A Visit to Victoria Falls, The Smoke That Thunders

Victoria Falls

One of the Lokuthula Lodges

 

Say something”, my wife kept urging me as she pointed the video camera at me waiting for my comment. But what could I say that would describe exactly how I felt? What words could I use that would capture the feeling at that moment? In travel writing you are discouraged from using words such as awesome, wonderful, great, and amazing to describe a feeling or scenery. And indeed I could not use any of those words because none would fit the description of the scenery before me.

However being pressured to say something I just said the word “great” then just stood in silence overcome by the scenery ahead of me. At that moment I can say I felt very small compared to what I was looking at and where I was.



So this was the mighty Victoria Falls, also known as ‘the smoke that thunders’ and one of the seven natural wonders of the world. And who would not feel small as you watched the water drop more than 90 meters with a thunderous roar that sounded like heavy rain pounding on a tin rooftop without letting up and swallowing any other sound around. So loud was the falling water that I had to shout to be heard when talking to my wife.



Victoria Falls is located on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The falls can therefore be viewed from either Zambia or Zimbabwe. We were on the Zimbabwe side in the small sleepy looking town of Victoria Falls with many streets sparsely populated making you think that it was a Sunday and most of the inhabitants were at home with their families. Although it did look sleepy yet one of the residents had told us that there was a time when it was bustling with so much activity with so many tourists visiting that the population of the visitors was more than that of the residents of the town.



And indeed from time to time we would see busloads of tourists arriving at the lodge where we were staying although we were constantly reminded that this was nothing compared to the numbers before. Zimbabwe’s tourism industry was surely benefiting from the Victoria Falls.



We had arrived three days earlier though we were a day later than expected because of a cancelled flight which threatened to ruin our holiday and waste the few days we had taken off from our work. It was only after calling the airline and having a very heated discussion that we were booked on another flight with a very early morning departure out of Entebbe to Nairobi and an immediate connection out of Nairobi to Harare. Another flight from Harare brought us to Victoria Falls and so it was on a warm afternoon that we found ourselves on the well kept grounds of the Lokuthuli Lodges which was dotted with apartments with neat looking grass thatched roofs.



As soon as we had settled into our apartment we made plans for the days to come as we had only six days and so it was on the third day of our stay in Victoria Falls town that we went to visit the Victoria Falls.



The lodge we were staying in had a courtesy bus which would drop its guest at the Victoria Falls entrance at certain times of the day. As we walked through the entrance to the falls after paying the entry fee we were encouraged to hire raincoats with the assurance that we would need them as the likelihood of getting wet was very high. We thought it was a way for the people there to make a quick buck from visitors to the falls. However we took their advice and hired two raincoats. I was impressed by the paved walkway as we made our way towards the falls. The area beside the walkway and surrounding the falls was bushy and very green and on one occasion we found ourselves having a monkey for company.



It did not take us long before we were forced to put the raincoats we had hired to good use. On more than one occasion I heard my wife scream that she was getting wet. And indeed even with the raincoats that we had on it was difficult to avoid getting wet because of the spray from the falling water that would be blown our way and very soon we soaking wet.



But the wetness was well worth it for to see and hear the waterfalls of the Victoria Falls roar down with so much noise and force was like nothing I had ever seen before in my travelling life. For Victoria Falls is not just one water fall as I had seen in many other places but several waterfalls including The main falls which dropped down 93 meters and Horseshoe Falls which dropped down 95 meters.



Towards the end of the morning we made our way out of Victoria Falls and finding that the town center was not far away decided to walk into town. We crowned our visit to the falls by having lunch at a restaurant that had crocodile meat on its menu and which I found very tasty. I was very glad that in spite of the cancelled flight we had made it to Victoria falls and seen the smoke that thunders.