We left the Okavango Delta the way we came, in a 6-seater prop. As the flight was a bit longer, about 90 minutes, from the Kwara airstrip to Kesane (on the northern edge of Botswana), and the cloud layer was higher, we flew at around 8000 feet. We had a good first view of the Zambezi River at a point where four nations intersect: Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Another driver met us on the Zambia side and drove us about 45 minutes to the Waterberry Lodge, sitting on the banks of the Zambezi. The main lodge and eating area is on the left, and next to it was our "room," the very spacious, thatch-roofed "Owl" round-house.
It was a good ending to a great trip.
We were met by a driver who took us to the crossing point. What was amazing was the long line of truck waiting to cross the river into Zambia; some waited as long as 3 weeks, as the two ferries had only so much capacity. The problem is being solved by the Chinese, who are building a bridge across the river at this point.
Another driver met us on the Zambia side and drove us about 45 minutes to the Waterberry Lodge, sitting on the banks of the Zambezi. The main lodge and eating area is on the left, and next to it was our "room," the very spacious, thatch-roofed "Owl" round-house.
The grounds were lovely - a pond, green lawn sloping down to the river - and the hostess who gave us our briefing told us we were free to walk the lodge's nature trail during the day. But, when we took her up on the offer that afternoon, this sign "gave us pause"!
Nonetheless, we enjoyed our stay there, including a very enjoyable sunset boat ride on the Zambezi.
But the main reason we were in Livingstone was Victoria Falls, a fabled place in the history of European exploration and colonization of Africa. It's impressive.
The first thing we did was to walk across this railroad bridge, which was built around 1905 to connect Northern and Southern Rhodesia (today's Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively). You can just make out the Victoria Falls Hotel on the Zimbabwe side in the distance above the right hand side of the bridge, built around the same time.
The border between the two countries runs down the middle of the bridge, so of course we got pictures of us there.
And, nowadays, when you have a high bridge and tourists , you have bungee-jumping.
So we watched a young woman challenge fate ... OY!
But the falls - wow! Local communities had for a long time come to the falls to pray for rain, and you could see why - Victoria Falls created rain. As we walked, we sometimes were drenched with the downpour from the mist created by the water plunging more than 300 feet.
Speaking of feet, here's the data about Victoria Falls. Interesting to compare with Niagara Falls: Niagara is about 1000 meters wide, Victoria 1700 meters. Niagara drops about 57 meters at its deepest, Victoria 109 meters. At high flow, Niagara funnels about 384 million liters per minute, Victoria 500 million. It's big!
This is what it was sometimes like, in a squall and barely able to see the roaring falls.
Above the falls was less tumultuous but not less beautiful. It was on the upper Zamezi that Livingstone first heard of the "great waterfall," and he landed in a canoe on a small island just at the lip of the precipice. That island is now called Livingstone Island, just as the town was named Livingstone, as are buildings and hotels.
And, of course, a statue of the explorer watches over his "discovery."
But Victoria Falls wasn't the only thing we learned about in Livingstone. We saw a sign for and did a quick visit to the Jewish Museum - yes, that's right, a Jewish Museum (housed at the Railroad Museum!) in Livingstone, Zambia. Why, you might ask? As it turns out, the first European settlers in Zambia were Jewish emigrants fleeing the pogroms of the Pale in Eastern Europe. They came, developed trading enterprises and large cattle farms. They became central figures in the region's business community (one set of brothers started out selling home-brewed ginger beer at railway stations and built a conglomerate that included Woolworths, an up-scale food store we frequented in South Africa). And they integrated into the local politics; one Jewish man became agriculture minister after independence.
It was a good ending to a great trip.
