Day 41

Day forty one
Wednesday - 26th February 2020

Current position
New Fairmount Hotel
84 John Hunt Way
Livingstone
Zambia
S 17°50.58816'
E 25°51.57822'

Ros woke saying in a tired voice I'm sure this is a memory foam mattress but unfortunately it remembered the person before me. I took from this that she hadn't slept well.
We had a stale cherry drop scone and coffee for breakfast at a small café and as we walked outside Ros quietly said to me we need a taxi but before the words had left her mouth a smiling black face said you'd like a taxi ma'am. Ros reluctantly said yes how much to Victoria Falls? She agreed a price and we jumped in and fifteen minutes later we were paying to enter the Falls. As taxi drivers go he was a nice chap and we took his mobile number and agreed that we would use him later for the trip home. It's better the devil you know and to have a return trip lined up other than to be at the mercy of taxi drivers who know you need to get back and charge accordingly.
We walked the short path to the start of the Falls which could be heard roaring in front of us. In one of the African languages they are known as 'Mosi-Oa-Tunya' which means the 'smoke that thunders' which is certainly true as the water pours over the edge of the rocky cliff and cascades down crashing to the rocks below sending a continuous white misty spray upwards like a cloud of wet smoke. It was an amazing sight as we were confronted with this spectical as we reached the viewing platform. We took photographs and moved on to the next and it was at this point that we were pleased that we had paid a couple of dollars to rent two rain coats as the air was filled with what can only be called rain. Without the waterproofs we'd have got soaked. We were surprised yet again that we were two of just a handful of visitors and had Victoria Falls almost to ourselves which continued for the rest of the day. The only exception was the Zambian Red Arrow rugby team who ran past us with their soaking rugby shirts in hand asking if they could have their photograph taken with us much to Ros' delight as we posed with a group of nearly naked young men.
We walked as far as we could along the Zambian side of the Falls and realised that we had only seen about a quarter and needed to cross the border into Zimbabwe to see the rest. So we decided as long as the weather is good that we would do this tomorrow.
Around lunchtime we stopped for coffee and a doughnut and got talking to a English guy of around fifty four who had been travelling on and off for the last twenty years. He was in the process of writing a book about his travels in the hope of getting it published. The title of his book will be Wanderlust by Paul Holt. As usual we listened to his ramblings with no chance of us squeezing in a word anywhere.
In the afternoon we descended the rocky steps to the Boiling Pot which is at the base of the Falls where the fallen water bubbles and swirls its way down stream under the bridge to Zimbabwe. The water levels are fairly low at the moment so the Boiling Pot was only gently simmering.
Like all craggy steps it is surprisingly easier to walk up than down and our ascent seemed a lot quicker.
Before we left the Falls we took a look at the statue of Dr Livingstone which was erected in his honour in 2005 to commemorate his discovery and naming Victoria Falls in 1855 when he was exploring the Zambezi River. As Ros said gazing at his statue he was certainly not a looker.
We then ran the gauntlet of the nic nac sellers to walk across the bridge into no mans land towards Zimbabwe. The bridge was manufactured in sections at the Cleveland Bridge Company in Darlington England and shipped to Africa. The construction started on 1st April 1905 and by sunset the two central girders were dropped into place but they overlapped by one and a quarter inches as they were too long. When work started the next morning it was found that during the night the two girders had contracted by one and a quarter inches and fitted perfectly.
We fathomed out how to get a bridge pass from the Immigration Office and set off over the bridge where we saw the falls from a distance. The sun was playing on the smokey white spray making colourful rainbows.
On the way back at the centre of the bridge Ros got chatting to the lad who ran the bungy jump and he was pleased that he'd had five daredevil jumpers today. Just before we reached the end of the bridge I phoned Raphael our taxi driver and within fifteen minutes he picked us up and dropped us back in town at the Spar supermarket so we could replenish our stock of water.
We arranged to use Raphael and his taxi again tomorrow to take us back to the Falls see them from the Zimbabwe side.
In the evening we walked up to the pub again for a fillet steak and a bottle of red South African Pinotage.