Thundering smoke, and plenty of adrenalin

Seeing the falls themselves is definitely the highlight, regardless of what else you do. Truly one of the wonders of nature.

Other highlights were the great atmosphere at the place we stayed (Grubbie's Grotto), the gorge swing, and the river cruise.

Quick Tips:

You could easily spend well over US,000 on activities if you want to. So before you arrive, make sure you've thought about (and budgeted) what you would like to do - from bungy, to gorge swing, paragliding, rafting, helicopter, light aeroplane, and the list goes on.

Best Way To Get Around:

In town, on foot. Otherwise, you get picked up for any organised activity.

You start your day by being picked up from your accommodation, and driven out to one of the lower, inland gorges near the Victoria Falls. Once you arrive at the site, you have a quick drink (all supplied), and go through safety issues, and all the options available during the day.

Once this is done, you walk along the gorge edge to the first activity - abseiling. The abseil is down a 50-55 metre cliff, with a pretty varied face. The abseil is a nice warm up activity to get into the day - nothing too challenging, but you get the feel of trusting your life to a couple of ropes.

After the abseil, you walk back up the gorge, and back to the main hut. The next activity to get the adrenalin going is the flying fox. Now, I've done flying foxes before, and they're usually a bit of fun, but nothing amazing. However, when you take a running leap, superman-style, and are propelled over a gorge that drops about 120m in the centre, it starts to get a bit freaky! You can take the leap a few times, before you then move onto the next activity.

Back to the abseil site, and this time it is forwards - wrap jumping. This is heaps more fun than a straight abseil. You can really get some speed off the wall, and some great air, which is heaps of fun!

Another walk up the gorge, and then to the final activity...the gorge swing. This is the adrenalin-addict's dream - something that should be left just to the maniacs in the world! A strong rope is suspended across the gorge, with a harness point in the middle. A length of rope is attached to the harness point, and you are strapped in to this rope. Let me describe the experience...

Once you are harnessed, you move to the launch platform, and the instructor clips you in. You choose to go forwards or backwards. Once set, you move to the platform-edge, so that most of your foot is over the edge of the platform. The instructor is holding you just by your harness. He will let out a huge '3-2-1!' count, and then just let go! You then proceed to drop at huge speeds (think about it - if you're tandem, you're looking at 150kg free-falling) 53 metres (which is twice the free-fall of the Vic Falls Bunji), and then, once the rope gets taught, you fly across the gorge, at speeds of up to 180kph! The actual feeling is the most petrifying thing I've ever experienced - one of those 'such a rush' things that you are completely speechless for ages afterwards. As you drop, you slowly turn from head-up, to legs-up, and simply see your whole world flying by in an instant -- wow!

You also get a complimentary lunch and drinks (soft drinks, tea/coffee, beer).

All in all, and absolute rush of a day!

Book via Grubbie's Grotto. Cost US$50.

While there are a plethora of amazing things to see across the continent of Africa, the Victoria Falls really does rate right at the top of the pile.

Mosi-oa-Tunya - The Smoke That Thunders. The Falls have been known to African tribes for centuries, and were first discovered by European explorers when Dr Livingstone made one of his great trans-Africa expeditions in the 1800's. The story goes that upon hearing the Falls (which you can do from 20km away), and seeing the huge spray coming from them, many of his African porters fled in fear!

But these days, rather than fleeing, people flock to the Falls, to see this awesome wonder of the natural world. The Falls are about 2km wide, and drop around 100m into the gorge below.

The Falls form part of the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, and so can be seen from both sides. From the Zimbabwe view points, you can get a much better feel for the great expanse of the Falls, but in Zambia, you can walk out onto 'the knife edge', a sliver of land that stretches right into the centre of the Falls, thanks to a small connecting bridge, and so get a real feeling of complete immersion in the Falls.

When I've been most recently, we were in Zambia, so I'll recount the Falls from that side. As you walk through the park to the pathway along the front of the Falls, all you can hear is a great roar, as the Falls drop into the gorge below. The first sighting of them is at the very top end of them, looking right across their face. Of course, you can't see even close to the other end, due to the huge amount of spray coming up. Walking around the area, you will inevitably get wet, but never more so than on the connecting bridge out to the knife edge. We ran across this bridge, and by the time we got to some resemblance of cover, we were thoroughly drenched to the bone! There is just so much water in the air.

There are numerous viewing points of the Falls - on the ground, you really can't grasp all of them at once, they're just so big. We have wide-angle photos that are simply a wall of white-water, looking across a very narrow gap (maybe 40-50m) to the water wall. To grasp the imensity of the Falls, you really need to go into the air, and see them from above.

As you come back out of the Falls, there is a craft market with some great curios, and they are generally quite good prices, too.