We were warned! They said the Zambian road from Katima to Livingstone was in bad shape, but we figured, if it was paved, it couldn’t be that bad.  After three hours of stuffy immigration processing on the Zambian Border, we were free to ride and raring to put in big miles.  As the crow flies, Livingstone, our next destination was pretty close.  Crows don’t know about potholes and neither did we until we got deep into the roughest “paved road” experience we’ve had yet. It was a spider web of asphalt linking water filled holes across a memory of road.  Complaints aside,  it kept things interesting and offered an opportunity to hone your weaving skills. 

At a rate of 25 miles per hour, however, we were only half way to Livingstone as the sun sank behind the roadside jungle.  No lodge, no problem! We’ve got kit and grub on board for a few nights. So, under the cover of darkness, we zipped off the pavement and into the jungle for a rainy night concealed behind some trees and tall grass.

The following day, we celebrated our arrival in Livingstone with a cappuccino on par with any Parisian café.  Livingstone, it would seem, was cultured!  We might be labeled as nerds, as our biggest interest in visiting Livingstone was The Livingstone Museum. So, we put the mighty Victoria Falls on the backburner and headed off to get our history on and spend a rainy Christmas Eve at the musem.  The natural history part of the museum was borderline comical, but the section dedicated to David Livingstone was the real thing.  Original artifacts, such as his traveling cloak, cap, musket and journal entries brought his spectacular story to life.

We had planned on pushing out towards Lusaka for Christmas, but after inspecting our kit, we found that our paragliders were at risk of water damage from the monsoonal rains we had been experiencing. So, we treated ourselves to a room indoors and started drying out our kit.

The overland powers that be smiled upon us and on Christmas morning the clouds parted for a brilliant sunny day. The gliders dried and we got to see Victoria Falls.

We had initially not planned on taking the time to see this popular tourist attraction.  We gravitate more towards backcountry routes and destinations or at least try to. But this just fell into our laps and it was after all, right there!  We got our first glimpse upon emerging from the jungle footpath onto a precipitous rocky outcrop.  We were completely stunned.  

Standing there in the torrential downpour created by the falls updraft, we witnessed the largest curtain of falling water on earth as it cascaded from view into a 300’ deep crack in the earth’s surface.  Its weird and its wonderful.  This was a good reminder that major tourist attractions can be just as inspiring as the deep backcountry.  The best part of it all was that we had it all to ourselves!  Well, there were a few locals. Like this guy…