Victoria Falls

Overview

We visited Zimbabwe for 2 nights before heading to Botswana. This short part of our trip was better than we expected on both counts — as a safari introduction and as a way to see the mighty Victoria Falls.

We arrived by air from Cape Town (with a stop at Kruger airport) to Victoria Falls airport. A 15-minute car transfer took us, with a brief glimpse at the local town, to a boat dock and then a 20-minute boat transfer upriver to our home for 2 nights, the Old Drift Lodge. We didn’t see a lot of animals in that first 20 minutes but it felt like we were “in the wild”.

Approaching Old Drift for the first time.

On check-in, we saw an elephant just mellowly munching on tree branches 50 yards from the hotel lobby — quite the intro.

This elephant greeted us, 20 yards from the lobby of our Zimbabwe lodge, immediately as we arrived Saturday afternoon. A strong start.

We unpacked and then had a 2–3 hour boat safari on the Zambezi — seeing kudu, elephants, a monitor lizard digging a nest, crocodiles, a baby hippo with its parents. Our guide/captain knew a great spot on the river to anchor for sunset. Lovely end to our first day “in the bush”.

Our lodge was on the Zambezi river, and we did a sunset cruise just after arriving. This is a baby hippo learning to swim in the river. The father was nearby and gave an impressive bellow to let us know not to get closer.

Day 2 our priority was Victoria Falls, which the guides recommended visiting in the afternoon. That left the morning for our first game drive. We had low expectations — the Old Drift’s surroundings are dry and dusty compared to the Okavango — but the lodge sits inside Zambezi National Park, and we saw elephants, giraffes, baboons, and cape buffalo in that one morning.

Our morning morning game drive featured more elephants than we can count. This juvenile is learning to flap its ears to look threatening.

Partway through, our guide pulled over right at the river’s edge for a coffee break. I asked him why it was safe to be standing next to a crocodile- and hippo-infested river. I’m not sure the answer was satisfactory, but it was lovely.

Coffee break on the Zambezi river. It was winter in early August -- probably 40s when we started, but 60s by late morning. — Coffee break on the Zambezi river. It was winter in early August — probably 40s when we started, but 60s by late morning.

One afternoon moment worth mentioning separately: we needed to leave our room to get back to the main lodge, but a young male elephant was on our porch. We decided to wait, just a little while. When we finally opened the front door, he turned toward us aggressively. Later he was doing not-very-subtle charging behavior at our friends in the next room over.

We needed to leave our room to get back to the main lodge building ... but this elephant had other ideas. — We needed to leave our room to get back to the main lodge building … but this elephant had other ideas.

Victoria Falls

The afternoon was Victoria Falls. About a 25-minute drive to the park, then 3 hours of walking. It’s one of Africa’s best-known tourist attractions, and certainly a bit of a shock to come into a parking lot filled with buses and vans. But once in the park, the crowds were spread out enough that it wasn’t unpleasant.

It’s not long after you start that you hear the rumble — in the local language the falls are known as Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning “the smoke that thunders”, which sounds considerably better than “Victoria”, and gives a sense of just how powerful and loud it is.

We could include 20 pictures just of the rainbows coming out of the falls. We were not at the highest water time of year (that's April, end of the rainy season), but I'm glad we saw it in August -- the waterfall was nearly invisible in many spots due to the mist, and evidently that's even more true at higher water. — We could include 20 pictures just of the rainbows coming out of the falls. We were not at the highest water time of year (that’s April, end of the rainy season), but I’m glad we saw it in August — the waterfall was nearly invisible in many spots due to the mist, and evidently that’s even more true at higher water.

The guides were right about the afternoon — the rainbows were real and they were everywhere. Tiffany was moved to tears at the first viewpoint.

That reaction surprised neither of us after a few minutes standing there. The scale of the falls is in a different category.

Victoria Falls is often described as the largest waterfall in the world when width and height are combined. The falls stretch more than a mile across the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

From the Zimbabwe side you walk a series of viewpoints along the entire length. Each viewpoint shows only a small portion of the falls — maybe 25–30% at most — so the experience unfolds gradually as you move along the path.

There’s no single ground viewpoint that captures the whole thing.

It’s an option to fly over the falls by helicopter to see all of the falls at once. While we appreciate how incredible the views are from “up there”, our comfort level with helicopters is such that … we passed. Maybe next time.

This spot in particular was drenching.... — This spot in particular was drenching….

Where We Stayed

The Old Drift Lodge sits right on the mighty Zambezi, about 10 miles upstream from the falls, with beautiful views from the common area and each lodge room. We thought of this stop, improperly as it turns out, as “just a place to stay” while visiting Victoria Falls. It really was an excellent introduction to African safari life.