Week 241 · Lionel & Tsoka Travel · Sunset Cruise · Devils Pool · Livingstone Island
Victoria Falls
Our visit to Victoria Falls ended up being more interesting than we expected. Our original expectation was to only visit the falls, but because our local contact was so engaging we learned a lot about Zimbabwe and the current economic situation. I booked an AirBnB and they reverted with an offer for help with transfers — we ultimately found out Tsoka Travel was one ambitious young man named Lionel.
Lionel set us up with a good balance of ideas and was helpful on entry visa (KAZA visa is the right one — online it is unclear which to get) and after airport pickup on the Zimbabwe side and dropping our stuff off at the AirBnB (called Gerties Lodge), drove us to the Zimbabwe side of the falls where we went into the national park. On the Zimbabwe side, you are only looking at the falls across the river gorge.
Victoria Falls (Mosi-oa-Tunya — "The Smoke that Thunders") spans the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia on the Zambezi River. At approximately 1,700 metres wide and 108 metres high, it is considered the world's largest curtain of falling water by volume. It was named by Scottish explorer David Livingstone in 1855, the first European to see the falls — it was named after Queen Victoria, who had nothing to do with the falls. Zimbabwe experienced severe economic collapse under Robert Mugabe — whose corrupt government created over 90% unemployment and hyperinflation reaching 89.7 sextillion percent in 2008. Mugabe was removed by a military coup in 2017. The Zimbabwe dollar collapsed so completely that the country adopted the US dollar as the de-facto currency. When the new currency was introduced it was pegged to the USD — creating the distorted pricing dynamics described in the post, where prices listed in Zimbabwe dollars equated to the same USD amount, but USD cash transactions yielded steep discounts.
After pickup we went straight to a sunset cruise — we were expecting to just have a drink and appetizers and watch the sunset, but soon into the cruise we saw elephants on the river bank and then hippos and finished with a herd of elephants crossing the river. Compared to some of the nature scenes we saw later on the much more expensive safari — this was just as good.
Going back to the 1970s with the expropriation of white farms, followed by a corrupt government with Robert Mugabe becoming one of the richest people in the world while the country struggled. Mugabe was recently removed from power and hopes are high with the new president.
The latest currency is artificially pegged to the USA Dollar which makes everything very expensive — a couple of days before we got there they entered a currency crisis. Price of a hamburger is $18 Zimbabwe which means officially it is $18 US — but if you pay cash in USD you get a discount of 50%. It is a challenging day-to-day existence, even in the best place in the country.
Over 90% unemployment nationwide. Many were highly educated but no meaningful jobs, so they had come to Victoria Falls as it was "the best place in the country."
The following day Lionel had made reservations for the "Livingstone Breezer" on the Zambian side — I had assumed a booze cruise with a hike on Livingstone Island and lunch. Couldn't have been more wrong — we ended up having a photo shoot in Devils Pool. Of our 4-hour trip, 2 hours were immigration lines (4 times) and shuttles. We had 1.5 hours for hiking and breakfast on the island and 30 minutes at Devils Pool. The first 15 minutes in the pool is miserable — waiting for the other couple, banging knees and shins on sharp rocks, current strong, pool deep. Finally our time came — the guy taking pictures was great and was in way more danger than we were. He took about 300 pictures.
Our final evening was a nice dinner and traditional dance show at a colonial British hotel. The hotel was stuck in the 1940s and championed the conquests of the British Empire — as an example, Victoria Falls is named after Queen Victoria who had nothing to do with the falls.
"The sunset cruise — elephants on the bank, hippos, a herd of elephants crossing the river. Compared to the much more expensive safari we did later — this was just as good."