Victoria Falls

An early morning escape from Woodlands Game Reserve outside of Victoria Falls got us to the park entrance just after its opening at 6am.

Sunrise at Victoria Falls

I had Claude help me optimize our entry time and walking itinerary for photos. Our camp was an hour away from the entrance, which is on the all-too-familiar A8 just before the border crossing bridge. I’m not thrilled with the photos I captured, but the solitude and early morning birding was a big payoff.

Note: the Pick-n-Pay grocery in Victoria Falls was by far the best we’ve encountered in Africa so far. Good prices, good produce, amazing beef fillets.

Entry fee was $58 USD per person. Zimbabwe has all but abandoned their own currency and it seems like this has been a step in a slow recovery for the economy. Will be interesting to see if this becomes a permanent state. The tap pay terminal was thankfully working at the gate entrance, though we had plenty of cash on hand if needed. Another note: any time we had to pay cash in Zimbabwe the bills had to be pristine - no marks, tears, or excessive folds. Find a way to store a stack of twenties safely and flat if you plan to go there. We also wish we had carried more small USD bills.

Ken capturing the morning glory of the falls

There were two or three other small groups following the same route as we did, from marker 1 through 16, west to east. I didn’t have an understanding of the topography of the falls until I started researching more for photos; there’s a deep (almost slot) gorge that runs west to east with the Zambia river spreading out into fingers of a delta to pour over the north side of the gorge. The Zimbabwe Victoria Falls National Park sits on the south side of the gorge, so as you walk along you are close to eye level with the top of the falls, looking down into the narrow bottom of the gorge.

Rainbow at Victoria Falls

The light was beautiful but it hard to capture the scope and breadth of the falls from the ground level. I suspect this is why all the great photos you see are taken from the air. I’d like to return some day and take a helicopter ride at sunrise or sunset.

Silliness at the top of the falls

We reached the end of the path still mostly in solitude, but as we started wandering back (and looking for birds - there were several new lifers for me) crowds thickened as the tour buses emptied out. We also saw some interesting tour groups on the Zambia side, including a group wading through the water at the top of the falls then dipping into pools right at the edge (tethered by a safety line).

Bird highlights were a large group of trumpeter hornbills (finally got an OK photo) and the sought-after Schalow’s turaco. This turaco has a nearly identical profile and size as the grey go-away bird, which is ubiquitous in southern Africa, but is colored with beautiful greens, reds, and blues. This was my primary target for the day and with Karen’s help we spotted two before they fled the crowds to the other side of the gorge. Karen and I were both carrying just our short lenses this morning so no good photo captured. I have another shot at that as we move up the west side of the Okavango Delta in about a week.

Exploring the Zimbabwe to Zambia bridge over the gorge

After reading a sign stating that we could cross the gorge bridge (into Zambia) without paying or stamping our passports, we did so. Definitely worth it to get another view of the falls and the subsequent gorge channel that runs perpendicular to the falls gorge as the Zambezi turns south for a while before resuming its eastward journey to the Indian Ocean.