The smoke is rising said my taxi driver as he drove me out to the Victoria Falls; you can see the spray in the sky for miles around. This is the same man I used before in Livingstone and who helped recover my lost camera. I remember you, he said when I phoned him; how’s Choma, how’s Ben? It’s a small country.
The falls are a complete contrast to my first visit in October at the end of the dry season when they looked more like a giant quarry. Now they are approaching their thunderous best; sufficient water to amaze, but not enough spray to completely mask them. Very wet, though; I had put on gortex boots, quick drying trousers and took a spare shirt to change into. The Chelsea umbrella helped, if only to keep the worst of the water off the camera. Its 31o today so being soaked wasn’t a great hardship. These are the before and after the rains pictures:
This time I also walked down to the boiling pot where the falls emerge through the gorge. The spray has created a tropical rainforest microclimate and the vegetation has responded with lush palm trees and rich foliage. Lovely to walk through, despite the baboons, of which I’m very wary, but a stiff climb back in the heat:
Wow! What a contrast! I still remember the grass on the Zim side (Rhodesian as it was then) teeming with minute frogs. It seemed impossible not to stand on them, though they must have hopped out of the way at the last minute.