Nowadays there are quite a few lists of different world wonders. One of these lists is of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. I had the incredible opportunity to go and experience one of them a couple of weekends ago. My friend, Noelle, and I took a quick trip to Livingstone, Zambia, to see Victoria Falls, the largest (widest) waterfall in the world!!
We flew out to Zambia Friday night, checked into our Backpackers, our accommodation for the weekend, then headed to a local café for some Zambian dinner. It had a nice atmosphere with outdoor seating and there was a live band playing outside (featuring lots of Ed Sheeran covers). We tried some crocodile bites and a barbecue pizza with bananas on it! It was a fun way to start off our time in a new country.
The next morning we got up and left to head to the falls! Victoria falls is part of the Zambezi River, which marks the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. We were staying on the Zambian side but decided to start off by visiting the Zimbabwe side of the falls since this is supposedly where the best views are. In order to do so, we had to go through customs, walk across the bridge between the countries, and enter Zimbabwe. It was crazy to just be able to walk from one country to the other so easily.
Once in Zimbabwe, we walked to the park entrance. We could already hear the roaring of the falls, so we followed the sound. The falls are so large that there are several different viewpoints to see them from; so we hopped from one to the next, trying to soak in as much as we could! At each viewpoint, you couldn’t help but get a little wet from all the mist spraying up from the force of the falls, but it was refreshing since it was almost 100 degrees that day! The falls were absolutely amazing and even bigger than I expected.
(Click on first photo to view as slide show!)
After watching the falls for a little while, we trekked back over to Zambia to see what the falls looked like from the other side. Although not as big as they were on the Zimbabwe side, the falls were still incredible. There is a section called the Rainbow Falls because rainbows are commonly found near the bottom of the falls there. We were able to see a couple of rainbows while on that side of the park.
(Click on first photo to view as slide show!)
After wandering around this side of the park, we headed to our next adventure: Devil’s Pool. Devil’s pool is a part at the top of the Falls where with a natural rock pool and natural rock barrier that weakens the current and prevents you from going over the edge. We met up with a tour group who led us to Livingstone Island, a small patch of land at the top of the falls, where we then began our walk/swim to Devil’s Pool. When we got there, the guides told us how to safely enter the pool and where to go. Getting in and swimming at the top of the largest waterfall in the world was probably one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life! Not only being at the top of the Falls, but also viewing them from this perspective was so humbling and a unique reminder of how awesome God’s creation is and how thankful I am to be able to experience it in such unique ways while abroad. It was definitely a highlight of the trip!
(Click on first photo to view as slide show!)
I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to take a weekend to visit Zambia and Zimbabwe and experience this amazing wonder! Victoria Falls did not disappoint and was an incredible sight to see in person! Now I just have to make it to the other six natural wonders 🙂
P.S. Our pilot on the flight back to Cape Town was super great and made sure to fly over the falls for us so we could spot it from an aerial view! Here’s what it looks like from a bird’s eye!
