Wake up at 420am. There’s a mosquito in here. Arms and wrists are chewed up. Alarm blares at 5. The goal is to see the sunrise over Victoria Falls. Daaaah this sucks. It’ll be worth it. Mark is up and groggy. “There a mosquito in here? I’m wrecked! Look at this shit.” “Ya seems like Jollyboys left the sprinklers on all night.” “Ahh mosquito heaven, thanks.” “My nose thinks we may have vented the dirty sock smell overnight though.” “Well that’s a bonus.”

Drisdelle and Peter are getting up and ready from Belinda’s bottom bunk. We’re forgoing breakfast so we can just get to the falls before the crowds. We have some random granola bars and snacks we picked up along the way to get us through.

The entrance to Victoria Falls is just south of Livingstone. There is a border crossing to Zimbabwe there too. The falls are on the Zambezi river that acts as the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

“Haha check it out.” Mark points at a GPS marker on the map, “Got ambushed and robbed. Don’t stop here.” “Well we have to drive right past there.” “Hmmm probably too early for ambushings.”

We pull up to the border and follow signs for the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park. Nothing about this feels right. Looks like everything is locked up tight. Nothing is open and no people around. Just a handful of security guards. Windows are down. “You can hear the smoke that thunders from here!” Indeed there is a low, rumbling din of the thunderous falls from beyond the tree line. Sounds massive.

Peter and Mark hop out to go talk to the security guys. They come back with a full report, “It’s not open yet. The cashier probably won’t even get here until at least 7:30.” “Ya, we’re on Africa time.” “But they did say we can pay a discounted rate to them and get in right now.” “So we’re bribing our way into a world wonder?” “Seems that way. And saving money too haha.” “Aaaaand no one else will be in there.” “Ohhh good point.” “Yep, fuck it, let’s go.”

We pool some kwacha together and send Peter and Mark back to pay off the security guys. It’s surprisingly cheap to get in here. Only about ten bucks. We give the guys around $26 for the four of us and they’re fine with that. They point to the entrance on the edge of the forest.

We walk right past the empty ticketing booth and slip under the entrance gate. Now we’re in a rainforest. Everything is slightly wet. There’s a gravel path leading through some trees.

“Feels kind of wrong to be breaking into a world wonder.” “Ya, it’s weird. So I guess seeing the sunrise over the falls isn’t really a thing then?” “Apparently not. Zero people here.”

We follow the path towards the tumultuous sound of the cascading waters. It’s getting light out now but the sun hasn’t crested yet. We come out into a clearing. The path continues along the cliff face and there is a wooden railing. The falls are right in front of us! Except we can’t really get a good view of the whole extent of them. It’s just a wall of mist blasting up from the crashing waters below.

The falls come in and out of view and their breadth is mighty impressive. Easily the craziest waterfalls I’ve ever witnessed. I think if you took both the Canadian and American sides of Niagara Falls and straightened it all out into a line, these would still be about 40-50% bigger. And the drop off is massive. Must be few hundred feet.

We walk the length of the area to figure out where a good sunrise viewpoint would be. These falls are literally awesome.

We come up to Knife Edge Bridge and figure this is a good spot. It juts out slightly giving us a good panorama view of things. “Nice to have the whole place to ourselves.” “Crazy actually. The bribe paid off.” “Oh here we go, got some sun coming over the top there now.” “Oh wow. This is legendary.”

“Alright let’s get across the Knife’s Edge.” “Is it starting to rain? Or is that the mist from the falls?” “Hmm yep, it’s starting to rain.” “Damn, it’s slippery too.”

We get up to a vantage point looking over at the Victoria Falls bridge that also acts as the crossing border from Zambia into Zimbabwe.

“We could cross into Zimbabwe and see them from there too and come back if we want” “Ya we could. Jönkö did mention that it would probably be a shitshow.” “And if the border crossing yesterday was any indication…” “Riiiight. So I’m guessing we’re gonna pass on the ZimZam border dash.” “I’d say so.”

Get across the Knife’s Edge and there’s a double rainbow popping in the mist now.

Peter is pumped about the double rainbow. “Ok this rainbow is pretty fucking majestic!” “Is that a banana in your pocket or just your rainbowner?” “Look at this shit!”

We curve around to a new vantage point.

Now we’re tethered to the rainbow’s majesty and trying to find other angles to capture it from. Finally feeling awake too.

We follow the trail a little more and come upon a statue of David Livingstone. In 1855 he was the first European to lay eyes on the thunderous Mosi-au-Tunya waterfalls and named them Victoria Falls. He’s also the namesake for the city of Livingstone that we just came from. And a rather dashing fella as well.

It’s peaceful in here under the canopy. It muffles the thunder of the constant water sheet and makes it a relaxing white background noise.

We come around to another nice vantage point looking out at another section of the falls through the canyon.

Peter pulls some long exposure, Rivendell shit.

A ladybug lands on my arm and offers a blessing of good luck. Aren’t you a pretty little thing. I accept this boon on my authority.

We come back around and that rainbow just won’t quit. What a magical sight. Made all the more special that we’re still the only people in here to see this beauty.

Sun’s well up now and a couple people here and there are starting to filter in. “Guess the cashier lady has finally gotten started for the day.” “I think that’s our queue, eh?” “Think so. Getting proper hungry anyways.” “You thinking Zest?” “Yep. Can’t be as bad as Zambezi was yesterday.” “Ohhhhh yes it can.” “Hahah ya, I suppose it can.”

We cut back through the rainforest to the parking lot. We get a smile and a wave from our security partners in crime as we take our assigned seats in Belinda.

“Well Victoria Falls checks out.” “Pfffft I guess it fucking does! Place is insanely epic.” “Nice to have the whole day ahead of us too.” “Ya that’s baaaaaaaaaad aaaaaace. See how far we can get into the Kafue.” Mark points out the GPS marker again from earlier. “Let’s try not to get ambushed and robbed on the way to lunch.” “Roger that.”