My tourist visa to Malawi was scheduled to expire October 12 and my Temporary Employment Permit (TEP) has not yet been issued. The usual expat response is to drive to the Malawi border, pay for a new visa and immediately return, but we had a more adventurous plan – we were going to take a short trip and visit Victoria Falls, the largest waterfall in the world. We would leave the country, pay for our new visa on the way back as required, and get to visit an African landmark in the meantime.

It’s about 827 miles from Blantyre, Malawi to Livingstone, Zambia and it took us three flights and most of Saturday to get there. If we would have driven, we would have gone through Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, before getting to our lodge at near the southern border of Zambia.

Victoria Falls is on the Zambezi River, which forms part of the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Its tourism supports two towns, Livingstone, Zambia and Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and if you want to see it from both sides, you need to get visas to both countries. October is the hot dry season and the water flow is reportedly about 10% of the high flow in April, when the rainy season swells the Zambezi River. Seeing it at low flow was still spectacular!

This is the bridge over the gorge and between the two countries. For the adventurous, it is possible to bungee jump, zip line, or swing into the gorge from this bridge. We saw rafting and kayaking in the canyon below. There is even a pool at the top of one of the waterfalls, Devil’s Pool, where (for a price) you can dive in and get your photo taken, sitting right on the edge of one of the falls.

The local name for the falls is Mosi-ou-Tunya, which translates to “smoke that thunders,” referring to the mist that rises up from the falls and obscures the gorge below when the flow is high. One of the advantages of going in October was a beautifully clear view of the gorge, but you can still appreciate the mist cloud that is visible from miles away.

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