Swim to lip of Victoria Falls

The Devil’s Pool, a natural rock pool at the top of the Zambian side of Victoria Falls, is shallow enough during dry season (September-January), under the right weather conditions, for visitors to swim to the very edge of the falls above the 300-foot drop without getting swept over. The current is diverted around both sides of the pool by a rock wall below the water’s surface.

Interested adventurers, who must be fairly strong swimmers, can visit the pool as part of a guided tour. Group members meet at the motorboat landing at the Royal Livingstone Hotel and are taken to privately owned Livingstone Island, where a guide leads them down a rocky path to the river. Participants then swim through the river to the spot where they leap from a rock into the pool.

Livingstone Island is owned by Tongabezi Lodge (Private Bag 31, Livingstone, Zambia; phone +260 213 327450), which runs five tours a day to the pool with a limit of 12 people per tour. Tours cost $75-$135 per person, depending on time of day. Private tours are available. 

Visitors taking a tour to Livingstone Island do not need to be guests at Tongabezi Lodge. Packages at Tongabezi, which include meals and many activities, run from $415 per person per night (low season) to $480 (high season) for a cottage up to $695-$790 per person per night at the Nut House, which sleeps up to eight and has its own private garden and pool. 

Other operators who may offer tours to the Devil’s Pool are Safari Par Excellence, Wild Horizons and Shearwater Adventure, all with offices on both sides of the Zambia-Zimbabwe border.