Victoria Falls is Mosi-oa-Tunya to Africans
A walking tour loop from town puts visitors on the back side of "the smoke that thunders," in a clean water play place used by locals.
The United States did it with Denali.
Hint, hint.
The tallest mountain in North America used to be named Mount McKinley, for an assassinated American president who never saw it. It’s name was changed more than 100 years later to Denali, the indigenous people’s name that rolls pleasingly off the tongue for one of the world’s great geographical sights. The name changes came in 1980 for the surrounding national park and in 2015 for the Alaskan mountain.
Victoria Falls in southern Africa is known by locals as Mosi-oa-Tunya. Maybe it’s time to . . . . I will leave that to the people who live near the falls in Zimbabwe and Zambia to decide. The falls is even more recognized as a geographical feature than Denali, being routinely listed as one of the seven wonders of the natural world.
Queen Victoria, of course, was a worldly historic figure, while William McKinley was not. The name Victoria also rolls off the tongue pleasingly, but so does Mosi-oa-Tunya, “the smoke that thunders.”
When our tour group visited Victoria Falls, most of the group included a day’s crossing from Zimbabwe to Zambia to visit Devils Pool, where you crawl/swim up to the very edge of the 300-foot falls and stare down the abyss.
I opted instead for the helicopter tour, paddle rafting on the Zambezi River and the traditional walking tour of the Zimbabwe side past 30 viewpoints.
But we had a fourth day at the falls that I was not expecting.
From Victoria Falls town there’s an easy paved road walking loop that eventually puts you along the Zambezi River just above the falls. I did the walking tour solo and felt no safety concerns. I assume wild animals must come and go, but all I saw was a mama wart hog and two youngsters, from about 10 feet away once I got back into town.
The walk (or drive) leads past a huge baobab tree, makes a loop then approaches the river. Side trails lead to the water, where a dozen or more locals were enjoying the setting. A guard encouraged me to walk to the car parking lot, find the attendant and pay the fee.
I respectfully declined, figuring I was only passing through for a short time on foot and surely I had already paid $100US in park fees for my other outings to see Mosi-oa-Tunya.
Crossing to the Zambia side is a bit complicated: a double entry visa for Zimbabwe to begin with, a Zambia visa, transport to and from the international border and a tour guide to Devils Hole. A local tour operator helped our group with logistics, but I should have bought that double-entry Zimbabwe visa two weeks before when we first entered the country.
