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Victoria Falls
Okavanago Delta
Mount Kilimanjaro
Indian Ocean Privacy
Exotic Zanzibar
Cape Town
Garden Route Golf
Nakuru Flamingos
Amboseli Elephants
Zambezi River Camps
Interior Zambia
Malawi by the Lake
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Kruger National Park
Serengeti

Visit one of the worlds most spectacular sights

Victoria Falls - make it your number one priority for your bespoke Africa safari.

Victoria Falls will always be a favourite destination for King & King's bespoke African safari clients. Nature's spectacle always takes ones's breath away as 500 million litres of raw Zambezi tumble into the chasm at your feet every minute. Victoria Falls is one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World and you will soon see why. Despite recent commercialism the splendour of the Falls themselves can never be sullied.

Early development was undertaken by enterprising southern bank residents, first Rhodesians and then Zimbabweans, as a result of Rhodes' legacy of ensuring land tenure through title deeds - not available in British-ruled Africa to the north. When Rhodesia Railways reached the Falls from South Africa just over a hundred years ago they built the famous bridge and world-renowned Victoria Falls Hotel.

The rich and famous have stayed there: British Royalty, American and other presidents. Today the hotel is still very much worth a visit - a glimpse into history - but grand words fail to do justice to the Falls themselves. Literally, they have to be seen to be believed.

Imagine David Livingstone's emotions when he saw them for the first time on 16th November 1855; how overawed he must have been by the foot-trembling roar at his feet as a two kilometre wide maelstrom of water hurled itself into the hundred metres abyss below; how humbled he must have felt knowing he was the first person from the outside world to have seen them.

Whatever time of day you choose to stare and wonder at the enormous spectacle remember, they are unfenced. At least one honeymooning bride is supposed to have disappeared over the edge. ["Just take a step back, darling. I can't get you in the photograph."]

Modest entrance fees are charged for both Zambian and Zimbabwean sides of the Falls; both are worth every cent. Information is available. Ask your lodge manager or book a tour with Russ Gammon who we recommend highly for high quality, bespoke service. The sheer grandeur and scale of the main Falls beyond the Rain Forest on the Zimbabwe side and the view from the Knife Edge on the Zambian side will take your breath away. DK remembers taking Sharon Stone and Richard Chamberlain there in the '80s and watching their faces as they gazed in wonder at the curtain of water of the Main Falls before them. Taking Sharon Stone up the river in a small boat for a private sundowner is another story. Richard Chamberlain declined to join us.

  

Walk to the western edge of the Main Falls down a few steps below Livingstone's statue and not just for the impressive view of the massive climbing spray clouds and rainbow. On your left is the cascading torrent of the Devil's Cataract. Its lip is lower than the rest of the Falls. This is where the next Falls are being formed. Inexorably, the Zambezi is creeping back upstream, gouging a way through the black basalt that runs through the granite. As you gaze at the Devil's Cataract you are looking at the birth of a new Victoria Falls. though it will take hundreds of thousands of years to happen.

What you find on offer at today's Victoria Falls is a world away from the writer's first view of them through the windows of BOAC flying boat RMA Canopus, four leisurely days out from Southhampton Water. We landed upstream of the Falls on the Zambezi in August 1949. Part of the landing stage was still visible until a few years ago.

All that was a world away from what the earliest tourists saw. Victorians made the pilgrimage with wives and children and servants on horseback or ox-wagon from northern South Africa along the old Hunters' Road near today's Zimbabwe - Botswana border as far as George Westbeech's Store at Pandamatenga. There they left their animals for fear of the tsetse fly in the "interior" and finished the last 80km to the Falls on foot.

They made people differently then.

Wherever you plan to get close to the tumbling water take a couple of plastic bags for such items as cameras. On the Zambian side make sure you access the Knife Edge over a permanently wet steel footbridge. It has handrails but is on a slope. Youngsters on tin trays may be using it as a sledge run.

Beyond, feel the planet vibrate the closer you get to the wall of water. It's a weird, wondrous world. Watch your step. Never go there alone.
 
     
     
     
 
King & King is an owner-managed travel and destination consultancy specialising in the tailor-made / bespoke safaris in African wilderness areas and remote beaches. You can enjoy the Big Five animals and bird life of East, Central and Southern Africa, as well as the best big game fishing in the world. We have decades of experience and are aware of local customs, traditions and conditions.
Our representatives meet you at gateway airports. We ensure back-up is to hand. Our people regularly inspect bush lodges and camps where en suite facilities in luxury tented accommodation are normal. We offer specialist advice for honeymooners and small groups of discerning travellers seeking the experience of a lifetime.
 
     
 
King & King is a registered Zimbabwe Tour and Safari Operator and a member of Zimbabwe Association of Tour and Safari Operators, the Zimbabwe Professional Hunter’s and Guides Association, the International Game Fish Association, and the Travel and Tourism Conservation Group (Friends of Conservation). K & K clients frequently fly South African Airways.
  
     
 
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