The Mighty Zambezi

Just as you can't write 'leopard' without prefixing it with 'elusive', it appears that Mighty and Zambezi just have to go together.

Which is fair enough - it is a magnificent river, especially the awesome spectacle of Victoria Falls.  It doesn't matter how much you've read and seen before about the Falls (and we all have) - when you stand on the lip and watch this huge mass of water hurl itself over the edge, the great curtains of water falling in slo-mo into the chasm below, the roar and mist rising from the abyss, it takes your breath away.

We sit in Devil's Pool, a natural jacuzzi inches from the lip.  It is ludicrous how much fun this is, squirming onto the rock ledge to peer over the lip and into the depths as the water swirls past your elbow.  Health & safety - sorry, can you spell that please?

A couple of days later, we find ourselves floating down the same river in canoes. The same river, but how changed from the restless power of the giant that you see at the Falls; here in the Lower Zambezi National Park, TMZ is a wide and lazy body of water, meandering between low-lying islands with happily munching elephants and gape-mouthed crocs lying on the banks.

What a great way to experience the river this is, floating slowly with the current, with plenty of time to take in the teeming life on the river bank - everything from gorgeous Carmine Bee-eaters to monitor lizards and drinking elephants.