Living Free Range Travel: Dance with the Devil, Victoria Falls, Livingstone, Zambia

M with Thomas, Kim, Sonja, and Leesa, Meghan and Justin by the pool

From many a traveler, we have heard that Livingstone, Zambia is a tough place to leave. It is the town in Zambia closest to Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. With it's counterpart town Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side, they are the gateway to view this spectacle.
With very little notice, our guide on the Acacia tour informed us in Botswana, that the Zambian side of the falls is barely flowing due to it being the dry season. As our tour was scheduled to finish in Zambia, not Zimbabwe, there were a few angry tourists on our truck. A pretty major thing to spring on us at the last minute, especially since most had already contributed the $20 USD park entry fee for the Zambian side. To his credit, Sam did make some options available to those who may want to head straight in to Zimbabwe, see the falls, and then head in to Zambia from there. It would cost them an additional $75 or so. Sometimes, the people here, even the guides, think we are just MADE of money, and don't realize that for some, that cost is still significant.

Very close to a giraffe

Anyway, it didn't affect us too much, as we planned to go to Zimbabwe anyway, after Zambia, so would just wait to see the Falls - or so we thought.
It would be our final night with our Acacia group, at a place called the Waterfront. A nice camp, over-run by pesky vervet monkeys, but right on the Zambezi River. It was an enjoyable night, with a few late evening swims, and then Thomas found himself a guitar. He was pretty amazing, especially at picking up songs just by listening to them on the iPod. Apparently, he plays in a band back in Belguim, and their name translates to "Tight Pants"!! Accompanied by Bella (at times), they put on a quite an impromptu performance. Of course, we all joined in at times.
A couple of chill days in Livingstone followed, including a trip to the Royal Livingstone Hotel for High Tea. We wanted to see how the 'other half' live, so we splurged on a recommendation from our previous guide Emma. A highlight was actually on the walk in as first we passed statues of zebra, then real zebra and then a giraffe - literally 10 feet from us. Still wild, but used to humans I guess. That's definitely the closest I've been, especially walking!

Michelle behind the cakes at High Tea

High Tea was in a fancy room, and there must have been about 30 or 40 types of desserts. Now, I have a sweet tooth at times, but I felt pretty sickly after gorging myself with sooooo many cakes. There wasn't enough savoury food unfortunately, but I guess they don't usually have budget backpackers attending, trying to eat a whole meal at High Tea!! But we did, and then got to enjoy the grounds and pool, overlooking the Zambezi River just above Victoria Falls - you could see the mist floating up in the air downstream!
So, as it turns out, there is something special you can do in the dry season at Victoria Falls.

Martin Jumping into Devil's Pool

There is a pool at the very edge of the falls called Devil's Pool, that you can swim in when the water is low. We figured that this would be a fantastic way to see the Falls, so we joined a small group of 4 American girls working in Africa, and with our guide Leonard, we started walking out towards the pool. It is quite bizarre to imagine the Falls in wet season, because were walking across dry riverbed that stretched for hundreds of metres! This would all be raging water in wet season. Leonard took us to many viewpoints along the way and the girls had a lot of fun.
Then on to Livingstone Island...the place where the English explorer David Livingstone first viewed the Falls with the natives back in 1855. On the island, we stripped down to bathing suits and swam across the water just above the falls, to a little island. Just beside this island is the Devil's Pool.

Sitting in Devil's Pool on the edge of Vic Falls

As you can see from the pictures, it is RIGHT ON THE EDGE of a 107m drop. I must say, a little freaky indeed jumping into the water, especially since I am afraid of heights. But it seemed totally safe, and there was very little current. We spent about 30 minutes or so in the pool, with our guide actually hanging us over the edge at one point, whilst holding on to our feet. CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY. The people on the Zimbabwe side, overlooking the falls must have thought we were nuts, and it did feel that way. I can't explain the feeling of sitting right on the edge with the water raging just beside us. Leonard actually sat, dangling his legs over the Falls. Quite and experience and the REAL way to see the falls. If you are coming this way in dry season, the Devil's Pool is a MUST. *Stub