The Smoke that Thunders

On Friday, January 4th, we set out for an adventure to Livingstone. This is the tourist capital of Zambia and Livingstone plays host to the mighty Victoria Falls, first seen by a European, Dr. David Livingstone on 11th November, 1858. The falls were named after Queen Victoria of England. The local name for the falls was the Mosi-Oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders.) Victoria Falls is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It is fed by the Zambezi river which has its course broken by vast gorges and rapids. The greatest drop of them all is the Victoria Falls.

We have all seen photos of this great wonder created by our Father, but to see it in person was truly amazing, undescribable, and like nothing you could imagine. Right now is the season of Rain, so we expected to get wet walking near the falls. And, we not only got wet, we got soaked. The mist from the amount of water cascading over the falls was so great it felt like we were walking through a downpour of rain showers. Needless to say, none of us minded getting wet. It was difficult trying to take pictures when we had all the cameras hidden from the water raining down on us.

We all had a great time exploring each path that led to an overlook. Crossing the gorge on a suspended bridge was a bit scary for Kelsey and I, but we made it across successfully. We watched people bungee jump from the bridge which borders Zambia and Zimbabwe. Austin said when he gets older, he would like to do that. Kelsey and I both agreed that was not for us girls. There are so many activities to do in Livingstone, but with only 2 nights stay we decided on a game drive and a cruise down the Zambezi. I will tell you more about those in another post. For our first excursion in our country, this trip was well worth it.