It took nine hours to get to Livingstone and en route the coached stopped several times including at a foot and mouth road block where we all had to get out and walk through a foot bath. And every time we stopped moving there was a crowd of people holding produce up to the window. It was bedlam.
When we eventually arrived at the coach station in Livingstone I manged to fight off the taxi touts and walk to the Jollyboys hostel. I needed to walk having sat for nine hours. It’s a lovely place – the hostel, not Livingstone which is very dull.
I immediately made friends with a Korean man and his father and we were to have a great time over a beer or two the following two nights. I even let the old man taste a bit of my whisky because he said he had never tried whisky. Then he proceeded to drain the bottle without any assistance from me!
Nobody would bother with Livingstone if the Victoria Falls were not there. The next day I got up at a good time and took a taxi 20 minutes towards the Zimbabwe border, paid $20 and got to see the most spectacular sight in Africa.
it was unexpectedly emotional standing by the thunderous water. I cold imagine Livingstone coming across it and finding it just as moving as I did – perhaps more so as he was not expecting it.
In some spots it felt like it was raining as the spray was so heavy. I had bought a disposable raincoat so I was mostly covered but my trousers got very wet. Fortunately very few people had got up as early as me so there were only a few other tourists there taking selfies and posing for photos.
After walking along the Zambian side of the falls I wanted to see it from the Zimbabwe side. I got a chit which allowed me across the bridge which divides the two countries and set foot for the first time in Zimbabwe.
On the bridge there was a young American preparing to do a bungee jump – what a brave/foolish girl. I wouldn’t have done that for anything – and I mean anything. There were also some people doing a zip line across the Zambezi.
The Victoria Falls are part of the history of the era of discovery in the Victorian age and it made me think of all the British explorers of Africa and how seeing the continent for the first time must have been both exciting and scary.
The Korean father had dreamt of visiting Victoria Falls and he was determined to do it before he died. This is a place which should be on everyone’s bucket list.