The Essence of the Journey!

Victoria Falls – text & pictures by Danica de Freitas (9)

Nicolai got very excited when Dad told us that we were going to stay in a hotel, but I was mostly excited for the Falls themselves.  The old-fashioned Victoria Falls Hotel was huge and held lots of memories for Mom and Dad as they had stayed here on their honeymoon 20 years ago.  It had 3 restaurants, a magnificent view over the bridge and an enormous pool.  Nicolai was delighted to find a TV in the room with Disney channel.  We had supper and watched tribal dancing at Jungle Junction.

I caught the bridge at the right moment in a photo with the mist rising in the morning light on the way to breakfast.  I helped myself to muesli and strawberry yoghurt, while Nicolai enjoyed the bacon.  On the pathway leading to the Falls, vendors crowded around Dad offering him wooden masks and old Zimbabwean dollars, which we didn’t want to buy.  A few were even renting raincoats, which made us wonder how wet we were actually going to get.  Arriving at the gate and seeing people walk out dripping, was enough to persuade Dad to go and fetch a plastic bag for his camera.  Anyway, he had to get the passports to prove our citizenship in order for us to qualify for the SADC rate.  We waited , playing with some pieces of fallen thatch and we sang “ if you’re happy and you know it stamp your foot”.

We followed a stony pathway into a rain forest created by the spray looking forLivingstone’s Turaco.  We rounded a corner and saw Devil’s Cataract pounding past, down, down into the gorge, with a rainbow overhead. 

It was louder than I expected and musch longer too.  It really does live up to it’s name Mosi-oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) before Livingstone discovered it.  Nicolai posed like his statue, which just came into sight.

Mom and Dad hid their cameras under their shirts which hardly helped but I didn’t have to worry, mine is waterproof.  Nicolai and I enjoyed the spray, ridding us of the heat as the main falls appeared before us.  It sent a shiver down my spine.  We were spat rudly in the face, enjoying every moment it lasted.

We had chocolate cake at the restaurant to celebrate, then looked at the information boards, describing the formation of the falls and the early people living there.  We walked back the long way to avoid the vendors, but it was very hot.  We all had a nice cool shower when we got back, then went into town to look around.  When we got to Livingstone Toyota, I did

something rather stupid.  I slammed my pinky on my right hand in the car door.  I watched in horror as it slowly turned purple and blood dripped out on one side.  It was terribly sore, but nothing that a swim in the cool pool could not fix.

Night came and we had supper at the Kingdom Hotel, just down the road from ours – in the Spur.  Breakfast the following morning I think was the best that we had at the Victoria Falls Hotel.  The wind was just strong enough to bring the spray from the falls onto us, in a light drizzle.  I looked up at the sky to make sure it wasn’t rain.  That afternoon we went on a boat ride on the mighty Zambezi.  We saw Jacanas, Egyptian Geese, White-faced Duck, Darters, Egrets, 5 White-headed Vultures, Fish Eagle, a Giant Kingfisher, an Elephant snorkeling, Hippos grunting and the sunset.

That night we did what we had promised ourselves to do on the first evening we arrived here, go frogging.  The inside courtyard of the hotel is the perfect habitat for frogs, with three lily ponds and open lawns.  You could hear the frogs calling every night from

almost anywhere in the hotel.  To our amazement, the first thing we saw was not a frog, but a huge fishing spider, dangling from a lily flower bud, holding it’s catch for the night, a 4cm fish.  “I didn’t know there were fish in these ponds” I exclaimed.  We shone the Energizer beam onto other lily pads where we found a tawny male frog with black spots trying to dislodge a challenger from his calling site.  On another, we found a half-frog who had grown his forelegs, but hadn’t yet lost his tadpole tail.

The huge, thundering falls and the tiny Painted Reed Frog (Hyperolius marmoratus rhodesianus) only found in this isolated region, will remain in my memory forever.