“The smoke that thunders” is how Victoria Falls is known locally.
Today was a rest day so there was no pressure to rush anywhere. The only item on the agenda was to trip down the eight or nine kilometres from Livingstone to Victoria Falls.
But first it was time to get laundry sorted out properly and tidy up my pannier bags and top box. These details might seem a bit inane but tidy storage units make for easier traveling. A bottle of coke had burst in the top box a couple of weeks back and it was starting to stink. I even discovered the remnants of a squashed packet of biscuits lurking in there.
On a practical note, proper laundry only happens when at a stopover, but otherwise happens on a makeshift basis daily when I arrive at a destination, shower and wash my bits before hanging them out to dry somewhere. Another bit of inane detail about long overland journeys by motorbike.
Simba (and Kaylee, on the handlebar bag) got a first view of the Zambezi River just before arriving at Victoria Falls. I know that it is a bit touristy but there is something quite magical about this place. Even the word ‘Zambezi’ evokes childhood thoughts about a distant and undiscovered land.
Victoria Falls creates a natural border between Zambia and Zimbabwe so there will alway be lines of lorries and the usual African border mayhem. Once I got Simba locked up and shushed away a few baboons, I paid the entrance fee and made the short trek down to the waterfall.
Although it is my second visit here, I would defy anyone to proclaim that it doesn’t take your breath away. As ‘natural wonders of the world’ go, it’s way up there.
It was coming towards the end of a dry season so the ‘smoke’ wasn’t doing as much ‘thundering’ but it was nonetheless spectacular.
I spent the afternoon roaming around the area and reflected on the whole Stanley/Livingstone meeting in an altogether forgotten era. How awesome that meeting must have been on so many fronts.
You need to give yourself a few hours to take it all in, so by late afternoon, and fully sated by the place once again, I headed back up to Livingstone.
I hadn’t noticed this sign previously where I stopped to take an earlier photograph. Stay in your vehicle indeed……
ZIGZAGGING AFRICA BY MOTORBIKE 