Livingstone - Event

Mosi O Tunya National Park stretches for 12km upriver from the Victoria Falls. It protects the last rhinos in Zambia within its lush riverine forest. You are also likely to see antelope, zebra and giraffe.

You can easily drive into the park on your own, or go on one of the tours organised by local lodges. Many of these also operate canoeing and kayaking trips on the river above the falls. You will be able to paddle around the islands and float up close to game that has come down to drink. The river is amazingly docile and it is difficult to link it to the seething torrent that it becomes just a little way downstream.

Kayaking is more strenuous than canoeing, but you will get a chance to play in the rapids that are the first sign of the Falls a little further downstream. These activities are the perfect way to get to know the area surrounding them. May to October is the best time to come if you want to see game.

The Victoria Falls themselves are staggering. Long before you reach them you can see the cloud of spray that hangs over them and hear the roar of the water as it plunges 100 metres over a 2km-wide cliff. The size of the spectacle is impossible to grasp without seeing it and it takes a couple of days to sink in. There are paths on both the Zambian and the Zimbabwean sides of the river from where you can get different viewpoints of the falls. Prepare to be soaked by the curtain of spray - your passport and driving licence may never recover.

If you want to avoid the crowds then the Zambian side is the place to visit. Walking down the path to the "Boiling Pot" gives you an interesting perspective of the falls from base level and a preview of the gorge which rafters and body-surfers hurtle down. Another option, in the dry season, is to arrange a tour out on to the little islands on the rim of the falls - swimming in an isolated rock-pool from which you can see 100m down into the whirling maelstrom of water below is an incredible experience (and a tad disturbing).