English post: Angels in 2009
Door: Leonie
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Leonie
11 Januari 2009 | Zambia, Lusaka
Angels in 2009
‘Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight’
The famous words of Dr David Livingstone when he was the first European to see the Victoria Falls in 1855. (okay, there appears to have been a Portugese guy before him, but it wasn’t officially recognised). The falls used to be called ‘Mosi-oa-Tuna’, meaning something like smoking thunders. What a beautiful name, far more creative than the current name ‘Victoria’. The falls are about 1.7 km wide and the average height is 100 meters with 550 million liters of water plunging down every minute, making the Vic Falls one of the largest in the world.
January 1st seemed to Nadia and myself a very suitable day to start the new year by having a look at the falls. We were indeed very impressed by the falls. There’s about 4 paths around the falls which lead you to some amazing view points. One path takes your right in front of them with only a deep gorge in between, and the mosi-oa-tuna rained down on us from there. A rainbow forming a circle below especially amazed us when we were standing on a bridge right in front of the falls. We gazed upon this very special phenomenon for half an hour or so.
Another path led us right on top of the falls where you can see the water going over, and it’s hard to believe that the fairly ‘gentle’ stream will turn into a 100 meter plunge only seconds later. Then there was a path on which we saw very few people, which should have warned us that it may have been a tricky part. Later we read that indeed a lot of people don’t take the path to the boiling pot, as it’s quite a climb over rocks. But a guide showed us the best climb through, which made it quite a nice climb, except for our wobbly legs that weren’t quite stable yet after last night’s new years party. Because of the constant sprinkle of rain, some beautiful tropical vegetation was growing down the falls and we were wading through a small stream to be able to pass to the rocks leading to the boiling pot, where the rafters and kayakers start their adventurous journey. We didn’t get around to that this time, maybe another day. On the opposite site of the boiling pot we could see the very old rail bridge that was constructed in 1905, making Livingstone the capital of Northern Rhodesia at the time. It now forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. (used by bungee jumpers mostly).
The last path was quite a scenic route, also called the photographic route showing the falls and it’s gorges from a distance. On every corner we took we decided ‘now this is the moment to take a picture, as it can’t get more beautiful than this’- which indeed it could.
There’s plenty to do in Livingstone, so the other days of our trip we had some more great experiences. The night before visiting the falls we went to a party in town and enjoyed ourselves a lot, making some Zambian friends.
Another day we went on a walking safari, neatly following the guide in line, so he’d be the first one to step on a snake. Luckily we didn’t and also the elephants had already moved to the Zimbabwean site. Just like the famous rhinos, which we couldn’t find unfortunately. But it’s great anyway to spot a herd of zebras, gnoes, a hippo, and giraffes close by.
At night we took the ‘booze cruise’ over the mighty Zambezi. The name of the cruise had almost put us off, but since we fancied free drinks and a braai more than two drinks and no food and a very formal setting at another cruise boat, we took this booze cruise. Luckily we didn’t get any drunken crowds, and it was great to watch crocodiles and hippos from the river. Especially the sunset was beautiful, and a few wines made us very cheerful and happy, which continued at the backpackers’ place where we met some nice people from all kinds of odd countries.
The last day we relaxed the whole day around the pool since the weather was great, but managed to squeeze in an hours’ visit to the local (and quite nice) museum. There we learned of witchcraft and saw some bags the witches made from human skin (eehks). In the evening we had a very special activity planned: to fly with a microlight flight over the falls! A microlight is sort of a paraglide, with a small motor, but still flying mostly on the wind. Wow, that was truly amazing, and Livingstone was quite right in him comment about feeling like angels gazing down on the spectacular falls. In trying to look for words we thought the only word coming close would be ‘mesmerizing’- and when reading through the travellers’ guide it appeared this was the best word they could think of as well. I also flew over a bit of the National Park and below in the Zambezi I could see the hippos and crocodiles. The hippos are quite special: normally you only see their heads, but since the water is so clear you can see their whole body from the sky. We ended with diner at the Waterfront overlooking the Zambezi at sunset.
To all my English speaking friends: Have an amazing 2009, I hope you will reach great heights!
‘Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight’
The famous words of Dr David Livingstone when he was the first European to see the Victoria Falls in 1855. (okay, there appears to have been a Portugese guy before him, but it wasn’t officially recognised). The falls used to be called ‘Mosi-oa-Tuna’, meaning something like smoking thunders. What a beautiful name, far more creative than the current name ‘Victoria’. The falls are about 1.7 km wide and the average height is 100 meters with 550 million liters of water plunging down every minute, making the Vic Falls one of the largest in the world.
January 1st seemed to Nadia and myself a very suitable day to start the new year by having a look at the falls. We were indeed very impressed by the falls. There’s about 4 paths around the falls which lead you to some amazing view points. One path takes your right in front of them with only a deep gorge in between, and the mosi-oa-tuna rained down on us from there. A rainbow forming a circle below especially amazed us when we were standing on a bridge right in front of the falls. We gazed upon this very special phenomenon for half an hour or so.
Another path led us right on top of the falls where you can see the water going over, and it’s hard to believe that the fairly ‘gentle’ stream will turn into a 100 meter plunge only seconds later. Then there was a path on which we saw very few people, which should have warned us that it may have been a tricky part. Later we read that indeed a lot of people don’t take the path to the boiling pot, as it’s quite a climb over rocks. But a guide showed us the best climb through, which made it quite a nice climb, except for our wobbly legs that weren’t quite stable yet after last night’s new years party. Because of the constant sprinkle of rain, some beautiful tropical vegetation was growing down the falls and we were wading through a small stream to be able to pass to the rocks leading to the boiling pot, where the rafters and kayakers start their adventurous journey. We didn’t get around to that this time, maybe another day. On the opposite site of the boiling pot we could see the very old rail bridge that was constructed in 1905, making Livingstone the capital of Northern Rhodesia at the time. It now forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. (used by bungee jumpers mostly).
The last path was quite a scenic route, also called the photographic route showing the falls and it’s gorges from a distance. On every corner we took we decided ‘now this is the moment to take a picture, as it can’t get more beautiful than this’- which indeed it could.
There’s plenty to do in Livingstone, so the other days of our trip we had some more great experiences. The night before visiting the falls we went to a party in town and enjoyed ourselves a lot, making some Zambian friends.
Another day we went on a walking safari, neatly following the guide in line, so he’d be the first one to step on a snake. Luckily we didn’t and also the elephants had already moved to the Zimbabwean site. Just like the famous rhinos, which we couldn’t find unfortunately. But it’s great anyway to spot a herd of zebras, gnoes, a hippo, and giraffes close by.
At night we took the ‘booze cruise’ over the mighty Zambezi. The name of the cruise had almost put us off, but since we fancied free drinks and a braai more than two drinks and no food and a very formal setting at another cruise boat, we took this booze cruise. Luckily we didn’t get any drunken crowds, and it was great to watch crocodiles and hippos from the river. Especially the sunset was beautiful, and a few wines made us very cheerful and happy, which continued at the backpackers’ place where we met some nice people from all kinds of odd countries.
The last day we relaxed the whole day around the pool since the weather was great, but managed to squeeze in an hours’ visit to the local (and quite nice) museum. There we learned of witchcraft and saw some bags the witches made from human skin (eehks). In the evening we had a very special activity planned: to fly with a microlight flight over the falls! A microlight is sort of a paraglide, with a small motor, but still flying mostly on the wind. Wow, that was truly amazing, and Livingstone was quite right in him comment about feeling like angels gazing down on the spectacular falls. In trying to look for words we thought the only word coming close would be ‘mesmerizing’- and when reading through the travellers’ guide it appeared this was the best word they could think of as well. I also flew over a bit of the National Park and below in the Zambezi I could see the hippos and crocodiles. The hippos are quite special: normally you only see their heads, but since the water is so clear you can see their whole body from the sky. We ended with diner at the Waterfront overlooking the Zambezi at sunset.
To all my English speaking friends: Have an amazing 2009, I hope you will reach great heights!
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
