Africa’s Victoria Falls: the good, bad and ugly sides to tourism at the world’s largest water curtain
- An adrenaline junkie’s dream destination, the wildly impressive waterfall is not without faults, gatecrashing crocodiles and badly behaved baboons among them
The Good
One of the most spectacular sights in Africa, Victoria Falls is a mile-long marvel of mist and spray marking the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Known to locals as Mosi-oa-Tunya, “the smoke that thunders”, the roar from the world’s largest single curtain of falling water can be heard 40km away.
The falls were named after Britain’s Queen Victoria by David Livingstone, the first European known to have crossed the Dark Continent. On coming face to face with the waterfall in 1855, the explorer and missionary incredulously recorded, “It has never been seen before by European eyes, but scenes so wonderful must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.”
Chief Sekeletu, of the local Makololo tribe, paddled the adventurous Scotsman to Goat Island, now Livingstone Island, which is as close to the dramatic cataract as you can get. Well, almost. Today’s tourists take the same route until they, too, are surrounded by the tossing, tumbling Zambezi River. Water levels are at their lowest from late August to early January and this is when fearless (or foolish) foreigners dive in and swim to Devil’s Pool. A submerged ledge enables show-offs to lie on the lip of the falls, barely a metre from the raging rapids, without being swept over.
The ultimate infinity pool is reached from the Zambian border town of – you guessed it – Livingstone. The easy-going former capital is a popular base for visitors wary of the political, economic and social unrest just across the river.
