After a great couple days in Harare, John and I flew into Victoria Falls, the town right next to the namesake falls on the Zimbabwe side. From the air we could see the spray of the falls, and were eager to see them the next day.

We settled into our lodge at the Victoria Falls Rest Camp, which was spacious–cavernous even–though uninspiring. The walls were cinder block, the kitchen table something out of a kindergarten classroom. But, the bed was comfortable, and there was only one tiny roach in the kitchen, so we called it a win.

Note – accommodation and anything remotely associated with the word “safari” adds quite a premium. By our travel standards, our lodge was on the expensive side, but you wouldn’t have guessed looking at it… But, it was only for a couple nights, and we were in high spirits getting ready to start the safari portion of our trip!

An Interesting Visitor

We walked to dinner at the River Brewing Company even though it’s fairly ill-advised to walk at night because, you know, wild animals. Eeee!!!! We made it to the brewery without incident and sat inside because it’s winter here, and apparently Africa gets pretty cold. Yeah, we were surprised too!

As we were looking over the menu, I saw a crowd on the patio taking pictures. I knew it had to be an animal, probably a baboon, maybe a warthog, so I walked out to see, leaving John at the table. I got to the patio and stuck my head around the corner. And saw an elephant. A freaking elephant!

I calmly turned around and walked back to tell my husband. Hahahaha, nope! I swung around and barreled through a large dude. “Sorry!” I yelled as I continued towards John. I came up behind my husband, touched him on the back, and managed to calmly say, “It’s an elephant.” As he was processing, I drug him from the table to see. Since it’s the dry season, animals are in search of water, and this elephant had found some at the side of the restaurant.

I can’t even describe the mix of emotions I felt at seeing such a huge, majestic animal so close. Also, I love elephants. In elementary school when asked for my favorite animal, it was always an elephant. I’d been hoping we might see one on safari in a national park. But seeing one on our first night in the area, not in a park, I was blown away.

John and I went back in the restaurant to order, and were on cloud nine the rest of the night replaying our elephant experience over and over. “It’s an elephant.” EEEEE!!!!!

To The Falls!

The next day, we headed to the Falls. The great part about the Zimbabwe side of the Falls is that you can walk from town. Having barely left the camp, we could already feel the spray from the Falls, and still had about a mile to walk!

We’d packed a backpack full of rain gear essentials, but kind of assumed we wouldn’t need it. When we visited the Argentina side of Iguazu Falls we’d read about how wet we’d get, and ended up completely dry. But feeling the spray in town made us think that maybe this would be a bit wetter.

We started walking the park from the top of the Falls, taking a path with numerous overlooks, to where you can see Zambia across the gorge. The top of the Falls were calm, but as we rounded the corner you could see the start of the Falls and the narrow gorge the water falls into. It was stunning, and little did we know, would be one of our last good views of the Falls for the day.

A Soaking Downpour

As we went to get a close up view of this spot, John and I thought it would be best to throw on our jackets because we might get a bit wet. After we left the viewpoint and started heading to the next one though, we thought that maybe we should put on our ponchos just in case. And yes, we needed them. At the next viewpoint, the spray was more intense, but we could still see part of the Falls. After that, each successive viewpoint got wetter and wetter. The spray was insane, first creating a steady rain, turning into an epic downpour the closer we got to Zambia. We could hear the Falls but really couldn’t see much of them through all the spray.

Towards the end of the path is the viewpoint called “Danger Point”. It’s a pile of slippery, algae covered stones with a drop-off straight into the gorge, but you could actually see part of the Falls and Zambia while getting pelted with spray. We decided the view was worth the risk, but didn’t stay there long because we were getting soaked despite our ponchos. Water was running down our legs and straight into our waterproof hiking shoes, creating lakes in our shoes that sloshed with every step. Water was running down my arms into my jacket. The hair around our faces was soaked.

We walked back to the park entrance and started to peel off our wet layers, hoping the walk back to town in the sun would both dry and warm us. On our way back, we headed down a path to the Lookout Cafe for lunch. True to its name, the Cafe had a great lookout over the gorge where the Zambezi River runs after it goes over the Falls. You can also see the Victoria Falls bridge in the distance connecting Zimbabwe and Zambia. We sat outside on the lawn, enjoying the views and the sun. The sun warmed and tanned (burned?) us, and our shoes started to dry out.

What’s Next?

We were happy with our first Falls experience, and curious to see how the Zambia side would compare in a few days. But before that, we had a safari to go on. Read about it next time!