Day of VICTORIA FALLS!

One of the biggest attractions that drew us to Zambia in the first place was to see Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. So from 10am to approximately 9pm this evening, we immersed ourselves in, across from, on top of, and below the falls.

Our morning started with an activity we had signed up for through Jollyboys - a tour of Livingstone Island. The island sits at the lip of the falls, and we had heard it offers an unparalleled view, so we had to check it out. We realized at breakfast that none of us reallyyyyyy knew how this day worked (we were only confident that a boat ride and a delicious meal would be involved). We were dropped off at the ultra-swanky Royal Livingstone Hotel, where we were then collected by a little speedboat that took us to Livingstone Island. For maybe the tenth time on this trip, we felt a tad out of place - we were the youngest in the group by about 30 years, and were perhaps the only ones not STAYING at the Royal Livingstone. When we got to the island, we were welcomed with a traditional Zambian drink made of corn, sugar and strawberries. Yum! We were then instructed to remove our shoes, roll up our pants, and don giant ponchos. We were allowed to bring our cameras, but had to leave all other posessions behind, as we began our tour of the island. To try and give a mental picture, the island is sitting level with the very lip of the falls. There was water rushing over the falls on both sides of us, and in front of us was water gathering in a pool ready to go over the edge.

Still unsure of what we were doing here, our guide Alex began leading us through slippery, swampy, muddy terrain that lead to the pool of water that sits at the top of the falls. We followed in disbelief as he instructed us to "hold hands!" and inched us closer and closer to the edge of the falls. Spray was everywhere, our cameras were soaked (as were we), and there were rainbows all around (even double rainbows - we now understand the youtube excitement!). He took us one by one to the VERY edge, where we could literally look straight down the falls to where the water collects. This was unlike anything we had EVER seen before, as evidenced by each of our reactions when we first looked over. From this vantage point we also had a very unique view of the rest of the falls - we were basically standing IN the falls, looking at them on either side of us. As usual, pictures will describe this much better than our words can. This basically wrapped up our tour of the island, and we were lead back to the tent for a hot foot bath and a fancy brunch (scones and eggs benedict - delish!!). Talk about a meal with a view!

Once the boat brought us back to the mainland, we decided to explore Mosi O Tunya (Victoria Falls) National Park. We rented ponchos and followed a path along the edge of the gorge that the falls create, getting soaked for the second time today. It was neat to see the falls from this view as well - we could really get an idea of how massive the falls were, and how much water thundered over them each second. We followed a second path down into the gorge to the Boiling Pot, a whirlpool where water collects at the base of the falls. From here we could also see the bridge that joins the Zambian and Zimbabwean sides of the gorge. It also happens to be where crazy people bungee jump and gorge swing from, and we watched some of them in action. We climbed back out of the gorge, and headed back to Jollyboys for dinner - only to head back to the falls a mere two hours later.

Usually the park closes at 6pm, but we're lucky enough to be here during the full moon when it re-opens at 7 to allow for viewing of the lunar rainbow. Again, we didn't really know what to expect, but heard this was something we should NOT miss. We re-entered the park and were taken to a viewpoint near the lip of the falls. From there we could see a full rainbow in the mist of the falls created by the light of the full moon. A rainbow at night - again, something we had definitely never seen before (and may never see again)! It was certainly worth the trek back out, and hopefully our pictures do it justice!

This was a phenomenal day, but we are officially falls-ed out! This calls for an early bed time so that we're ready to go WHITE WATER RAFTING on the Zambezi river tomorrow!! Should be a blast!