Victoria Falls Activities

You step off the edge of the Batoka Gorge and drop 70 metres in free fall before the rope takes over and turns the drop into a 95-metre pendulum swing out across the Zambezi. The free fall is the part everyone talks about afterwards, and for good reason: for a moment your stomach has plainly not come with you. Then comes the long arc over the river, the whole gorge laid out below, and the odd urge to go again. Allow about an hour.

The Malachite is our pick of the dinner cruises on this side of the Zambezi. The evening opens with snack platters and sundowners as the sun sinks towards the far bank, and the bar runs to proper cocktails and imported spirits. Dinner is served as dusk falls and the river goes dark and quiet around the boat. Three to four hours, and one of the best ways we know to spend a last night at Victoria Falls.

Below the falls, the Zambezi is forced into the Batoka Gorge between walls of black basalt, and the result is one of the great white water runs anywhere in the world. The rapids are Grade 5, and their names tell you most of what you need to know: the Devil's Toilet Bowl, the Washing Machine. It is a full day, around six and a half hours, and a proper test of nerve. The falls show you what this river looks like. The rafting shows you what it feels like.

The canopy tour takes the Batoka Gorge in stages rather than all at once: nine slides over the gorge, each with its own 180° view across the Zambezi and the rapids far below. The guides are attentive and safety-minded from the first clip to the last, which leaves you free to look around rather than at your feet. At two and a half hours, it is the best of the gorge activities for simply taking in where you are.

The zip line is the fast one. You cross the Batoka Gorge at up to 106 km/h, 120 metres above the Zambezi, with 180° views of the gorge opening up on either side. It lasts a few minutes, which is roughly as long as most people manage to keep their eyes open, and it ranks among the great zip line rides in the world. Pair it with the flying fox and the gorge swing for the full set.

No visit here is complete without walking the falls with a guide. Mosi-oa-Tunya, the Smoke that Thunders, is something you hear and feel long before you see it properly, and a good guide knows exactly where to stand for each. Tours run in the morning and the afternoon, take about two hours, and are led by qualified guides with a deep store of knowledge about the falls. Bring something waterproof. The spray does not care what you are wearing.

There are few better ways to end a day in Africa than on the Zambezi with a gin and tonic in hand, watching the sun go down over the water. The sundowner cruise keeps things simple: freshly made finger snacks, beer, wine, local spirits and soft drinks, and two unhurried hours on the river. No schedule and no adrenaline, just the Zambezi turning gold and then dark.

Time your stay with the full moon and you can see something most people never will: a rainbow at night. The moonbow forms when light from the full moon refracts through the spray of the falls, and Victoria Falls is one of very few places on earth where it appears regularly. Standing in the dark in front of it is a strange and quiet thing, and one of the rarest sights in Africa. The tour takes about two hours.

If you want to take a piece of Zimbabwe home, this is how to find it. The tour moves between art galleries, small boutiques, open-air markets and the crochet halls, each with a different feel and a different kind of find. Look out for sculpture, textiles and paintings by African and Zimbabwean artists and craftspeople. Allow two and a half hours, and leave some room in your luggage.

The 13-minute Flight of Angels is the classic view of Victoria Falls, and the one that finally makes sense of its scale. The pilot flies left- and right-hand circuits over the falls so every seat gets the full picture, and because the aerodrome sits so close to the Zambezi, you are over the gorges and the falling water about 30 seconds after take-off. Short, spectacular and one for the camera.

The 25-minute flight gives you everything in the Flight of Angels and then keeps going. After left- and right-hand circuits over the falls, so every passenger gets a clear view, you follow the Zambezi downstream over the Batoka Gorge, the same gorge the rafters spend their whole day inside. The aerodrome is close enough to the river that you are over the water about 30 seconds after take-off, so almost every minute in the air is worth photographing.

The flying fox is the place to start. You take a running jump off the edge of the cliff and fly horizontally out over the Batoka Gorge, with the Zambezi churning 120 metres below. It is over quickly, but it lasts long enough to show you how you feel about heights before you move on to the zip line and the gorge swing. A proper appetiser.