TiTou Gorge, Victoria Falls

I've been meaning to blog about these two locations for quite awhile now, but due to the horrible, rotten, no-good, bad day we experienced last week my laptop is now officially broken. I'm currently sitting in the computer lab to get some stuff done, and my blogs will be even more intermittent.

TiTou Gorge:

TiTou Gorge is amazing. It actually makes me a little homesick since the rock formation reminds me of Zion's and Arches national parks. My first time to the gorge was after the challenging boiling lake hike. The second time was much more fun. It was while my girlfriend was visiting, and though I had put it on our schedule, it just hadn't worked out while she was here. We got to talking about it the day before her flight, and one of my dear friends here said "Well how hard is it? Maybe we should just go and do it tomorrow morning before she leaves in the afternoon?" So we did it.

I honestly didn't remember the road being very steep/difficult, and so when my friend volunteered to drive I was gung-ho to go. We recruited one additional person, put the kids in school, and took off. We didn't tell our husbands, and absolutely had to be back in time for lunch or Angela's flight back home would be missed. We got to the site with about 20 minutes to spend before we had to jump in the car and race back home. We giggled the entire way.

The little parking area before the gorge is off the beaten track, to say the least. You walk up a short distance to an access bridge that spans the river, about 30 ft off the bottom, and seriously, it's an access bridge. You pass under the aqueduct, and approach the foot of the boiling lake trail. Off on the left hand side is a little pool of water in a cement ... uh... funnel... that's the beginning of the aqueduct. At the base of the pool is what looks like a cave, but is actually the opening of the gorge. We cover the hike portion in about 5 minutes, and I tear off my clothes while I'm jumping into the pool shouting "Come on ladies! Let's go! Let's do it! Get in!" They're all looking at me like I'm crazy, but giggle and climb into the pool. That's when they see the opening. "We're not going in there are we?" "Are there snakes in there?" "It's a cave??? I thought it was a gorge???"

"Come on ladies, we don't have time to be timid, start swimming!"

The water in the gorge is cold. Year round. Not terribly, but considering the tropical heat, it can be a bit of a shock when you first get in. Swimming against the current, the walls of the gorge are black, and vary in separation from narrow to bowl like. There are two parts during the swim where the bottom is high enough to stand on. Then, when you get to the 'end' (it's really the beginning from the water's point of view) there is an alcove you can climb up into to watch the waterfall, or, if you're physically capable, you can stand up under the waterfall.

All said and done, the trip was awesome, and left us giggling all day. To quote the driver "I feel like I'm in high school stealing my mom's car with a bunch of friends to do something wrong!"

I've returned to the gorge several times after that memorable trip, but it has never been as much fun as that time.

Victoria Falls are beautiful, and the trip reminded me how much I enjoy the scenery on the south-east side of the island. The hike was moderate, and we completed it in between 30 and 45 minutes. I loved taking pictures, but also encouraged a friend to e-mail her pictures to me. She had a waterproof digital camera, and I must say that I wish I had brought that type of camera to the island. Mine has nearly been trashed by all the hikes and sand and water. I may even purchase a new one and have my in-laws bring it with them when they come to visit...

I loved the vines hanging down the cliff side, and there was more than one pool suitable for a dip. The falls were so tall, neither of these pictures show them completely, but my presence on the rock in the bottom corner of this one should give you an idea of exactly how tall they are, seeing as the top of the frame is not even that close to being the top of the falls. You can really tell by comparing the vines in the two pictures that there is a lot more waterfall than what is visible.