We flew from Harare towards the north west part of the country that involved a distance of 800 kilometres and a journey of just more than an hour from the capital city of Zimbabwe. We had decided to spend most of our time to see the magnificence of Victoria Falls which stretches as wide as nearly two kilometres.
Do you know that even the township where the falls tumbles down in a mighty roar is named as Victoria Falls and this is situated on the southern banks of the Zambesi River.
In fact, the world’s greatest sheet of falling water is located on the border of two countries, Zimbabwe and Zambia. It is also known as Livingstone in Zambia after the Scottish explorer David Livingstone. The ‘smoke that thunders’ or Mosi-oa-Tunya as it is known in local parlance falls from a height of 354 feet and is 1708 metres wide.
Falling over a wide vertical drop, it forms two large islands, the Cataract and the Livingstone islands. The sheer volume of the water creates tortuous whirlpools and turbulence which at first sight is amazing. When one enters the region of the Falls which is actually in the midst of dry grasslands, the great volume of water creates a perpetual rain cover in almost a radius of two kilometres.
Apart from this, when noisily plunging over the gorges, it creates an impenetrable mist that can be clearly seen even 20 kilometres away.
At the entrance itself, you can get huge umbrellas or raincoats to protect yourself from the continuous showers before proceeding to see the glory of nature. In the aftermath of the flood season, the Falls can be seen in all its glory with the spray from the falls rising to a height of 1300 feet and sometimes, even twice as high and this is visible even from a distance of 50 kilometres.
Amidst continuous showers and shrouded mist, we moved all along the cliff avoiding jagged rocks towards a steel bridge. To my amazement, I saw two people bungee jumping over the steep, narrow incline and diving towards frothy white waters.
The Victoria Falls Bridge built on the second gorge of the falls links the countries of Zimbabwe and Zambia and each half of the bridge reportedly belongs to the respective countries. Walking and stomping over the steely structure, we were thrilled as we felt we were crossing from one country to another in a matter of a few seconds. With the bridge being built in 1905 and not being maintained properly, there is lot of traffic restrictions. However, one can see a number of adventurous people especially from Australia, New Zealand and America doing the bungee jump from a height of 365 feet.
Now moving down the southern region of the falls, we travelled further towards the Hwange National Park.
The main Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road leads to this park situated on the fringe of the Kalahari Desert. Out of the eight main national parks in Zimbabwe, we were fortunate to experience the great wilderness of Africa at our leisure in this park which is considered the largest in this part of the world as it is spread across three countries.
Traveling in an open jeep for miles and miles in an area which has sparse vegetation, I came across hundreds and hundreds of zebras and giraffes. A few lazing crocodiles and bathing elephants also posed for us.
The national park contains an abundance of wildlife including sizable populations of elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, and a variety of antelopes including the Kudu. However, lions and leopards are only occasionally seen. But monkeys and baboons are pretty common. The river above the falls contains large population of hippopotamus and crocodiles. Apart from that, elephants can be seen crossing the river in the dry season at particular crossing points.
The population of wild dogs in this park is considered to be one of the largest surviving groups in Africa.
This is a park one shouldn’t miss as a plethora of both endangered and common wildlife can be seen in all its natural setting with not many vehicles disturbing the tranquility of the 14,500 square kilometre wild expanse. Amidst the Acacia woodlands that is set in Kalahari desert, the park has as many as 65 man-made water holes as the region is completely arid.
With more than 450 kilometre of game viewing roads as well as a massive network connecting waterholes and a huge number of exotic animals, the park is easily accessible and is the most visited spot in Zimbabwe.
However, with the Land Reforms programme launched by the Zimbabwean government recently which was followed by economic meltdown, there has been a gradual decrease in the flow of tourists to this country.
Even Victoria Falls attracts tourists from the Zambia side rather than Zimbabwe.
