Vic Falls: The adventure capital of Africa

Vic Falls: The adventure capital of Africa

A group of five Indonesian journalists, including Veeramalla
Anjaiah and photographer P.J. Leo from The Jakarta Post, visited
Zimbabwe recently. Zimbabwe's Ministry of Information and
Publicity invited them to see what was happening in that Southern
African country. Here is Anjaiah's report:

When I told my wife that I would be going to Africa for a
short visit, she said cynically "what for?" as if there was
nothing to do in Africa, the home to 850 million people.

I know many Asians, including my wife, only know Africa as a
place where civil wars, hunger, famine, and deadly AIDS and Ebola
diseases are common. Most of them would never dream going there
unless it was for something very important.

Simply, this is not true about Africa, the home of 54 nations.

There are many, many shining areas in the African quagmire.
Zimbabwe, despite its present political and economic problems, is
one of those shining areas.

Zimbabwe -- a small but beautiful and peaceful southern African
nation -- is indeed Africa's paradise. Victoria Falls is one of
the most spectacular natural wonders of the world. Zimbabwe is
famous not only for its infrastructure, abundant resources, vast
lands and the well-educated population, but also for numerous
elephant, giraffe, leopard, lion, buffalo and wild dog.

We, a group of Indonesian journalists from The Jakarta Post,
Kompas and the Metro TV station, made the Victoria Falls -- or
Vic Falls -- our prime target for our recent trip to Zimbabwe,
which was sponsored by Zimbabwe's Ministry of Information and
Publicity.

If anyone is longing for adventure and wildlife, Vic Falls is
the obvious destination. It is not only one of the seven
"wonders of the world", but also the largest and most spectacular
waterfall on earth.

We decided to take the land route from Harare to the falls so
that we could see the beauty of the countryside along the way.

We covered the 800 km or so on a virtually deserted road,
similar to our Cikampek toll road. The long spell of drought and
recent fires had reduced the vegetation to small, stumpy trees in
sandy dirt. Throughout our journey, we didn't see any greenery.

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a severe drought, as well
as an acute shortage of oil and foreign currency.

After a tiring but thrilling journey from Harare to Vic Falls,
we finally reached our destination but, it was already too late
to venture out on an adventure.

We were told that traveling during the night in Vic Falls was
not safe as wild and hungry elephants and buffaloes roam around
this small town.

We stayed at the Elephant Hills Resort, 10 km from the
Victoria Falls town. We found a comfortable place with clean
rooms and food, including the local dish sajja (corn meal) and
the roast beef, which was delicious. But it was certainly
expensive at US$285 per double room per day. We were delighted to
see several animals including monkeys and wild pigs in the hotel
compound.

Next morning, we went to see our life-long dream -- Vic Falls
-- and were completely speechless for several moments.

I personally ran out of superlatives. I could use all the
words like greatest, biggest, best, superb to describe the Falls,
which is known as Mosi oa Tunya (The Smoke that Thunders) among
locals. A Scottish explorer -- David Livingstone -- who visited
the Falls on Nov. 16, 1855, named it Victoria Falls after the
British monarch of the day.

Here, the mighty Zambezi River, after flowing amiably along
for 1,200 kilometers, suddenly turns mean, roaring and spitting
as it crashes into a zig-zag of deep narrow gorges. The Falls
here forms a border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, whose tourism
industries are highly dependent on the world's largest curtain of
water.

"The thick mist and loud roar produced there are perceptible
from a distance of about 40 km," Chakai, an employee of Zimbabwe
Parks and Wildlife Management Authority who was accompanying us,
told the Post.

Our guide Victor, an employee of the Victoria and Zambezi
National Parks, told us that the Falls are 1.7 kilometers wide,
which is wider than the famous Niagara Falls, and nearly 550
million liters of water cascade 70 to 108 meters into the gorge
below every minute during the Zambezi River's peak flow.

But unfortunately, we went there in late October. The water
level was far below its March peak when most of the 1.7 kilometer
sheer drop is covered. We were totally disappointed.

"Don't worry, the peak period in March may not be the best
time for viewing the falls as the mist and spray that rises from
the over 100 meter drop can obscure the spectacle," Lovemore, a
Zimbabwean visitor from Bulawayo, said consolingly.

There were rainbows wherever we looked, and the mist rises and
the spray falls like a rain.

The Falls is located in a rain forest area, which is filled
with many unique species of flora and fauna. Many species of
birds and small mammals can be spotted beneath the protective
canopy of the forest. It was a thrilling experience walking
through the forest to view the Falls from various magnificent
viewpoints.

Next to the Victoria Falls, there is the Zambezi National
Park, which has a wide variety of large mammals including "The
Big Five": elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros.
Zambezi National Park and the Victoria National Park cover an
area of 56,000 hectares.

The Zambezi River is home to a large variety of fish and is
famous for its bream and fighting tiger-fish.

For many years, Victoria Falls has traditionally been the hub
of tours, game drives and adventure travel. That's why it is
called the "Adventure Capital of Africa." The town offers
whitewater rafting, flights over the falls by balloon, helicopter
(US$90 for 15 minutes) or microlight, and bungee jumping from the
Zambezi Bridge.

To our dismay, we found Victoria Falls -- once a bustling
tourist town -- totally deserted. Nowadays it has very few
tourists -- mainly Japanese and Europeans. Even the casino in the
town was empty.

"It's all because of the Western countries, especially the
British and American media's bad propaganda about my country.
They portray Zimbabwe as a place which is not safe and full of
hunger and violence. It's not true. The high rate of HIV/AIDS in
the country has also scared away many tourists," Chakai, a former
tourist guide, said.

But the Minister of Tourism has different views on this issue.

"We have so many national parks full of rare animals. We don't
want many tourists. Because those parks may not cope with the
influx of tourists and affect our ecological system. What we want
now is very few but quality tourists (high-end tourists),"
Minister of Environment and Tourism Francis Nhema said.

Any trip to Zimbabwe would not be complete if you did not
visit its biggest animal sanctuary, which is located not far from
the falls.

Located on an area of more than 14,000 square kilometers, the
Hwange National Park has about 90 species of mammals, 413 species
of birds and around 1,000 species of trees and shrubs. It
accommodates over 90,000 elephants and is the last refuge of the
Wild Dog. We can see also big cats like lion and leopard.

We will never forget the thrilling moments in the Hwange Park
when we spent time watching dangerous animals right in front of
us.