A few months ago he was approached about a flying adventure.
This is of course something he cannot say no to. The discussions turned quickly into a firm undertaking to embark on a flying tour during September 2019.
The destination of choice was Victoria Falls. This is not a surprise. The Victoria Falls are one of the most famous and spectacular natural wonders in Southern Africa. Definitely an exciting destination to explore for any visitor to the region.
Zimbabwe or Zambia
The falls are actually shared between Zimbabwe and Zambia. In Zambia they are called Mosi-oa-Tunya (“The Smoke that Thunders”). So the first decision to make is, whether to visit the Zimbabwe or Zambia side.
On the Zimbabwean side you are actually facing the falls and stand in front of the world’s largest sheet of falling water thundering down into the massive gorge below you. And you can walk through a rain forest, which sustains due to the mist from the falling water. It’s a unique isolated ecosystem created by the falls’ mist and completely different to the surrounding terrain’s fauna and flora.
The Zambian side is upstream of the falls. The real highlight there is “Devil’s Pool“. This is a natural rock pool right on the edge of the fall. If you jump into this hole in the rock, the river pushes you right to the rock’s edge where the water crashes over the precipice 100 meters vertically down into the gorge. That is really exciting! But of course it all depends on the water level of the Zambezi. When 3 000 tons of water per minute gush over that edge, you will not remain seated in that little pool. Ending up 100 meters below in a rather unhealthy condition.
The final decision is to make it the Zimbabwean side on this tour.
But just flying up to Victoria Falls and back, that is not really a flying adventure. You can book yourself on a commercial flight from Johannesburg to Vic Falls International airport. For that you don’t need a guy like him. But you will of course have far less fun exploring the region.
So something needs to be added to this route to and back from Vic Falls. A bit of Pacific coast and beach, ancient ruins, lake Kariba, the Makgadikgadi salt pans? That should make this a bit more of a flying adventure.
Route options
The initial consideration was to fly out to Inhambane in Mozambique for a stay over at Tofo Bay. A really great place to relax on the beach and popular for fishing and diving.
From Inhambane we could proceed to Masvingo in central Zimbabwe, to visit the Great Zimbabwean ruins.
These ruins are the largest man made precolonial stone structures in Southern Africa. The ancient city was built by the medieval Kingdom of Zimbabwe during 1220 to 1450. In fact, that civilisation dates back to about 1075 when the Kingdom of Mapungubwe emerged in the north of today’s South Africa. When that kingdom ended in the early 13th century they moved over into the Zimbabwe plateau.
From Masvingo, one could fly up north for a stay over on Lake Kariba before heading to Victoria Falls.
Some logistical considerations
However, during our planning we had to make some adjustments to this initial sketch, due to logistical issues and to preserve our sanity on route.
It appeared that immigration in Inhambane is a bit tricky. We could try to synchronise ourselves with the arrival or departure of a commercial flight and catch the immigration officials processing that flight, as otherwise nobody is at that airport.
But LAM (Mozambique’s national carrier) is so notoriously unpunctual, that any attempt to align a schedule with them is the same as betting on a single number in roulette. For any rationally minded person, that is insane.
In addition, September is still high season for the prime locations and the limited accommodation options there are, were already fully booked on the dates feasible to us.
The final plan
Eventually, we swapped Inhambane with Vilanculos, and Masvingo and one night at Kariba with a two nights stop on the shores of Lake Malawi. Pretty exciting replacements, and what’s not explored this time, can be explored next time!
Below, is an outline of the final route and destination plan:
This so far is the plan or plan A. Plans are subject to risks, some of which he has contemplated in an earlier post. There is always some residual risk which may prevent us from executing plan A in full. So we will see when we get there, and will equally enjoy plan B as it may emerge. You can worry if you don’t have a plan and risks are uncontrolled. Once you have a solid plan, you can enjoy, and that’s what a flying adventure is all about.
Route from South Africa to Malawi
On our first day we will depart from Pretoria and fly out in a westerly direction to the border with Mozambique. The Kruger National Park which runs along the border between South Africa and Mozambique is a restricted airspace, and permission is required from the South African Airforce to fly through. We will thus pass the southern end of the Kruger Park and then fly straight up to Vilanculos where the famous Bazaruto archipelago meets the coast.
Two nights are planned for Vilanculos to enjoy the laid back coastal lifestyle and the beach.
From Vilanculos we intend to fly along the scenic coastline up to Beira and then over the interior to Malawi and the southern shores of Lake Malawi. Hopefully this time round the weather will be clearer on this route, than it was back in March. It will be interesting to see how much of the damages caused by cyclone Idai has been rebuilt 6 months later. Hopefully more than he expects.
Lake Malawi is an impressive natural lake on the East African Rift, covering 29 600 square kilometers at a length of 580 kilometers. It is a magnificent place and with the friendly hospitality of Malawians, certainly deserves being referred to as the “The Warm Heart of Africa”. Needless to say then, that we also planned in two nights at Lake Malawi.
From Malawi to the Victoria Falls
From Lake Malawi we aim for a very scenic route across lake Cahora Bassa in Mozambique and then along the Zambezi river to lake Kariba in Zimbabwe.
The Cahora Bassa dam, completed in 1974, is the largest hydroelectric scheme in Southern Africa with an installed capacity of 2 075MW. Most of the electricity generated is evacuated by a 1 400 kilometer long high voltage direct current transmission line to South Africa where the current is converted at the Apollo substation near Johannesburg and fed into the South African grid.
The dam’s lake has a capacity of 55.8 billion cubic meters and is 292 kilometers long. That is a fair amount of water, and flying along it should be pretty impressive. He is certainly looking forward to it.
The lake is fed by the Zambezi and the Luangwa river at the corner of Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. From there we plan to fly along the Zambezi to Lake Kariba.
This is an exceptionally beautiful part of Southern Africa, and flying this route low level from where you can see the wildlife from the air is a truly amazing experience.
After a one night stop over at Kariba town it is a short flight along lake Kariba and the middle Zambezi to the main destination of this tour, Victoria Falls.
And back to South Africa
After the stay at Vic Falls it will be time to head back south. The plan is to fly to Gweta in north eastern Botswana for a stop over. Gweta lies in the Makgadikgadi Pans.
The Makgadikgadi Pans are one of the world’s largest salt flats covering an area of 16 058 square kilometers. They consist of several pans made up of dry, salty clay crust. The largest pan, Nwetwe, just south of Gweta is 4 921 square kilometers large.
It is fairly obvious, that up in the air, is the single best place to really experience the magnitude and fascination of this phenomenon of nature.
He has visited the pans before, but only with the Jeep. He is thus pretty excited about the prospect of exploring it in a Cessna. It’s by far the better way to explore this place (without any disrespect for the Jeep).
The formation of the Victoria Falls
There is an interesting connection between the Makgadikgadi Pans and the Victoria Falls.
Some 3 million years ago, the dunes of the Kalahari desert channeled the upper Zambezi, Okavango and Chobe river to the south east into the Limpopo river and through today’s South Africa and Mozambique into the Pacific ocean.
About 2 million years ago a tectonic fault line created an upheaval which blocked the flow into the Limpopo off. This blockage created a massive basin, which started to fill up and formed Lake Makgadikgadi; an enormous paleo lake larger than the size of Switzerland.
The lake started to overflow to the north east about 20 000 years ago. The outflow caused the middle and lower Zambezi to join together and form the Victoria Falls.
The ancient lake eventually dried up through evaporation and the inflow of debris from the Okavango, leaving behind the salty sediment of its lakebed and creating the Makgadikgadi Pans we observe today.
The Makgadikgadi Pans are therefore the reminiscence of the Victoria Falls’ birth and formation.
And therefore, they are a perfectly suitable route highlight to mark the end of this tour before heading back to Pretoria.
Follow this blog, for the updates on how this plan is going to pan out.