By Roxanne Reid
Scottish missionary and medic David Livingstone (yes, he of ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume’ fame) may be the first documented European adventurer to have seen the Victoria Falls. But I can tell you that he didn’t see them the best way. Nearly 160 years later, you can go one up on old Livingstone.
Scottish missionary and medic David Livingstone (yes, he of ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume’ fame) may be the first documented European adventurer to have seen the Victoria Falls. But I can tell you that he didn’t see them the best way. Nearly 160 years later, you can go one up on old Livingstone.
In November 1855, Livingstone travelled down the Zambezi River to see for himself the area that indigenous people called ‘smoke that thunders’ because of the plumes of spray that rose into the air as the water thundered into the ravine below. From miles away as he approached in a canoe, he could see the columns of spray and hear the roar of water. He was impressed. ‘Scenes so lovely,’ he wrote, ‘must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.’
Today you can be those angels in flight. All you need to do is take a helicopter flip over the Falls.
The flips come and go every 10-15 minutes and there are always people waiting so there’s no time to dither about. You approach the chopper at a crouched trot and someone shoves you into a seat. You do as you’re told and buckle up. I was madly jealous of the woman who got the extra cockpit seat in front and a bit peeved to be travelling backwards. Harrumph.
I needn’t have worried because the pilot flies both ways more than once, giving everyone a fair shot to see, to marvel and to photograph. If at first the best view is from the opposite side of the chopper, relax; your turn to be in the pound seats will come.
From this vantage point you’ll see an island in the river just before the Falls, now called Livingstone Island. You’ll see the main falls from up above, beyond the reach of the spray that can make you (and your camera) sopping wet. You’ll see the rainbows. And you’ll get a much better idea of just how powerful, energetic and monumental this Unesco World Heritage site really is.
I needn’t have worried because the pilot flies both ways more than once, giving everyone a fair shot to see, to marvel and to photograph. If at first the best view is from the opposite side of the chopper, relax; your turn to be in the pound seats will come.
From this vantage point you’ll see an island in the river just before the Falls, now called Livingstone Island. You’ll see the main falls from up above, beyond the reach of the spray that can make you (and your camera) sopping wet. You’ll see the rainbows. And you’ll get a much better idea of just how powerful, energetic and monumental this Unesco World Heritage site really is.
We flew over the Falls in the wet season, which lasts from February to May or June. It made us realise that Livingstone had a lucky break coming in the dry season; if he’d tried to paddle around here at the height of the wet season, he’d probably have been caught up in the current and hurled over the edge, never to be seen or heard from again.
But he didn’t; and he wasn’t. He lived to tell the tale, writing later that the river ‘seemed to lose itself in the earth’ and describing the Falls as ‘the most wonderful sight [he] had witnessed in Africa’.
You have no idea, Dr Livingstone; from up here, you’d have been knocked for six.
Need to know
The trip costs around US$150 per person [February 2025]. Expensive, but worth it for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Children under three sitting on your lap are free; over three, they must be accompanied by an adult and will be charged full price. At around 13 minutes, the flight is over w-a-y too quickly, but if you don’t have your own camera, you can buy a video/stills CD of your flight from the operator afterwards and relive it as many times as you want.
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But he didn’t; and he wasn’t. He lived to tell the tale, writing later that the river ‘seemed to lose itself in the earth’ and describing the Falls as ‘the most wonderful sight [he] had witnessed in Africa’.
You have no idea, Dr Livingstone; from up here, you’d have been knocked for six.
Need to know
The trip costs around US$150 per person [February 2025]. Expensive, but worth it for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Children under three sitting on your lap are free; over three, they must be accompanied by an adult and will be charged full price. At around 13 minutes, the flight is over w-a-y too quickly, but if you don’t have your own camera, you can buy a video/stills CD of your flight from the operator afterwards and relive it as many times as you want.
Like it? Pin this image!
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Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
More about Zimbabwe
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
