Description: On our first night in Livingstone, Zambia, we decided to take one of the sunset cruises up the Zambezi. We were booked on the cruise departing from the David Livingstone Resort by Susan, our innkeeper’s assistant at Chanters Lodge. Susan provided us with a voucher confirming our reservation, and asked us to be in the hotel lobby at a certain time to meet our pickup for the tour. As promised, a small bus pulled into the parking lot at the appointed time, picking us up, and then making several stops at other lodges and guesthouses in Livingstone to gather more visitors before heading out of town toward the resort.

This tour, unlike some of the others, does not allow for payment to be charged back to one of the locally owned lodges in town, so we were told we needed to take our reservation voucher to the tour office at the resort to make payment. My credit card was quickly processed, and our reservation voucher was exchanged for paid tickets for the cruise.

Soon it was time to board the boat for our tour. The tour boat, the Lady Livingstone, is a multi-level craft that features a bar, with indoor and outdoor seating on all three decks, and restroom facilities. As we boarded, a marimba band played in the bar downstairs. As we were visiting during a time of year when there are fewer tourists, our tour boat was relatively uncrowded, and we were able to grab seats on the boat’s outdoor deck at the box, providing a great view as we headed up river.

We were soon greeted by our hosts, who reviewed safety information and then offered to serve us drinks. The tour included complimentary beer, wine, and non-alcoholic drinks, as well as a selection of hot snacks that were served to us over several courses throughout the cruise.

As we departed the dock at the David Livingstone Resort, it was not long before we encountered the local wildlife. What at first appeared to be rocks in the river ahead of us soon came into focus as a herd of hippopotamuses. We approached the hippos slowly, as our guide talked to us about the hippos that call the river home. These gigantic animals moved gracefully in the water, and swam close enough to our boat for us to take many pictures of them. This was just our first encounter with hippos; throughout the evening we would come across several more herds during our cruise.

We continued up the river, spotting springbok and impala on the shoreline. Upper deck passengers were also treated to a view of a giraffe, but the high banks on the Zambian side of the river prevented us from seeing him. We also saw many birds, some of which build nests by hollowing out spaces in the clay along the river bank. Eventually, we passed a lone crocodile resting on the shoreline. He almost appeared to be smiling at us as we slowly cruised by.

By this point, over an hour into the cruise, we were being treated to an amazing sunset over the river. We were joined by several tour boats from Zimbabwe, and continued our cruise up the river to the point where the boats stop to watch the sunset. As we reached this point, we encountered a herd of elephants crossing the river from Zambia to Zimbabwe. These were the first of many elephants we would see in the wild during our trip, so seeing them was very exciting for both of us. The elephants made their way across the river and up onto the opposite shore, allowing us to get pictures of them in the water swimming, as well as on land. A few minutes later, part of the herd re-entered the water and headed back across the river, allowing us some amazing photo opportunities of the brilliant sunset with elephants in the river in silhouette.

Finally, it was time for us to head back to the resort as dusk turned to darkness. The return cruise was at a much faster pace than the trip up the river, but by this time, the darkening sky meant that there was less to see and photograph. Once docked, we opted to delay our return to town and our room at Chanters Lodge, and enjoyed a nice dinner outdoors on the porch at the David Livingstone Resort. This was by far the nicest and most expensive meal we had in Zambia, but the food was good, and despite a couple of power outages while we were dining that left us in total darkness except for the candle on our table, the service was pleasant. Following dinner, the David Livingstone’s shuttle offered to return us to Chanters Lodge for the same price as one of the local taxis, $10 USD.

There are multiple sunset cruise operators at Victoria Falls, with several operating from both Zambia and Zimbabwe. I cannot comment on any of the other tour operators, as we did not talk to anyone else who took the sunset cruise on a boat other than the one we were on, but we were very pleased with our experience on the sunset cruise from the David Livingstone Resort.Close