One of the 7 natural wonders of the world is Victoria Falls and we were there! Vic Falls, as it is referred to by many, is on the Zambezi River and is shared between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Vic Falls can easily be accessed from both countries: Livingstone in Zambia or Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

When we first arrived in Livingstone, Zambia (this used to be the capital, now it is Lusaka) the intense, dry heat totally caught us off guard (the plane was freezing, mind you). We headed to our hostel to settle in and get acclimated with the heat. It was unbearable, all we could do was sit and lounge around the pool and try to move as little as possible.

The next day, though, we decided to make our way to Vic Falls. The Falls is only a 5 minute taxi ride (5 USD) from the center, but the entry fee is a few bucks more (maybe it was 20 USD?? Sorry, I don’t remember how much it was, there was no option to turn back…). There are alot of baboons at the entrance and they are not shy, so leave your fruits and bread at the hostel.

There are many trails to choose from, but no maps of the park. So we just walked around. At one point, we were looking at the amazing view in front of us when a young man approached us. He told us that it would be okay to go down here:

So we followed suit. Maybe I should mention that there were no fencing or signs of the sort that would hint towards “This is not a path. No walking allowed.” We ventured around for maybe 1.5 hours, our buddy took us all over.

There we go…off with our buddy. This part is covered with water during the rainy season.

Vernturing off.

Getting close to the edge again.

Getting real close to the edge.

Our buddy and I crossing a river.

Us at the Falls.

Upon returning to where we had originally met, our buddy proceeds to hide behind some bushes and tells us that we should say we can’t speak English if anyone approaches us. So I ask him what kind of people will approach us, to which he says, “No matter. Anyone.” Okaaaay, I thought to myself. So we head back.

Right away we could see two men already eyeing us and waiting for us. As soon as we get to our “starting point”, they start demanding to see our passports. Of course we listened to our buddy, “Sorry, no English”. The men didn’t believe us. They continued to follow us and demanding that we go with them and they need to see our passports. Apparently, what we did was illegal and the two men were policemen. So what did we do? We got out of there as fast as we could.

When we got back to our hostel, it dawned on me that the guys at the hostel warned us about going on “guided walks” with local guides: we shouldn’t do it and it is not allowed! He must have been talking about our buddy. But I was not thinking and didn’t think that our buddy was actually one of these local guides, until he asked us for money for his services. Ooops….

Is there a lesson here? Yes! Listen to the people at your hostel! And stay out of trouble.

On the plus side, we had an awesome tour of the Falls. 😉