The Smoke that Thunders

Our short drive to Livingstone, still had the oil alarm (now disconnect) going off because Tongai had not located a decent mechanic, much less one that actually had the part and did not have to order it from South Africa.  So when we arrived we got dropped off to have some lunch and check out the lodge/campground, while he had the car looked at again.  Around 4:00 he came back, once again without finding a mechanic, to take us out to Victoria Falls.

I do not have words to describe the Victoria Falls.  The locals call it the Smoke that Thunders, because where the water falls you can not see the bottom and there is a permanent rain cloud hanging in the air.  I had been told that most of the water goes over the Zimbabwean side, and that often you do not get a good feel for how big it is from Zambia.  However, we were here in the wet season, or high water as it is called at the falls.  This means that the entire 1.7 km (1 mile) face of the Victoria Falls has water rushing over it.  Enough so that at no point could we see the 100 meters (350 feet) down to the bottom.  The sight is absolutely incredible.  We spent over two hours walking through the rain cloud just mesmerized by the falls.

I do not have words to describe the Victoria Falls. The locals call it the Smoke that Thunders

One of the things that really struck me was that this huge rip in the river was not at the edge of a cliff overlooking a vast plain.  But rather it is almost like someone drove a huge shovel down into the ground and separated the cliff where the river falls from the cliff on the other side.  All of the water falls down into the crack, and then drains from this hole through a narrow opening.  You really just have to look at the pictures to understand.  Apparently the falls have moved 8 times in the past leaving behind a series of tall cliffs with a river snaking between them.

Obviously with that much water in the air there were rainbows everywhere.  Ones that went over the falls, ones that plunged deep into the white cloud at the bottom.  It was great to walk around in the rain taking pictures, because around every corner the view seemed to get better.  Only to have the wind shift and blow the the cloud back over you and have everything fade away into the mist.  The only thing that cause the day not to be perfect was I lost Michelle or Michelle lost me.  I thought we would meet up at the bridge, but she did not hear me over the roar of the falls.  So we searched for each other on the cliff for nearly a half hour, before we found each other and headed back to get some dinner.

Our last dinner was a repeat of the first day with a massive meal of steaks, sausage, stew, corn meal, and potatoes.  We talked Tongai and Issac to sit down and roast marshmallows with us around our little camp fire.  We had a good last night together.  The next morning however, it was wake up early because Tongai and Issac had a 9 hour drive back and were anxious to get moving.  So we were rushed along and dropped off at our hostel in Livingstone, as they headed back to Windhoek.

We spend the day getting a little organized and relaxing after spending the previous week of traveling nearly every day and keeping a pretty busy schedule.  Plus since Michelle just wanted to rest in a real bed since she had been sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag.  So we hung around the hotel in the morning, before we decided to go use the internet, which was so slow, it was like being back in the days of 14.4 modems and crumby dial up connections.  Anyways we did not do too bad as at least we were able to check our e-mail the person sitting next to us had spent an hour at a different place and never even got her e-mail open.

That afternoon we decided to have a little adventure.  Rather than going to Zibabwe to see a better view of the falls we instead opted for a helicoter ride over them, considering they were the same price.  The flight was amazing, well at least for me.  Our pilot was gentily lifting us off the ground when he thrust the stick forward and left our stomachs behind.  Michelle was a little sick for the rest of the trip but tried hard to enjoy the view.

The view was fantastic you could see the whole width of the falls tumbling down over the cliff.  You could also see the eight previous incarnations of Victora Falls as they formed the gorges which the river drained through.  The power of the falls was amazing as you could see the huge size of the cloud of water being pushed up into the sky.  We did two circles where we had to look out the oposite window, then we did two more where we got an up close view.  I was amazed by the shear size when I stood in front of it, but I was blow away by the scope when you could see the whole thing from above.

The next day we woke up early with a desire to tame the mighty Zambezi River, the one that plunges over Victora Falls.  The only way to do this is to hop into a small inflatable raft and try to run through the water at the bottom of the falls.  But since this is "High Water" Season all of the rapids move up a class or two, so the ones under the falls (1-9) typically class IV and V are now just unsafe so we were not allowed to go there.  But we did get to start at 10 and go to 25 through a number of difficult rapids.

So we headed back to the resort/campsite we had stayed at with Tongai to meet up with the other four people we would be rafting with.  It turns out that they are a group that is traveling with their own vehicle from South Africa to Tanzania.  The were two couple Dominic and Peta and Anges and Annie.  We had infact crossed paths on our cruise in Chobe and they were camping across from us our last night with Tongai.  Small world, huh.

So breakfast and the safty talk done with we headed out in the back of one of the safari trucks to Rapid 10 where we would be starting.  Here we got another safty talk before we climbed down the cliff to the river.  This was not an easy task, we had to climb down one of the old water falls nearly 150 meters to get to the river.  At first the path started easy but it quickly detorated to a home made ladder built from the branches of trees lying on the ground.  It was too steep to walk down, but not steep enough that you could climb down like a ladder.  So it was kind of like walking a balance beam down with little cross pieces every now and then to help you.  Needless to say it was a lot of work and we were all hot by the time we got down to the river.

The rapids started out easy enough, we mostly paddled to a point then held on and let the river whip us through.  It was a lot different than other rafting trips I had been on as instead of powering through the rapids, we tried to dodge and ride them out.  I guess this is because of the huge amount of water coming through apparently there were places where the water was over 200 feet deep.

Anyways our disappointment at not meeting the rapids head on was soon removed because we started to get to rapids with names like Terminator 1, 2 and 3 and the Eliminator.  All class V rapids, we managed to capsize twice.  The first time I was in the back corner and we went up one of the standing waves with the oposite corner.  We did not have the speed to crest the wave and rather started to slide back down and the raft flipped over on my head.  I was momentarily stuck under the raft, but everyone else managed to hang on.  Three rapids latter we did it again, this time however, there was no doubt we were going over.  The raft was in horible position for the wave and we hit it broadside, tossing us over very quickly.  This time Michelle was the one stuck under the raft.  I tried to pull her out by her paddle but she just let go.  When she finally got out she was a little shaken by the experience, but our guide was already flipping the raft back over and Michelle lost her grip and started to drift away.  I let go and helped her to our safety kayak where we waited for a raft pickup.

After this big ones it was a series of small ones the rest of the way.  We even got to try floating through one using only our life jackets.  Of course when he offered this I was the first person in.  Michelle followed about five minutes after when she saw the fun we were having and some of the shock of being stuck under the boat had worn off.  Anyways, suprisingly she came shooting down the river catching up with the group very quickly.

After a long day of paddling, swimming and flipping the raft back over, we were all exhausted and very glad that the jet boating company had put in a cable car at the end to lift us out and save us the long walk.  We had some beers in the car on the day back to the lodge where we had some lunch.

We went to the internet when we got back because Michelle had just found out the night before that while we were on our trip across Africa her school had sent a letter telling her she had one week to respond if she wanted her job when she got back.  The week was already up and she was panicing because she could not reach anyone at the school.  This minor drama had been going on the entire time we spent in Livingstone, one of the few places that had an internet connection even if it was so slow.  Fortunately I think between the phone calls, e-mails, fax and neighbor and parential involvement we got the issue resolved.   Thanks to everyone who helped.

After dinner that night we decided to take advantage of a rare opportunity to see a Lunar Rainbow at the falls.  This can only been seen at the full moon, and for most of the year is only visible from Zimbabwe so we were really lucky to be able to see it.

Seeing the falls at night with no lights on it was really wierd.  It was almost like seeing it in black and white.  When we first arrived we could not see the rainbow so we had to walk down until we were looking eye to eye with the falls then we could see it arching over the bridge.  We walked all the way to the end where we could see a second one heading out to the heart of the falls.

We woke up the next morning to head towards eastern Zambia.

Bill