Africa’s Greatest Waterfall: 3 Days at Victoria Falls

The locals call this the smoke that thunders, or Mosi-Otunya. I hope I'm pronouncing this right. But you might know it as Victoria Falls. We spent three days in the two towns adjacent to one of the seven natural wonders of the world, marking the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. You can hear it already. This wasn't just going to be a trip to see one of the largest waterfalls on Earth, but an adrenaline-filled exploration of its geology, community, and wildlife. Time to check out the falls from the air. Well, that was quite the welcoming. I love it here already. No way. How is that real? It's just to keep the elephants out of elephant camp. Elephants and other animals like buffalos. Hello, hello. Nice smiles I see. Welcome to elephant camp. In the wild. They have sprinklers here. In the wild. This is our room. Come look at it. They have a shower built in. And look, the best thing of all, mini bathrobes. In a chalet? A room? Wow, that's one crazy tent. Mini bathrobes. What is that on the bed? Is this the best lodge? Because you have mini bathrobes? During breakfast, we met the positive impact coordinator from Go2Africa, who'd be joining us on some of the activities. This is Liesel. And did you hear the hyenas last night? And then the hyenas are right out there. First order of business, the falls. I'm okay, it's right there. This is like a full-body rain suit. Why would you need that? Is it gonna rain today? For you? Thank you. I think we're gonna get drenched. Bodhi is actually covered up from head to toe. So the lodges buy the rain jackets, give them out to the people, and then they pay the rental fees for them as well. It's just the lodges supporting this community. Bodhi, are you ready or are you ready? I'm ready. Joliet Falls is here. Okay, so these are all the gorges from where the falls used to be. That's so cool that each of the gorges is shaped and created by the falls themselves. Over how many years? Over three million years. If we come back a million or two years from now, in another line, the falls will be in a different spot. I found the falls right there. Whoa! So volume, this river is 1,100 cubic meters per second. How many bathtubs is that? Oh, I don't even know. I actually looked it up, and it's the equivalent of over 5,000 bathtubs every second. Every once in a while, they're just like... Now everyone needs to put on their raincoats. Those are warthogs. It's so cool to be able to get so close to them because usually they run away. But here they are, like 10 feet away from us. Victoria Falls isn't the tallest or the widest waterfall, but it's the biggest curtain of falling water in the world. We're in Zimbabwe now, and the falls that we're seeing on that side are in Zambia. Hey, Liv. Yeah? I think that is the swing I'm going to do. I swing all the way down and all the way over here. This seems like a dumb idea. I think there's only one way to experience the gorge, and that is by free-falling through it. He's going first, and then her. You, you're gonna do the swing, right? Just kidding. What's the weight limit? Should I tell him now? Or tell me as I'm going over the edge? I'm gonna watch Papa do this, and I think he's gonna die. What is happening? Why is he saying things like that? What's your preferred way of going down here? I'll say for those that are very scared, the easy way is a pin drop, where you hold and step off, but that's not fun. No. I think the best way is you do hands across your chest, your legs together, and you lean back. Papa's definitely not gonna do this. You don't think he's gonna go through with it? A little bit more. Yeah. Am I doing this? 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Bye-bye. Yeah, you're up next, for the big swing. For real? He has no idea what's coming. Ev, are you nervous? No. You should be. You ready, dude-er? Yeah. Go, buddy! That's the spirit. Well, what was it? Amazing. As soon as he went, he went. This is why we need helmets. Right. They're probably not gonna do too much when you go into the gorge, is it? You need to scream as loud as you can, okay? I scream as loud as I can every single time. I wanna go again. We are on the mighty Zambezi River, which is the fourth-longest river in Africa. There are crocodiles and hippos down there. Real ones, big ones. Papa, there's a crocodile right there. So, the falls are down that way, almost 4 kilometers. It felt a bit strange having this idyllic scene of African wildlife just a stone's throw from one of nature's most violent spectacles. The captain passed out a message to not hang over your feet over the edge because the crocodiles will jump up out of the water and grab your foot. That is terrifying. Maybe it wasn't as idyllic as it seemed. We're a bit in a rush this morning because it's time to check out the falls from the air. Kids, grab something really fast. Donut. At this point, it had been hard to properly visualize how each of the gorges had once been the falls themselves. Time to get a bird's eye view on this. Looking down at the gorges, it felt incomprehensible seeing the scale of geological change, water plus time, granted both in opulent quantities, can achieve. We're going to Zambia to go to a bead workshop. For the afternoon? Yeah, just for a couple hours. We're about to go across the bridge that was built 120 years ago. Only one car can go across the bridge at a time. Otherwise, you don't want to know what happens. It'll break. How do you say it? Body. So, there's a man from Ghana who trained us how to recycle glass bottles into beads. So, this is a bottle from Jemassor. I'm a favourite. So, the powder should be smooth. Ah, just have a very soft. Yes, and then the whole remains. So, we'll polish them. You will make bracelet? Yes. You want to make? Yeah. Bombay Sapphire. Check it out. I love it. It's beautiful. Bye-bye. Thank you. 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This is the greatest adventure. The name of the whole village here is called Mwande. This is a homestead which belongs to one extended family. Papa, why are we here? Because we're going to learn about a really cool project that they have going on here in this village. What are they doing? They're having milkies. So, dogs here, they are for security. So, at night, they alarm us. We hear the dogs and then we come out. We start big fires so that the animals, when they see the light, they can go away. But now, most of the animals, they are used to the lights, so they don't mind. Like the elephants, you know, very clever. You play the drums. Instead of going away, they start enjoying the rhythms as well. You know, they start dancing to the rhythms. So, this is where we make the bricks. So, like, we have another structure that we are constructing over there. And this is the mold for the bricks. How do you make the bricks, sir? We have to direct this way. Then, after doing that, then you have to put sand so that the brick doesn't stick, okay? You put sand all over. So, that's our brick. See that? That's easy, there. Yeah, that's easy. Ernie, you don't want to do it, too? You want to? Can I? Yeah, it's okay. We can do that. It's making my hands dirty. I have to do it by myself now. Okay, okay. Buddy, you're going to build a house from that. Your brick, I'll have to put it right on top. Do I have to do this? Thank you. Then you plaster with the mud. Let's watch your head. Thank you. So, this is a bedroom, again, for one family. In this case, the parents on the bed. Then the kids, they spread the cow skin and the reed mats. So, at night, we just put fire in a metal pan for light. Also, the fire helps to keep us warm. The smoke from the fire will help to repel mosquitoes. Thank you for showing us. You grind it into powder. That's Viagra. You eat this? I didn't know George was coming here, so I should have prepared something. Is that for me? It makes you very strong. Are you trying to tell me something? Thank you, buddy. Liv, you better run. Wow, there's a little one. It's Bode. Oh, I get actually scared now. In our culture, the ladies, if they know how to do all these kinds of jobs, they are with a lot of cows. So, mainly, you have to pay a lot of cows to have parents. It was time to take a look at the project, which was funded by visitors like us through Wild Horizons and GoToAfrica. So, this is our digester. We collect the fresh cow dung. Then you put it in this bucket here. Then you mix it with water. So, when it ferments, then it produces the methane gas. That's the gas which we use for cooking. And we have also our filter here. So, that helps to trap the sulphur because we don't need to burn the sulphur in the kitchen. So, then from here, then we have our gas going into the kitchen there. Amazing. Absolutely incredible. The digester helps a lot because you see now the ladies wake up in the morning instead of looking for firewood, making a fire. You just light the stove and you prepare for the kids to go to school. Hi. What kind of stuff do you want to buy? Pencils and notebooks. Pencils and notebooks? So, normally we really encourage our guests to pack for a purpose, to find out where they're going and to ask what the needs are in the village. And if they would like to, if they have some extra space in their luggage, they can pack something. But here in Zimbabwe and in Vick Falls, you're coming to a local market, you're shopping for the needs of a local school or an old age home and then you go and you get to drop it off. And so, you're supporting the local economy and you're getting to deliver something that is beneficial to the community. I think it's great. I'm really looking forward to it. Here they're selling what we call sardines. In our local language, we call them matemba. So, if somebody come and say, I want carpenter for $20, we buy 10 from this guy and 10 from this guy. We always share. This is for $1. Yes, that's $1 for the package and $1 for this. That's a lot of food for $1. Yes, for a small family, it's enough for $1. So, for Shop for a Purpose, we're giving Mama Barbara $55 for one of these huge tubs of feed for the chickens and pigs at the school. So, do you remember when we came, you said you're going to buy stationery for the school? Three and three. And your brother can also buy three. Thank you. There you go. Now, you are with more cows because you can carry things on top of your head. And if you can balance that, it's more cows. Oh. Barbara's with all the cows. Yeah. Is it as easy as you make it look? Do a bit of a head wobble. I saw that. Yeah. No. This is what five cows look like. So, I'm protecting the child and I'm also carrying stuff. So, one of the unique things they offer here is an elephant interaction, which means approaching elephants on foot and not inside a vehicle. Do you know what this camp is called? It's called Elephant Camp. What do you think you might see here? Elephants. I think so, too. Are you all right? Not sure? Have you met elephants before? Not walking around with the elephants right there. This is a head of five elephants. We've got another head of five, another head of seven. So, we've got 17 elephants all in total. These are rescued elephants and this is an orphanage. We started off with four elephants. That was 1992. Did you get the shot? Got all the shots. Eventually, we get wild elephants coming in, spending time with our elephants and eventually the girls conceive. Once there's a new baby, all girls have that maternal instinct to come together and become friends, though they are not related, and they form families. They're right there. I can't believe this right now. We recognise some elephants may stay with us for longer, some elephants may quickly just come and go. Which one is the biggest to her today? Yes, he can hear us speak. He knows that we are here. How did she get onto Barbara's back? That was like a once-in-a-lifetime situation. I can't believe that just happened. Before leaving this place, we had one last thing to do. We have to bring a couple of soccer balls. And we need to run to the airport. We are late. I want to see my friends. You want to see your friends? I want to see my friends. You have one minute. All right. Bye.