Victoria Falls on Foot

On the Zimbabwean bank the path runs through a strip of rainforest that has no business being there. The country around it is dry bush, but the spray from the falls comes back down on this one ridge as rain, day after day, and has done for long enough to grow a forest of tall trees, with ferns and moss on everything.

The viewpoints open off the path one after another, each looking straight across the chasm at the water coming over. Livingstone’s statue stands near the western end, above the Devil’s Cataract, with Cataract Island just beyond.

Then the long curtain of the Main Falls, split from the next stretch by Livingstone Island on the lip, then Horseshoe Falls and Rainbow Falls, the highest part of the drop. At Danger Point, where the path runs out, you look down into the Boiling Pot, the first bend of the river in the gorge below.

The Zambian bank is the other end of the same chasm, and a different walk. The path keeps to the edge of the forest and then crosses the Knife Edge Bridge, a narrow footbridge out to a point of rock with the Eastern Cataract in front of you and the Boiling Pot below. When the river is high this is less a view than a weather system: you cross in a raincoat, in a roar, and mostly see white.

The volume of water is the thing to plan around. After the rains upstream the river comes down enormous, the spray stands over the falls in a column you can see from well outside town, and on either bank you are walking in a downpour. Late in the year the flow drops right away: Zimbabwe keeps water over most of its length, while parts of the Zambian side can thin to bare rock. Tell us your dates and we will suggest the bank that suits them, or both.

On the Zimbabwean side the walk also runs as a half day with a village visit. You go out to a homestead, meet the family who live there, hear how the household and the village share out their work, and finish at a small shop of things the extended family makes.

It is the natural first morning of a stay. See the falls on foot before you see them from the air, or from Livingstone Island at the very lip.

Good to know

• Take a raincoat or hire one near the entrance, and a waterproof pouch for your phone. At high water nothing in a pocket stays dry.
• Wear shoes that grip on wet stone. The paths are easy, but slippery in the spray.
• The two banks are two countries. Walking both means a border crossing with your passport, and a visa that allows it. We check what yours needs.
• Late in the year the Zambian side can run thin. We tell you which bank suits your dates.
• The village visit runs on the Zimbabwean side only. It is a family’s home: ask before photographing people or houses.