SPOUT OF AFRICA
MAISHA FROST falls for one of the world’s seven natural wonders, the awesome torrent that is Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls
IN the distance I can see a great white plume billowing up from the solid green of the southern African bush. I have just arrived in Zimbabwe and fear a blaze is about to erupt.
But stupid me, I’ve failed to link the striking spectacle to where I actually am – Victoria Falls.
That hazy spiral is really spray, sent up to the heavens by the largest body of falling water on the planet, one of the world’s seven natural wonders.
Set in Zimbabwe’s north-western tip, the mile-wide, volcanic masterpiece, fringed by rainforest, funnels the flow of the mighty Zambezi river as it forms the country’s border with Zambia.
Carving out a zig-zag of jagged gorges, ferocious shallows and boiling pools, the torrents topple over precipices, plunging 350ft into chasms sprinkled with iridescent rainbows.
Devout Scottish explorer Dr David Livingstone, the first European to see the landmark, was so moved he thought it had been touched by angels and in 1855 named it in honour of his queen.
But its original local name, the poetic Mosi-oa-Tunya (the Smoke that Thunders) perhaps best evokes the crescendo visitors experience.
In April – usually peak flow time although climate change is making the seasons more variable – 750,000 cubic metres of water can cascade down every minute, and during my visit in February, the gushing was on glorious form.
It’s spectacular, but violent political and economic upheaval, leading to immense poverty, have taken their toll on both the country’s people and its wildlife.
Contrary to many accounts, however, the patient resilience of its people has ensured the preservation of a culturally rich land, widely known as Africa’s friendliest and with some of its best game viewing and conservation projects.
Signs of improving fortunes are evident in Victoria Falls. The clean and safe town has a lively crafts and recycling scene as more groups join the push to make it one of the greenest destinations in Africa.
Overnight flights via Johannesburg to its airport are the most direct way of getting there and, as it’s just two hours ahead of the UK, there’s no jet lag.
The base for my stay, the ecoconscious Victoria Falls Safari Club,
Lodge and Suites complex stands out, and not just as the place for watching epic sunsets.
Small monkeys and baboons bound about its grounds, and its airy, natural wood-and-thatch design offers panoramic views of the Zambezi National Park.
Here, hyenas, warthogs and kudu roam, but it is the watering hole just beyond the estate’s boundary that is the most beguiling, giving me Dumbo moments galore as I watched the park’s celebrity inhabitants, the elephants, pick their dainty way down to the pool.
Creature comforts are to be found indoors too. The Club’s spacious bedrooms boast Nespresso machines and choice of pillows. Bathrooms well stocked with natural toiletries, and the swimming pool and gym deliver luxury.
Fine dining is semi-alfresco and the cuisine creative. Watermelon gazpacho is a highlight, along with ostrich carpaccio in a red wine jus and home-made ice cream, infused with the local marula fruit.
Later on, ancient baobab trees and flame lilies – Zimbabwe’s national flower – were my companions in the national park as I followed the paved trail tracking the Falls. The fairly easy two-hour guided tour, that’s wheelchair-friendly, leaves everyone space to be amazed.
The thrill of seeing the falls from the skies is pretty hard to beat, too, as I found after taking a 15-minute trip in a light aircraft with Bonisair. Four swooping circuits deepened my awareness of the Falls’ scale.
“There’s no hurry in Africa,” I was often told, and Wild Horizon’s cruise along the placid Zambezi as the sun turned the skies to orange gold was the essence of serenity.
Like early morning, late afternoon is a good time for wildlife spotting. In the two hours we chugged along, my tally included crocodiles, malachite kingfishers and bug-eyed hippos whose displays of their giant molars I later found out probably indicated how grumpy they felt about sharing their bathtime with a horde of camera-toting tourists.
But its people’s passion for wildlife that might save it from threats such as poaching, poisoning and loss of habitat.
“Poaching steals from us all,” Discovery Safaris operator and dedicated conservationist Charles Brightman declares as he takes us on a game drive along a stretch of grassland in the Zambezi National Park. “If wildlife pays, it stays.”
Charles was the founder 20 years ago of The Victoria Falls AntiPoaching Unit, with Safari Club owner Africa Albida Tourism. The unit patrols 24/7 and has been crucial in rescuing injured creatures and rehabilitation.
With 22,300 snares removed and hardened poachers arrested, the unit also helps ex-offenders find
alternative livelihoods.
Known for its rich birdlife, including the wailing trumpeter hornbill, the park is a “little jewel”, says Charles as we stop to admire dung beetles, sable antelopes and a dazzle of zebras gently resting against one another.
Then all too soon it seems the elephants are heading back to the hills, we’ve polished off all the G&Ts and I’ve just one more evening left in Zimbabwe.
High time to drum and dance, I decide, so I slip on a chitenge (a brightly patterned sarong) and join in the show at Safari Lodge’s entertainments space, The Boma.
A four-course traditional African meal, drumming and dancing and an optional session with a fortune teller were all on the menu. I passed on the proteinpacked mopane worms and the smoked crocodile, but got stuck into sadza, a ground maize porridge that’s practically a national dish, while other revellers tucked into buffalo curry.
I could have drummed all night, the band and dancing were such fun, but like so many good times in Zimbabwe this passed in a flash, too.
Hope is certainly springing in the Falls – and if there are angels in the mix I reckon they are green.