways flight took an hour and 45 minutes to reach Livingstone.  Just before landing, we flew past Victoria Falls and could see a massive plume of smoke (water vapour) rising into the air from the massive Victoria Falls.  It is a sight that I have never seen before in my life.  Zambia from the air looked quite green, covered with low bushes.  The sky was a deep blue and the clouds were ivory white and very high up in the sky, not like the clouds over England which are low and dense.

The airport was tiny, and the heat hit me hard when I walked down the steps of the plane to the airport terminal, which was a small building with a couple of shops and a restaurant.

Zambian Immigration

I had prepared myself for purchasing a double-entry visa by coming with US Dollars.  That is the only currency that they accept for getting Visas.  A single entry visa is US $50 and a double-entry visa is US $80. I needed a double because I was planning on visiting Zimbabwe for the day to visit the falls from the other side.  There were 3 lines for immigration, a line for diplomats, a line for non-payers of visas, meant for South Africans and some other nations that are exempt from paying, and then the line for paying for visas.  I initially stood in the long line for purchasing a visa but then decided that I was going to take my chances and stood in the short visa-exempt line.  The official told me to pay US $80 for my visa but I managed to use my Persian haggling skills and got him to provide me with a double-entry visa for only US $50, saving myself US $30. As the saying goes, a penny saved is a penny earned.

Accommodation

I got picked up at the airport by the driver of a hostel called Jollyboys.  I had booked a couple of nights in one of their dorm rooms.  The ride was only about 10 minutes.  I was met at the hostel by the owner, Kim, a Canadian woman from Vancouver Island.  She was rather grumpy, cold, and patronising, and I felt quite uncomfortable there so just decided to stay for one night and find another place to stay.  After leaving my bags there, I wandered the streets of Livingstone to find an information office to enquire about rooms.  I noticed a European girl walking around and being hassled by the locals.  I caught up with her and it turned out that she was an English girl doing volunteer work around Africa.  She took me to a place where she was renting a room and I liked the look of another room so reserved it for the following night.  I ended up staying there for the rest of my stay in Livingstone.  It was called Comfort Corner Guest House and owned by a pleasant chap called Joseph.  Of course, I haggled with him as well and got the rate of the air-conditioned ensuite room down to US $30 per night plus free continental breakfast.

Livingstone

This town has a population of less than 100,000 people.  It is rather worn-out with buildings that are in need of a facelift and roads that are part asphalt and part dirt and pot-holes and bumps everywhere.  There isn't a downtown area specifically, just a main road that has banks, supermarkets and eateries.  You can also find people, especially women, cooking and selling food on the side of the road, for example, sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob.  I had to remonstrate with a mother to exercise caution, because her infant child was very close the the boiling oil pot which was cooking the sweet potatoes.

The local food there is called Nshema and it is delicious.  It is a dough made from maize.  Accompanying it is a vegetable called Rape, which is a bit like green boiled cabbage.  You can have chicken or beef with it and their juices.  You eat it by hand by mopping it up with the maize dough that you mould into a scoop.  A nice local restaurant off the main street in Livingstone worth visiting is called Aunty Nancy, which is behind the post office.  It is very popular with the locals.  A plate of Nshema will cost you Kwacha 12,000 or just over US $2.  The touristy restaurants will cost 5 times that amount and you won't get food as tasty as that.

Judging from talking to locals, reading the newspapers, and watching the television, Zambia appears to have a very strong Christian culture.  Around 10 days ago, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon visited Zambia and said that there should be acceptance of homosexuality and same sex co-habitation.  There was a massive outcry over his statements with article after article in the papers and letters from people rejecting his views, stating that they are anti-Christian and against the laws of Zambia.  The front page of a major daily even listed the 10 Commandments.  At the same time, Zambia suffers from an HIV epidemic.

Victoria Falls or the local name Mosi-oa-Tunya (The Smoke Which Thunders)

I took a shared taxi from the taxi rank opposite the old Shoprite supemarket in Livingstone to Victoria Falls for 6000 Kwacha.   5000 Kwacha is US $1.  All the taxis are blue in colour and the drivers are all very nice and helpful.  The ride to the entrance of the falls took around 7 minutes along a straight road out of town.

At the entrance, the fee was US $20 but I negotiated it for US $10 and got in.  The roar of the falls could be heard before entering the grounds.  Walking the trail to the falls took me past lots of trees and bushes, and there were baboons running around everywhere.  The sight of the falls was amazing.  Seeing the millions of gallons of water falling over the edge per second and the massive amounts of water vapour rising up and the thunderous noise everywhere was quite moving.  I was so happy that I had been able to see the 4th and last of the major waterfalls of the Earth, the other 3 being Niagara, Angel, and Iguacu.

Victoria Falls is at 70% water capacity this time of year but it has a lot of water vapour which can seriously hinder your view of the falls.  In April/May it is at 100% capacity but it is virtually impossible to see the falls.  They say that the  best time to see the falls is in July/August when it is around 50% capacity but the visibility is very good.  So there is a trade-off between the amount of water and the visibility.  In October/November, the falls are all but dry.  You seriously ought to take a waterproof bag to put all of your valuables in because unless  you go between July and November, you are going to get completely soaked from head to toe.

At the falls, I met a very interesting guy called Johann from Germany, who had left his country and just shown up in Brazil, not knowing anyone.  He bought a piece of farm land in northern Brazil, and met a local girl and married her. They are expecting their first child soon.  Johann is the only person I have met who has also visited all 4 major waterfalls in the world.  We hung out quite a bit after that.

Excursions - Crazy Prices

There are loads of activities to do whilst in Livingstone and they are organised by every accommodation that you stay at.  But the prices are ridiculous.  For example, a 15 minute microlight flight will cost you US $140 and a helicopter flight for the same duration will cost you around US $200 or more.  Every other tour will cost you at least US $120 - 140 each.  So you will be spending a lot of money if you go for these.  I only did one excursion which was the Jet Extreme experience.  The owner, Tony, will pick you up and drive you 40 minutes to a gorge down the Zambezi river where you will go down the gorge in a cable car and then have a 30 minute jet boat ride up and down the river.  He does rapid spins which are between 5-7 G-force.  It goes very fast through the rapids and you get soaking wet.  I was ready to throw up by the end of it.  The highlight of the trip was driving through the beautiful countryside past the traditional villages inhabited by the Tokaleya people who live very simple and removed lives and live off the earth.