Victoria Falls Devil’s Pool – extreme adventure vacations

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When it comes to extreme adventure vacations, Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe has become a prime destination. And this may be the ultimate thrill: tempting fate in Victoria Falls’ Devil’s Pool

Devil’s Pool at Victoria Falls – the ultimate thrill

“You’re not going to do that!” my husband says, as we scroll through photos of a bunch of crazy tourists sitting in the water at the top of Africa’s Victoria Falls, the largest waterfall in the world.

“Of course not,” I said. Sheesh. Am I an idiot? Just because I’m flying solo to Zambia to see Victoria Falls, a 1708-metre-wide (5,600 feet) swath of water that slices through the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe like a knife through a red velvet cake, doesn’t mean I’m going to risk my life for a tourist thrill.

I’m far more mature than that. I want to learn about David Livingstone.

The falls

Call me immature

Two weeks later as I’m standing on the edge of Livingstone Island at the very spot where Dr. David Livingstone first saw the falls on November 16, 1855, I’m forced to accept that I’m not mature at all. I’m terrified. Because of course I’m about to swim in the notorious Victoria Falls Devil’s Pool.

Livingstone was here

Extreme adventure vacations

I blame Zambia. Victoria Falls has become a major hub for extreme adventure travel and once I got here I got swept up in all the excitement. So, in my new persona as an adventure traveller I signed up for an excursion with Tongabezi, the company that lead tours to Livingstone Island and the terrifying Victoria Falls Devil’s Pool.

Let the fun begin

Victoria Falls Devil’s Pool adventure tour

The first part is lovely. You take a 5-minute boat ride from the Royal Livingstone Hotel to Livingstone Island. The second part is fun, too – a swim through a calm section of the Zambezi River to the jump-off point, with the guide pointing out the easiest way. There’s also a safety rope to cling onto should you need it.

I made it this far (and edited out a stomach roll, haha)

Into the Devil’s Swimming Pool

But now I’m standing on the black basalt rock looking down at the swirl of water they call Devil’s Pool, the edge of the falls staring me in my face.

But everyone else does it, I tell myself. And while I realize that ‘everyone else does it’ won’t make a very romantic epitaph on my headstone should I plunge over the 360-foot-high cliff, the fact that others have swum and survived at least proves it’s possible.

A looong way down

What the heck is the Devil’s Pool?

Only accessible during dry season, Devil’s Pool on the Zambia side of Victoria Falls is a naturally-formed pool at the very edge of the drop off – a drop off, I hasten to add, that is twice the height of Niagara Falls. A submerged rock wall (or so they assure me) prevents idiots adventurous tourists like me from cartwheeling over the edge. Yikes!

We’re this close

Taking the plunge

The other two in my group have already gone in. The guide is in the water and waiting for me. There seems no other option except to take the plunge, because ‘chickened out’ will never do for an epitaph either.

I am never lying to my husband again, I think as my foot touches cool water. My foot comes out again. I bet David Livingstone never did anything as crazy as this.

Dr Livingstone I presume?

Then again between tropical diseases and wild beasts, not to mention tramping through uncharted territory, David Livingstone, Scottish missionary, passionate explorer and fervent abolitionist, risked life and limb as a matter of course. He would die, in fact, of malaria and dysentery in Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia) in 1873, and (literally – it’s buried under a tree) left his heart in Zambia while the rest of his body was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Somehow I doubt I’ll get the same kind of ceremonial burial if I go over the edge.

The top of the falls, from the Royal Livingstone Hotel

David Livingstone at Victoria Falls

An adventurer at heart, I can’t imagine Livingstone being frightened when he paddled down the Zambezi River in a dugout canoe seeking the place the Kololo people called Mosi-Oa-Tunya, the Smoke That Thunders. Did he feel invincible? Grateful to the Kololo for safely showing him the way? He was certainly awed when he first spotted the plumes of vapour rising into the air writing that, “scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.”

Though he did think the vista would be improved by a backdrop of mountains instead of the region’s flat red plateau.

A scene for angels

A slow approach to extreme adventure

I’ve seen photos of people cannonballing into the Devil’s Swimming Pool with a shriek and a grin, but not me. The guide has to come and get me. I put a shaking leg into the water then, clinging to the guide as if he’s a life jacket, bob towards the edge of the falls, coming to a stop a foot or two from the lip of the cliff.

Our guide, whose name I’ve shamefully forgotten in my terror, helps me up onto a rock ledge.

Adrenalin rush

Argghhhh! I’m up. Adrenalin is surging through my body, the noise of rushing water so deafening that I can’t tell the difference between my thundering heartbeat and the roar of the falls. Then, when I realize the current isn’t going to immediately hurl me over the cliff, I start to notice my surroundings.

Scaredy cat

Mist rises up over the Lala palms and papyrus plants. The water, slate grey against the basalt rock floor, turns translucent as it rolls over the edge before churning itself into a boiling froth as it plummets into the Zambezi Gorge.

A scaredy cat adventurer, that is!

Unseen predators

It’s powerful, it’s majestic, it’s …. wait, what’s that? Something is nudging my foot. It’s as if a handful of marbles are gently being tossed at my toes. I turn to the guide and shout over the boom of the water. “Something’s nibbling on my foot!”

Maybe I’m better off dry

“Oh, don’t worry. They’re just little fish,” he says.

I’ve heard of fish spas, where fish eat the dead skin cells off your feet, but never expected to have an impromptu spa treatment at the edge of the largest waterfall in the world. I start kicking them away, then realize that if I kick too hard I could somersault over the falls backwards.

Focus, I tell myself. Victoria Falls might be the perfect place for adventure travellers to get their kicks, but there’s no point in kicking myself into oblivion. I force myself to stop dwelling on fish, falls and fear and for one awe-inspiring moment, simply enjoy the electric sensation of – literally – living life on the edge.