It’s easy to forget you’re in Zimbabwe because it’s a tourist hub. But you’ll be reminded. The immigration office at the border post is a shipping container, there are toilet attendants with buckets of water to help you out because the plumbing is broken, and if someone isn’t selling curios in the middle of the road, there will certainly be a cow. But don’t let any of this deter you, Victoria Falls is a tropical paradise and because so many out of town visitors flock to the falls, there are guards with yellow vests there to look out for your safety. Vendors generally won’t harass you if you tell them politely but firmly that you’re not interested in curios. In fact, I’m told that Victoria falls is nothing like the rest of Zimbabwe. You can’t even compare Victoria Falls with Harare or Bulawayo.
You should know, you’ll be told you can pay by credit card everywhere. That’s incorrect. You need to pay with cash at the border post, and while, yes, almost everyone in town will have the capacity to take credit card payments, you won’t be told until it’s time to pay your bill that the terminal is out of order, and then you’ll need cash. Carry enough cash, and carry small denominations because no one will have change. That’s how you end up paying 100 Rand for a coffee.
Wild Horizons Elephant Sanctuary
One of the first things I wanted to do upon arrival in Victoria Falls was go to the elephant camp. Over the last several weeks I made some good friends, and two of them came with me to the camp. The keepers at the Wild Horizons Elephant Sanctuary explained to us that the elephants were all rescued when their parents were killed in various culling operations in the Zambezi Valley and Hwange National Park in the 1980s.
Wild Horizons keeps three herds of elephants, separating certain elephants from one another for their safety and for ours. For instance, Janet is easily spooked and generally isn’t very accepting of other females, except for her best friend Emily, who on the other hand has a very easygoing nature. These two elephants are hardly ever seen apart!
After meeting the elephants, we got to give them treats. Crumbly pellets of jungle oats and molasses were handed to us in baskets. We were instructed to tell the elephants to put their trunks up or trunks down. Trunk down allowed us to funnel treats into their trunks so they could feed themselves. In response to the trunk up command, the elephants would swing their massive appendages over the backs of their heads. Naledi was very eager, for she kept her trunk up and her mouth gaping wide open expectantly.
The Seventh Natural Wonder of the World
One thing you simply must do in Victoria Falls is enjoy the falls. It’s an additional $50 to enter the park and admire the spray. But you can’t come all this way and say you only ever heard the falls. The Zambezi river forms a natural border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, and from Zimbabwe you can look over the steep gorge and feel the full force of the spray. From Livingstone in neighbouring Zambia, your view will be upriver, and for thrill-seekers, when the water is low you can accompany a guide into one of several rock pools at the edge of the falls and feel it thundering down, down into the gorge below while you rest “safely” against a sheet rock wall.
Personally, not interested. Also, my visa for Zimbabwe is more expensive as a Canadian national than any other passport holder’s, so I had no intention of crossing back and forth between the neighbouring nations and paying twice. That’s my official excuse anyway.
The view from Victoria Falls is spectacular. And in the winter months when the water is high, you’ll get absolutely soaked by the mist. After making our way to just four out of sixteen separate viewpoints by which to experience the full effect of the falls, we were dripping wet and making a game out of running into the mist, roaring with laughter and twirling round and round as the spray soaked us to the bone, and running back out. After a few goes, I had to hold back since everyone had given me their passports to hang on to. We took the opportunity to dry off at the Rainforest Cafe and enjoyed Amarula milkshakes. Pity the vervet monkeys invited themselves to lunch with us, but it’s just one more thing to laugh about.
What Else Can You Do?
After having our fill, the five of us stumbled out the gate already laughing and dripping wet. We acquired a pass that let us venture onto the bridge between the two nations, and waited in the searing heat, chatting to some friendly locals, while two members of our group went ziplining across the gorge. By the time they unclipped, we were delirious from the sticky heat. Everyone was in need of a swim and a siesta. So we trudged back to the lodge, splashed into the pool, and took a nap in the shade under some umbrellas.
That evening, we again ventured out. The Tami Walker Photo Gallery was just around the corner from our lodge and we stopped to admire her work on our way to dinner. Born in Zimbabwe, Tami moved overseas but couldn’t stomach the rat race, so she came back. Her work is exquisite. Gorgeous purple skies and the thundering spray of the falls leap to life from the walls. But for a group of students, admiring her work had to suffice. We capped off our night with dinner at The Three Monkeys and bid each other farewell, promising to meet in Zimbabwe again in two years and carry on trekking. We’ve got our hearts set on the Serengeti, Zanzibar and the mountain gorillas in Uganda next.