Zimbabwe: Victoria Falls, the Smoke that Thunders

A view of the falls from our helicopter ride. Victoria Falls' dimensions (combined
 width of 1,708 meters or more than a mile and height of  108 meters or 354 feet) make
 it the world's largest waterfall in terms of the size of the sheet of falling water. The gap
where water flows out below the falls is the continuation of the Zambezi River.
In this photo,the area to the right of that gap is the Zambian side of the falls, and to
 the left is the Zimbabwe side, which we visited. The bridge connects the two countries,
but tourists are allowed to walk out on it without a visa. 

        After a two-hour fight from Mana Pools National park, we arrived on Wednesday, May 20, at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, which we somehow skipped on our 2016 safari trip to Africa. Now on our 2026 trip, we were staying two nights at the Ilala Lodge Hotel, which is within walking distance of the falls. 

        We arrived in time for a late lunch, and from the dining terrace we could see a wild boar trotting on the hotel's lawn, and then as many as five elephants ambling toward a water feature. All the while a Roomba-like electric lawn mower was scooting around doing its work. The wildlife seems to keep hotel guests and staff off the lawn. That afternoon we walked around one of the crafts markets near the hotel without buying anything. The next day, our only full day here, we spent the morning walking at Victoria Falls National Park, which has paved paths directly across from the falls. They're so close that the mist from the falls turns into constant rain, and part of the park looks like a rain forest because that's what it is.  We had ponchos to wear, and Jane rented a pair of Crocs from a vendor. I ended up ruinning my spare pair of sneakers, but they were about to be thrown out anyway.  The rain, the mist and the roar of the falls are overwhelming, and in some places the mist is so heavy that you can't see the actual falls. In the indiginous Lozi language, the falls are called Mosi-oa-Tunya, the Smoke that Thunders. 

        That afternoon, we had upobstructed views of the falls from a helicopter.  We had not planned on this, but Wilderness, the company that helped plan our entire trip and arranged all our African transportation, gave it to us to make up for what had been an unexpectedly long and unpleasant drive from Matopos National Park to Hwange National Park a week earlier. Thank you, Wilderness. We throroughly enjoyed the helicopter and the views it provided. After the helicopter, we returned to the hotel and then the Elephant Walk crafts market where we bought almost all the souvenirs and gifts we came home with. . Late that afternoon we took a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River, pleasant enough but nothing special. There were some hippos to be seen and loads of birds, but the two-man crew were not guides.

       We can't say we explored the town of Victoria Falls at all, but what we saw looked like strip malls lining the main thoroughfare, which is where Ilala Lodge Hotel is.  It may well be a great town to explore, but nothing we saw indicaated that. 

       Here are some photos:

We had all our meals in Victoria Falls at Ilala Lodge Hotel, mainly becasue it was
so convenient. The food was unremarkable though the breakfast buffet was OK.

A warthog seems perfectly at home trotting across the lawn at the Ilala hotel.
This area is below the dining terrace shown in the previous photo.

This is one of several elephants that came onto the grounds at the Ilala Lodge Hotel during our stay.

This market is directly across a busy road from the entrance to Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls
National Park. Jane rented a pair of Crocs here to wear in the very, very wet park.

A statue of David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary
and African explorer, greets visitors to Victoria Falls
National Park. On November 7, 1855, he became one of
the first if not the first European to see the falls, which 
he named for Queen Victoria. His goal in Africa was
to secure his fame by discovering the source of the 
Nile and then using his influence to oppose the slave
trade. He never went far enough north to discover
the Nile source, though his many other discoveries
helped create the first meaningful maps of the
African interior. 

This was our first view of the falls after entering the park.
As far as I could tell, there's no land-based point from 
which the entire falls are visible. 

Our sundown cruise on the Zambezi had a dozen or so
passengers and a a crew of two, the boat pilot 
and the bartender. Ours was one of the smallest
boats on the river.

Most other boats were more like this, with at least
two decks and many more passengers.

Many birds were in the trees along the river. No 
idea what this one is, though.

Sunset over the Zambezi, several kilometers upsteam from Victoria Falls. It is Africa's
fourth-longest river at 2,574 kilometers or 1,599 miles. It starts in Zambia and flows
west through eastern Angola, then along the border of Namibia and Botswana before 
forming the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Finally, it goes through
Mozambique before reaching the Indian Ocean. 

Zimbabwe: North Toward the Mana Pools

 

White storks are one of several kinds of storks that visit Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe.
 The pools are sections of the Zambezi River that were left when the river's course changed. 

     On our 2026 trip to Africa, the last safari camp in Zimbabwe was at Mana Pools, a national park named for four pools formed by former sections of the Zambezi River. It's near the country's northern border. Zambia is on the other side.  

       John's Camp was our second stay at a minimalist seasonal camp. As elsewhere on this trip, we were too soon after an unusally wet rainy season, so all the animals that should have been coming near the camp for water were still finding plenty of water elsewhere. And, as had been the case at Hwange Bush Camp, we were almost the only guests. One other tent was occupied by a father and his adult son, both from the San Diego area, which is where we live. 

        Being a seasonal camp means that the camp is closed during the rainy season, roughly October through March. The dirt roads that lead to it become flooded and impassable. We stayed in a real tent, complete with zippered flaps that required stooping to ground level to zip and unzip. This included a set of flaps within the tent that separated the sleeping area from the toilet and shower area, neither of which had roofs. The shower was a bucket shower, but here the bucket is suspended right above the bather's head with a valve to turn to release the water. We found that when the bucket was high enough for me to stand under, it was too high for Jane to reach the valve. The bucket shower at Hwange Bush was more sophisticated, piping water to a conventional showerhead. 

       Here the wi-fi is generally available only at the main tent, which has lounge and dining areas. We were fortunate that our tent was close enough that it was served by the camp wi-fi.  Electrical power for guests to charge their devices is likewise in the main tent, but again we lucked out. A previous guest who stayed in our tent needed power for a medical device, and the connection was still there and working, so we could recharge everything in our tent. At night the camp seemed inundated by bellowing hippos. The staff said they usually sound as if they're closer than they really are. With a flashlight, we tried looking out of our tent to see them without any luck. Our fellow guests on the other side of the camp said they could see hippos nearby. 

        The staff at the camp is pretty small. The manager Tawanda (or T. if you prefer) was very amiable and I thought from talking with him that he would make a great guide. Our guide, Fisher, though, was also friendly and almost obsessed with finding lions for us. We never found lions, but we saw plenty of other beasts on our drives here. We had thought that the camp would be on the bank of the Zambezi River, but it's actually about a kilometer away, separated by what I took to be a flood plain, though it was dry when we were there. Some antelope did graze on the plain, but none very close to the camp. 

       One more thing about John's Camp. After two desert camps in Namibia and three other safari camps in Zimbabwe, I thought the food here was the best. I especially liked a beef-filled meat pastry that was served at lunch one day.  It was like an oversize empanada. Jane reminded me that one meal was excellent roast chicken. Cakes at teatime before afternoon drives were a nice touch, too. 

     After three nights here, we left on May 20, a Wednesday, on a short flight to Victoria Falls. 

    Here are some photos:

The waterbuck is yet another of Africa's many antelope.
These are females. 

The male waterbook looks like a very powerful animal.

We saw many crocodiles such as this sunning themselves near watering holes.

A hippo takes a look at the world from a watering hole. 

This hippo was walking pretty slowly, but hippos are capable of amazing bursts of speed. 

Impalas are the most common antelope in Africa. We saw
them everywhere we went except Namibia's Skeleton Coast. 

We saw several saddle-billed storks at Mana Pools. 

A lone elephant grazes in Mana Pools National Park.

All afternoon safaris seem to end  with "sundowners," a chance to get out of the vehicles
and enjoy cocktails, usually gin and tonics, at scenic spots such as this. The water
in the distance is the Zambezi River and the mountains are in Zambia.