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.