We were in Livingstone for three whole days and it was lovely to be in one place for a few days despite the campsite being crappy. It was called The Grotto but I referred to it as the grubby grotto. The original schedule had us going through Zimbabwe and Mozambique but with the trouble in Zim, the schedule was changed and we headed through Zambia instead. Livingstone is like a lot of African towns that we’d been through. A hotch potch of ramshackle buildings, a Barclays bank (incredibly prominent in this part of Africa), a market, wide dusty main street with loads of people everywhere and it was super hot (and its winter!).
The camp site was small in comparison to the others that we stayed in and there were three overland trucks on site when we arrived so really crowded but I think we’ve been a bit spoilt with having many of them to ourselves. The entire campsite was on a slight hill, was fenced and had two dogs (one a lovely Rhodesian Ridgeback x Rotweiler). The showers were incredibly dodgy and I had to shout for someone to bring the heavy gloves that we use for pots on the fire to me to protect me from the electric shocks so I could turn off the taps. After that, everyone took the gloves with them to the shower just in case.
If you’re an adrenaline junkie, there is plenty of stuff to get you going here. White water rafting, bungee jumping, gorge swinging, abseiling, sky diving, climbing etc. We went white water rafting in the Zambezi the day after we arrived and that was pretty cool. We were in what could well have been the lightest raft load possible (half were accountants, no relation to the weight comment!), with four girls (three lightweights and myself) and two guys, neither of whom were particularly heavy. The first rapid we hit was a grade five and the river surged as we hit it – bad luck for us. Before we knew it, we’d gone straight up in the air and the raft flipped over on its end. I was stuck under the raft for what seemed like way too long and when I bobbed up, was right next to Euan and the boat. We travelled that rapid hanging onto the upturned raft – our guide gave up trying to get everyone back in the boat, it was just too rough. I couldn’t believe it. Out very first rafting experience, very first rapid and one spectacular flip.
We saved the bungee jump (the highest in the world it coming up between Cape Town and Jo’burg) but sweated it out in sympathy with those we knew who were doing it. The gorge swing looked by far the most terrifying. You had to run and jump off the platform before free-falling for about 55m then the rope caught you and you swung. I only saw two girls do it and one was genuinely petrified and her legs didn’t want to run so the guy behind her pushed her off! This was what she saw when she jumped.
You could easily spend a day in the National Park at Vic Falls as the falls are fairly spread out and there are plenty of viewing points.
We took a helicopter over the falls and while it was a bit of a budget blow out, it was absolutely spectacular. We didn’t realise that there were a series of jagged clefts in the earth and that the falls were originally a long way from where they are now. The top of the photo is Zim and the bottom is Zambia.
One of the many great views of the falls. To the left you can just see the bridge between Livingston Island and the mainland and to the far left the bridge that joins Zambia with Zimbabwe (and where the bungee jumpers jump and gorge swingers swing).
At the top of the falls you can walk right to the edge if you want but we all thought that the water was still too high and flowing too fast. Where we were rafting, the river still has another 5-6m to drop before its at its lowest and most challenging for rafters.
This is called the Boiling Pot and is the point where the water from the falls is forced through a narrow gorge before swirling out into a larger pool then running off under the border bridge. Its amazing to be so close ot such a large volume of water and the rocks were superb for rock hopping. You can see they’re very large, black, with sheer angles – ideal!
The Boiling Pot was about 600m off the path down some steep steps then a scramble through the forest and over piles of boulders. On the way down there were heaps of baboons and I don’t like primates at all but this little guys was very endearing. He had the biggest ears and at certain angles the sun shone through them giving him a very comical look.
We opted out of the other adrenaline stuff partly because I’ve been ill for coming up a week and also we’ve a long way to go yet and NZ is full of that kind of stuff. I’m gunning for a sky dive in Namibia though and will try to throw myself off the highest bungee jump in the world. Not sure about Euan though, he is still undecided.
We’re off into Botswana tomorrow and we’ll have to come back to Africa to visit Zimbabwe although not sure when it will OK to head that way. Most of our raft guides were from Zim and judging from the comments made, they’re less than enthused about the state of the country although all said with a huge dose of humour. They were very funny and had so much energy and zest.
View Larger Map
The camp site was small in comparison to the others that we stayed in and there were three overland trucks on site when we arrived so really crowded but I think we’ve been a bit spoilt with having many of them to ourselves. The entire campsite was on a slight hill, was fenced and had two dogs (one a lovely Rhodesian Ridgeback x Rotweiler). The showers were incredibly dodgy and I had to shout for someone to bring the heavy gloves that we use for pots on the fire to me to protect me from the electric shocks so I could turn off the taps. After that, everyone took the gloves with them to the shower just in case.
If you’re an adrenaline junkie, there is plenty of stuff to get you going here. White water rafting, bungee jumping, gorge swinging, abseiling, sky diving, climbing etc. We went white water rafting in the Zambezi the day after we arrived and that was pretty cool. We were in what could well have been the lightest raft load possible (half were accountants, no relation to the weight comment!), with four girls (three lightweights and myself) and two guys, neither of whom were particularly heavy. The first rapid we hit was a grade five and the river surged as we hit it – bad luck for us. Before we knew it, we’d gone straight up in the air and the raft flipped over on its end. I was stuck under the raft for what seemed like way too long and when I bobbed up, was right next to Euan and the boat. We travelled that rapid hanging onto the upturned raft – our guide gave up trying to get everyone back in the boat, it was just too rough. I couldn’t believe it. Out very first rafting experience, very first rapid and one spectacular flip.
We saved the bungee jump (the highest in the world it coming up between Cape Town and Jo’burg) but sweated it out in sympathy with those we knew who were doing it. The gorge swing looked by far the most terrifying. You had to run and jump off the platform before free-falling for about 55m then the rope caught you and you swung. I only saw two girls do it and one was genuinely petrified and her legs didn’t want to run so the guy behind her pushed her off! This was what she saw when she jumped.
You could easily spend a day in the National Park at Vic Falls as the falls are fairly spread out and there are plenty of viewing points.
We took a helicopter over the falls and while it was a bit of a budget blow out, it was absolutely spectacular. We didn’t realise that there were a series of jagged clefts in the earth and that the falls were originally a long way from where they are now. The top of the photo is Zim and the bottom is Zambia.
One of the many great views of the falls. To the left you can just see the bridge between Livingston Island and the mainland and to the far left the bridge that joins Zambia with Zimbabwe (and where the bungee jumpers jump and gorge swingers swing).
At the top of the falls you can walk right to the edge if you want but we all thought that the water was still too high and flowing too fast. Where we were rafting, the river still has another 5-6m to drop before its at its lowest and most challenging for rafters.
This is called the Boiling Pot and is the point where the water from the falls is forced through a narrow gorge before swirling out into a larger pool then running off under the border bridge. Its amazing to be so close ot such a large volume of water and the rocks were superb for rock hopping. You can see they’re very large, black, with sheer angles – ideal!
The Boiling Pot was about 600m off the path down some steep steps then a scramble through the forest and over piles of boulders. On the way down there were heaps of baboons and I don’t like primates at all but this little guys was very endearing. He had the biggest ears and at certain angles the sun shone through them giving him a very comical look.
We opted out of the other adrenaline stuff partly because I’ve been ill for coming up a week and also we’ve a long way to go yet and NZ is full of that kind of stuff. I’m gunning for a sky dive in Namibia though and will try to throw myself off the highest bungee jump in the world. Not sure about Euan though, he is still undecided.
We’re off into Botswana tomorrow and we’ll have to come back to Africa to visit Zimbabwe although not sure when it will OK to head that way. Most of our raft guides were from Zim and judging from the comments made, they’re less than enthused about the state of the country although all said with a huge dose of humour. They were very funny and had so much energy and zest.
View Larger Map
2 comments:
What an amazing time you had in Livingstone, Zambia. The Victoria Falls look incredible, and just so beautiful.I think you were both very brave to go white water rafting, and Kate, you must have found it pretty scary being upside down for what probably seemed an eternity. The gorge swing sounded terrifying as did the bungee jump.
I like the beard Euan. The maps are most helpful.
I'm really enjoying these latest accounts.
Margaret.
That view that those swingers get is scary. This is definitely not something I would do, that being said, hats off to those who have the guts :) Ladi
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