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Livingstone’s journey to the falls is a wonderful piece of exploration history in its own right. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of this event, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the modern day explorer, is retracing Livingstone’s footsteps to recreate his journey by foot and dugout canoe. The 180km recreation is the initiative of the exclusive lodge, Islands of Siankaba and will culminate in the unveiling of a plaque on 16th November 2005 on Livingstone Island, from where the good Doctor first saw the falls. Please contact us for more information. The beauty and size of the falls is best described by Livingstone’s expedition “In early November 1855, Livingstone travelled down the Zambezi River to see for himself the area the natives called “smoke that thunders.” Approaching the spot in canoes, the party could see the columns of spray and hear the thunderous roar of water miles away from the falls:
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“After twenty minutes’ sail
from Kalai we came in sight, for the first time, of the columns
of vapour appropriately called ‘smoke,’ rising at a distance of
five or six miles, exactly as when large tracts of grass are
burned in Africa. Five columns now arose, and, bending in the
direction of the wind, they seemed placed against a low ridge
covered with trees; the tops of the columns at this distance
appeared to mingle with the clouds. They were white below, and
higher up 
along
on each side of the island; but the river was now low, and we
sailed where it is totally impossible to go when the water is
high. But, though we had reached the island, and were within a
few yards of the spot, a view from which would solve the whole
problem, I believe that no one could perceive where the vast
body of water went; it seemed to lose itself in the earth, the
opposite lip of the fissure into which it disappeared being only
80 feet distant. At least I did not comprehend it until,
creeping with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent
which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambezi, and
saw that a stream of a thousand yards broad leaped down a
hundred feet, and then became suddenly compressed into a space
of fifteen or twenty yards.