A day of swimming over and under the falls planned. Arrived at he falls at 9 am ready for the
walk to Livingstone Island and swim in the “Devil’s Pool”. The walk was a bit of a route march as we
started a bit late and the guide was clearly on a tight schedule. The walk is only possible in the dry season
when there is no water on the Zambian side of Mosi-oa-Tunya (smoke that thunders). The dry river bed was quite fascinating with
all the holes in the rocks. We got to
swim a short stretch in the upper Zambezi to reach the rocks next to the
pool. Arriving at Devil’s pool there was
a group in front and a bit like a conveyor belt we had to wait our turn before
entering. Watching the guide standing
right on the edge taking photos was pretty scary. Eventually we got our turn to sit on the very
edge of the falls and get a superb view of the rainbow and thundering falls a
few metres away. Lying on the edge
looking over was fun and nowhere near as scary as it sounds.
We spent the hour in between activities roaming the park on
the Zambian side of the falls. The views
down the gorge were much better than we had seen on the Zim side and must be
stunning when the river is in full flow.
Our afternoon trip to swim under the falls started with a
steep descent down into the gorge, with steps at the top and ending with a
tricky clamber over rocks to reach an inflatable raft we’d use to paddle “Up”
the Zambezi. We paddled across the “Boiling
Pot” and had a fabulous view up the rapids towards the Zim side of falls. We
then clamoured over more rocks to reach the Eastern Cataract where we got to
swim under the Victoria Falls - awesome!!
Unfortunately after two months of traveling we’ve both forgotten how to
swim so life-jackets compulsory. We even got to swim/float in the “Boiling Pot” on
the paddle back – good way to cool down before the steep climb back out of the
gorge.
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