Unmissable - natural beauty and adrenaline sports! (Victoria Falls National Park)

Member Name: robkingston

Product:	Victoria Falls National Park
Date:	12/11/01 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Spectacular, A range of adventure sports available

Disadvantages: You'll get very very wet!

First things first - don't be put off by the political unrest in Zimbabwe. I was a little apprehensive before heading out here on my own in June 2001, but It turned out to be one of the friendliest places I've ever been. That's not to say that I didn't think I was going to die (of which more later) - but I'd paid for that experience, so I'm not complaining!

The raison d'etre of Victoria Falls town is, as you would expect, tourism. When you first arrive you will get a lot of hassle from touts trying to sell you everything from rafting trips to wooden hippos. It can get a bit tiresome, but the sales pressure is friendly, not aggressive. In any case, once you've been there a day or two, it seems to die down - it's the new arrivals that get it.

On to the falls themselves, then. Rather than just walking straight down to the park entrance, I recommend taking Parkway road (up towards Elephant Hills hotel) and turning off to the right to the Big Tree (a huge baobab). I was lucky enough to encounter an elephant grazing on the lower branches of this tree - it's one thing coming across an elephant when you're in a safari bus, quite another when you're out walking on the edge of a town!

From here you can continue to the river's edge and curve back round to the right, following the river. In the distance you can see the plume of spray and hear the roar of the falls. You'll probably see more wildlife - warthogs, maybe a few impala - en route too. The national park costs the equivalent of US$20 - but that's calculated at the official exchange rate (about Z$55 to US$1 when I was there). If you change your money at a forex bureau rather than a bank then you can get double this, so entry only costs $10.

And boy is it worth it! No photos can do justice to the falls - they're so huge it's almost impossible to take them all in at once. The river is over a mile wide at this point, and
it plunges over 300ft into a narrow gorge. You will get wet! If you go when the river is at its highest (April - June) the spray is unbelievable - like a constant downpour. In fact, it creates a mini ecosystem - in contrast to the dry bush nearby, in the national park it's lush rainforest. The best vantage point on this side is Danger Point - a slippery outcrop of rock on the lip of the falls. There's no fence or anything boring like that - take care!

That wasn't the scene of my near-death experience, though! The big thing at Vic Falls (apart from the bungee jump, of course) is white-water rafting. Now, I've been rafting a few times before and like to think I'm not easily scared. Vic Falls goes one better - as well as rafting you can go riverboarding. This involves riding the rapids on a tiny little bodyboard (think Baywatch). These rapids are big - Grade 5, the biggest you can ride even in a big raft, and riding them on a bodyboard is just mad. They suck you under, they spit you out and theres nowt you can do about it. But if you survive, you're on an adrenaline high for about a week afterwards!

One final recommendation for Victoria Falls - make sure you see them from the Zambian side. It's no problem to cross the border for a day (don't forget your passport - you have to pay a few quid for a day visa if you don't already have a Zambian visa). Head to this side late in the afternoon, so you can watch the sunset. On the Zambian side you can get right up to the edge of the river, only a few metres from the lip of the falls. At sunset, the river turns to gold, the cloud of spray turns bright pink, and the setting sun is crimson through the mist. It's absolutely beautiful.

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