It was Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone who in 1855,on spotting the falls after journeying in a dug-out canoe along the Zambezi River,gushed in his diaries:“… scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight”. With this sentiment,he renamed the falls after his monarch,Queen Victoria,(more on the traditional name later).
These days,visitors can visit different sections of the 1708 metre-wide falls – one of “Seven Natural Wonders of the World” – from both Zambia and Zimbabwe. The deafening roar,soaking spray and perfect rainbows that arc over a mass of green of an indigenous rainforest provide a natural extravaganza at eye level. But I’m taking a different angle.
I’m boarding a helicopter for a 30-minute bird’s-eye encounter of this spectacle. Intuitively,I duck my head to avoid the blades that emit a fiercechop-chop-chop. The voice of Grant Welch,the pilot,comes through our bright pink ear phones:“Be aware. It gets windy so don’t stick your smartphone out the window”. With that brief warning,we take off.
The helicopter rises,hovers,shudders slightly and tilts forward. I grasp the meaning of stomach lurch:my gut has remained back at base. It catches up seconds later. I didn’t anticipate this. I berate myself for over-indulging in my breakfast:scrambled eggs,freshly made muffins and fruit,prepared by the chefs at Sussi&Chuma Lodge.
It’s a relief when the aircraft levels out. Welch points out a herd of eight elephants,from aerial heights they resemble massive boulders. It’s a mere prelude. A minute later,we’re gliding over the magnificent Zambezi River that shimmers below like a giant icefield.
But the real show-stopper is an iridescent white blanket that billows upwards,like steam seeping through a giant crack in the Earth. This extraordinary vision gives rise to the traditional (and far more powerful) Lozi name:Mosi-oa-Tunya. Smoke that Thunders. It’s a perfect description for the voluminous spray,resulting from roughly 500 million litres of water that plunge every minute over a basalt plateau into a 108-metre high chasm. Between the months of April and June when the river is at its peak,the mist can be seen from up to 50 kilometres away.
It’s hard to believe that the source of the incredible 2700-kilometre Zambezi River,a lifeline to communities and animals,is a mere spring in Zambia’s northwest. The falls are the half-way point along the river that flows through eastern Angola,before touching on Namibia and Botswana. It forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe and finally crosses Mozambique to enter the Indian Ocean.