Mosi-oa-Tunya

23rd October 2024

Anyone lucky enough to travel to either Zimbabwe or Zambia is likely to have visited the ‘Smoke that Thunders’ – the magnificent Victoria Falls, where the mighty Zambezi topples over a sheer cliff into the gorge below. In full spate it’s something else – anyone in the immediate vicinity is drenched in the rising mist, whose ‘smoke’ rising to the heavens is visible from afar. It’s perfectly named, is a World Heritage site, and has spawned the local beers ‘Mosi’ (Zambia) and ’Zambezi’ (Zimbabwe). In one of Wilbur Smith’s classic Courtney novels, the hero flies a visitor through the gorge in a light aircraft and shouts in exhilaration at the top of his voice, “Now you have worshipped in the cathedral of Africa!”. Literary genius.

Well…maybe you had to be there. I could say the same about our waterfall event today. We’d been troubled by a nonstop drip from our roof ever since arriving three weeks ago. If you’d seen our water bill you’d know why. Today, Eric the solar panel expert arrived with his team, scuttled up onto the roof and immediately diagnosed a leaking hot water tank (one of two up there). Even better, he suggested draining it, shutting it off and relying on the other alone. As it’s just the two of us here and the weather is boiling anyway, we readily agreed. Cue Barbados’ own version of the mighty Zambezi:

Even better, here’s Pollards’ Miss Wet T-shirt winner 2024 practising sustainability – you don’t want to kiss goodbye to 80 gallons of precious water after all:

Phew! Job done. Time for a cold shower…