The Victoria Falls!
Victoria Falls
We’re in tourist Africa, again—this time at a resort overlooking a world class tourist site—Victoria Falls. While names of other landmarks and towns have changed (I’ve finally figured out the pre-independence names), Victoria Falls, named in the 1850s by David Livingstone, a medical missionary who spent most of his life “discovering” Africa, is still named for Her British Majesty, and Livingstone, the city, still bears the name of the explorer.
Getting here yesterday involved two of the 3 countries. We left Botswana (originally the Bechuanaland Protectorate) after another game drive. We went back to the site of the elephant-lion encounter (though I’m not sure that the lions killed the elephant), and the lions were still there. I hope l have a picture of a lioness surveying the crowd who’d come to watch, her whole mouth red—like a little kid who’d eaten Thanksgiving dinner without a fork (which is actually how lions eat!). It was a quiet drive, but at the end, most of the animals we saw came to say good-bye.
We had a briefing last night by one of the faculty tour leaders, who told us some interesting things about the two million citizens Botswana—from independence until the mid 90s, it had the fastest growth rate in the world. The secret? Diamonds. They may be, as Marilyn Monroe crooned, “A girl’s best friend,” but they’re definitely Botswana’s. The country has an agreement with DeBeers, that gives the country 70% of the diamond revenue. The current GDP per capita, at $14,000, is one of the highest in the region; only South Africa, which, it turns out, owns many of the industries here, is higher.
While we were waiting at the border (the Zambesi River) between Botswana and Zambia (nee Northern Rhodesia) for the one passenger ferry to take us and our bags across the river, we came upon a monument that told us a lot about the politics here: the monument dedicated a bridge in September 2014. The bridge has been delayed because of the politics—Botswana isn’t eager for it because most of the traffic is Zambia-South Africa. As I mentioned, the delays can be up to a week.
That brought us to Zambia, where we’ll be until early Friday morning when we return to South Africa. The former Northern Rhodesia, with about 14 million people has an income around $4500 per capita, based partly on tourism, partly on the copper mines in the north. I’ve said tourism is the world’s biggest business, and Victoria Falls certainly is spectacular. One mile wide, it’s the waterfall with the largest volume of water, and I confess I was not expecting the thunderous cascades. Seeing the whole thing required the next country, a visa, and a $30 fee to enter the park.
The country is Zimbabwe, formerly Southern Rhodesia, a country with a checkered and violent history, that probably started when the white racist Ian Smith declared independence from Great Britain and promised white supremacy for a thousand years (didn’t Hitler do that, too?). Anyway, most of us walked across the 1905 bridge that defines the border here, and spans one of the deepest gorges in the world. During the summer (remember it’s winter here), much of the Zambia side of the waterfall becomes a trickle, and the major cascades are in Zimbabwe. The day was spectacularly blue, which meant a lot of rainbows from the spray.
One option on the Zimbabwe side was to visit an old colonial hotel, an option I readily exercised. The Victoria Falls Hotel, built a century ago, is one of those elegant European hotels that dot the former colonial world. It was built by the Rhodesian railway company, and had probably priceless artifacts. In the main entrance stands 8 foot portraits of King George V and Queen Mary, with British cartoons (a nice series lampooning the British, as the British are wont to do), with maps and pictures from the old days. One interesting fact: the Hotel was on the route of a flying clipper that made the journey from Southampton to Cape Town—in 7 days. The hotel was one of the stops (I suspect it stayed overnight at each of the stops). Withall, the 3 mile traipse across the bridge yielded some spectacular pictures.
Enjoying a kayak trip on the Zambesi River
Today is African independence day, which seems to be a holiday celebrated throughout much of the continent. We had the day free, especially in the morning—and there were a plethora of activities to (pay for and) choose from. I think two of our faculty took the microflight trip over the falls, and a few toured the city of Livingstone, which has one of the best ethnography museums in Africa, but most went to animal farms where they could walk with lions, cheetahs, or elephants.
I chose to take what was supposed to be a canoe trip on the Zambezi River which turned out to be a two man kayak; I went with the youngest member of our group, and we were in the front of the kayak, with a guide in the rear. I envisioned a narrow river, with trees along the banks, and snakes hanging from them jumping into the boat. Instead, we did a five mile stretch, with a National Park on the Zimbabwe side and a sparsely settled Zambian side—and the river is probably a quarter of a mile wide. The best part for me—besides the fact that there was no traffic other than our two boats—was an island we passed that had a hippo that surfaced, blew out air and water, and snorted, that and the crocodiles we spotted on the banks.
I was thinking that I had become Scoutmaster about 32 years ago, and what a wonderful way to celebrate that achievement, if 9000 miles from Troop 19.
We leave at 6 am tomorrow for a 6 hour bus ride to Lukasa, the capitol of Zambia. Good night!