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2026: Into Africa

Livingstone and Victoria Falls

Our only visit to Africa had been our cruise on the river Nile in 2005, so we decided to see a little more of this continent by taking a tour to Victoria Falls, Botswana (as a safari), and South Africa - with Riviera Travel. After a long flight to Nairobi where we changed to a smaller plane, we eventually arrived at Livingstone, in Zambia, the next day. We were taken directly to our hotel, where we were met by a small group of enthusiastic local dancers; the hotel was wonderful: relatively new, just a few minutes walk from Victoria Falls, and situated in several acres of beautiful parklands which were populated by wild animals including zebra, impala, giraffe, baboon, and others (including crocodiles in the lake but not, fortunately, in the swimming pool).

Zebras looked in at us through our bedroom window ...		... and so did impalas ...	... while people in the upstairs rooms had giraffes looking through their bedroom windows

That evening we were taken for a sunset cruise on the Zambezi, in the stretch above the falls. The cruise was great, and for an hour we relaxed near the bows of the boat with a drink in our hands, watching a variety of wild animals either grazing beside the water or swimming in it.

Relaxing on the boat	Watching the elephants grazing and playing on the shore
There were crocodiles beside the water ...		... and there were many hippos in the water

Sunset over the Zambezi

The next morning we had our visit to Victoria Falls. Although It was only a few minutes walk away, we were taken there by coach as a group of about 20 people - presumably to ensure that nobody got lost! We were met by an excellent guide, who walked us through the woodlands to the Falls. On the way we stopped by the statue of Dr David Livingstone, who is revered here as a very great man who, amongst other things, helped put an end to the local slave trading industry.

Dr Livingstone, I presume

As it was October, towards the end of the dry season, the water level in the river was quite low. This has the disadvantage that the Falls themselves are less impressive - but has the advantage that there is much less mist in the air, so that it is possible to get a much better view of the whole Falls. Apparently in the wet season the top level of the Falls is much more spectacular, but at the same time you can see nothing of the middle or lower parts of the Falls or of the canyon into which the water is cascading. Personally I think that the dry season offers the better option here, and we could use our recent memories of our visit to the Niagara Falls to aid our imagination in creating a mind image of how it would look like in the wet season.

The local name for the Falls translates as "The Mist that Thunders", a name which made sense as we approached them. The main waterfall is also called the Rainbow Falls, and again it is easy to see why that makes sense.. 

Our first view: a distant rainbow in the mist	Approaching the gorge. This would all be covered in water during the wet season, but much of the gorge would be invisible in the mist
Debbie managed to cross the high, narrow bridge that takes you along one side of the gorge		Together!	Looking down from that bridge
Looking down towards the Rainbow Falls, it is obvious how they got their name.

As we left the Falls and walked back through the woods, we met a lovely group of baboons, who had a really cute baby with them. We were warned to hang on to our belongings, especially our water bottles, because the baboons would snatch and run off with anything that wasn't carefully guarded.

The baboon family	Mother and baby	Baby hides from us	Mum waits for us to leave

Returning to the hotel, we were offered the opportunity to ride out to a local safari park, and see a group of white Rhinos {apparently they were called "White" rhinos because they have a wide mouth, and the name is a mis-translation of the Dutch word for Wide). After a quick dash to the local ATM to purchase some local currency - Zambian Kwacha - with which to pay for this trip, we were soon on our way out to the park. We left the coach behind and trekked off into the wilderness behind a local guide, and it was not long before we were standing in front of the group of these HUGE animals who were peacefully relaxing together. They ignored us completely, even though we were no more than 100ft away from them, and thank goodness for that - I would not want to argue with a creature with such enormous horns!

The next morning we left the hotel, to the accompaniment of more dancing from the local dancers, and had a leisurely coach trip to the bridge which spans the Zambezi at a point where 4 countries (Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe) all meet. Apparently before the current bridge was opened 5 years ago, the queue of lorries waiting to cross from one country to another was often as much as 10 days long!

Botswana insists on many precautions at the border, particularly in order to minimise the risk of infections such as  foot-and-mouth disease. For example, you are not permitted to carry any footwear in your luggage; all shoes etc must be taken separately into their arrival hall where it will be dipped into a bath of disinfectant. Similarly every person must have their temperature taken to ensure that they are healthy - although the readings tended to be a little high after after queuing in the hot sunshine for a while!

The bridge across the Zambezi from Zambia to Botswana

Our brief visit to Zambia and the Victoria Falls had been wonderful; next we would spend a few days at a Safari Lodge in Botswana ...

All pictures on this site are © Allan Jones unless otherwise stated.