Trip Report - Livingstone/Victoria Falls

Livingstone isn't called the adrenalin center of Zambia for nothing. After seeing the famous Victoria Falls- which are spectacular and simply shouldn't be missed - you can opt for such diversions as bungee jumping, abseiling, white water rafting, tandem skydiving, quad biking, fishing, jet boating, canoeing, ride elephants, walk with lions, see the falls from a microlight, helicopter or small plane, and get very, very loaded on a sunset cruise. My Zambian friends tell me that Livingstone in certain local circles is called "Lovingstone", which I thought might have to do with the fact that honeymooners are spoiled for choice of romantic accommodations, Tongebezi's private houses, completely open on their Zambezi River side, are one excellent example. But what my friends referred to was an earlier stage of the dating game. They insist that anyone can find a mate in Livingstone, for the short or long term. I will have to take their word for it.

To me bungee jumping at Livingstone seems disrespectful too to the natural spectacle of Victoria Falls. (No, I have never jumped myself, but in response to any critics who might think cowardliness impacts my opinion of bungee jumping, I point out that I have jumped out of an airplane. ) As Zimbabwean writer Peter Godwin puts it so succinctly in "When a Crocodile Eats the Sun": Livingstone has "all the raucous feel of a frontier souk simultaneously servicing different fantasies….a world heritage sight that has been transformed into a Babylon of Adrenalin that conservation purists see as merchants running riot in the temple of Nature."

As one of those conservation purists, I went looking for quality experiences after seeing the falls. I found several which were more than worthwhile, among them a cultural day trip or two to a Tonga village (not the one in every guide book), and a walk in Livingstone's Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park tracking White rhino, the account of which follows and the short video of which is up on the website.

14-10-2009