A queen, some water and angels

Supposedly Livingstone, of the Dr Livingstone, I presume fame was the first honky to see Victoria Falls - and he is reputed to have said that it was a sight so beautiful that it was like seeing angels. Why then he named it after an ugly old hag is anyone's guess !! The locals give the falls a name Mosi o Tunya, which translates as the Thunder that Smokes, paying head to both the booming noise the water makes, and the massive amount of spray the falls throw up - visible from over five kilometres away. The falls make up the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe - each side has half of the river, and there is also one of the few bridges which cross the Zambezi. The water levels were relatively low as the rainy season had only recently started, so it was still possible to walk along the top. Rather than fork out the cash for a tour of the falls we decided to head down there ourselves, Damo, Jeremy a fellow Australian we met at the hostel, and myself and see if we could navigate our way around. Other backpackers had told us about a spot called Angel's Chair, at the top of the falls, which gave spectacular views of the whole show.

We entered the park and after taking a quick look at the falls we followed a path around the side, and then behind the falls. The path came to an end at a small 150 metre long and one brick wide weir. A few touts asked us a ridiculous price to guide us across the top. We waved them off, took off our shoes and began to slowly inch our way along the narrow wall and between the rocks in front of it, both of which were about knee deep under water. Jeremy headed out first and I followed closely behind. Damo took a little more time, delayed perhaps by pausing a moment to admire his recently purchased spiffy waterproof boots - a Ray's Tent City special. Getting and keeping your balance was quite difficult, the wall was narrow and uneven and the pull of the water was strong and variable. No doubt in the back of our minds was the spectre of a waterfall with a drop of over one hundred metres about 30 metres down stream. Damo scrambled along the rocks adjacent to the wall for about 15 metres and then I heard him call out, and I turned to see him trying to regain his balance. He scrambled back on the wall, but had lost one of the precious boots, and the look of indecision on his face as watched the boot float downstream vacillating between jumping in or abandoning the boot was priceless. Fortunately a local about 10 metres downstream noticed what had happened and pulled the boot out of the water as it passed him by. We all headed back to terra firma, and decided that it was probably a good idea to leave our gear at the park office and walk across without carrying anything. We returned to the weir wall and managed to scramble across with only one further swim in the drink - I slipped down the back of the wall and ended up in waist deep water. It was with a great deal of relief that we made it across to the other side and on to one of the islands in the river. We followed the path for a kilometre or so and then came across some fishermen looking for lunch. We continued on for a while longer and realised we had lost the path. As we turned back we came upon Felix, one of the fisherman who asked us if we were lost. When we told him we were, he explained that it was his day off and that he would take us to the Angel's Chair without charge. He advised us to form a line, and hold each other's hand (a tough thing for any true blooded Aussie to do at the best of time) and then proceeded to lead us. We took on the Zambezi, wading through waist deep water, over sharp, slippery rocks, we walked through blade grass and prickle bushes both eager to grab anything going past and we rock hopped jumping from one piece of high ground to another, until our feet were screaming in pain, following the islands of dry and less deep that the seasonal fall in the water levels left. Felix was quite the guide and very knowledgeable about Australia - at one point he sang the entire Skippy theme song, reminding us of a time when Australia used to produce global cultural icons.

After about an hour and a half of walking we began to approach the thunder in the distance. We finally reached the Angel's Chair - a small waterfall in to a large pool perched on the very edge of Victoria Falls. We stripped off and jumped in the water, and immediately felt the current pull us towards the edge. We found a little higher ground right on the edge and looked over at the awesome beauty of more than 100 metres of water falling all around us.

To our immediate left was the Zambian part of the falls, to the right the Zimbabwean part, directly below - more than 100 metres down were the churning waters of the Zambezi. The falls are created by a fault line in the otherwise flat flood plain - there is a gap between two sheer rock walls, standing one side of this gap the other side feels like it is only a stone's throw away. When the wind blows a little, it whips the spray up off the rocks and it rains down on the top of the far rock wall, creating the strange effect of populating the viewing points along the top of the wall with colourful umbrellas. After the water rushes over the edge the only point it has to escape is through a narrow gash in the far rock wall - no more than 15 or 20 metres wide - smack bang in front of us. Racing together from each side of the falls, all the water of the Zambezi squeezes through this narrow channel, causing a thick layer of froth on top of the water as various currents run in to each other as the water searches or the gap to escape.

There are no barriers, wires or even warning notices, which meant we could lie right on the edge of the falls and hang over the edge looking down in to the abyss, whilst feeling the water behind us trying to ceaselessly pull us over the edge. We snapped a few photos, and then dropped our strides at Jeremy's suggestion - he has a tradition of naked photos in spectacular - and who were we to resist. I wonder if anybody taking photos from the other side had a big enough zoom to take some embarrassing photos to put on the internet.

Returning to the point we jumped into the water was a little more difficult as it required jumping off a pile of rocks and swimming against the current that was doing its best to pull us closer and closer to the edge. We all made it across and spent a while frolicking in the waterfall until a few other tourists showed up, and we headed off. The walk back was much easier - perhaps aided by Felix's and our endless renditions of the Skippy theme song. We all made it back across the rockwall and on to firm ground without incident.
We then walked along the other side of the falls, and looked back at where we had been - which only made hanging off the edge all the more ridiculous.