Some places in the world are worth to see from the sky… That’s the case of the Victoria falls, the largest waterfall on Earth. If you want to do so, you have 2 options : either you book an helicopter that will take you on a 12 min flight 1000 meter above the falls. (You will eventually have to fight for your seat with typical american tourist : Disney World type of experience) or you are seeking for real adventure and you bring your paramotor along…

We chose the second options, and it was quiet a flight !

Here is the story of our flight above the « smoke that thunders » (as the local call it).
Our first concern was to find a decent take off, not too close, not too far. We found a small field near a village hidden in the national reserve. We made friend with the local chief who was happy to try Belgian chocolate for the first time and amazed by our flying machine. We prepared the gears under the full moon and waited for the 5AM call. Those who slept outside realised that it was going to be quiet a challenge to take off : it was all wet and the mist was thick. Anyway, the sun came out and it was time to go as we wanted to fly before the helicopters. We eventually took of and flew towards the falls. We had to cover 5 km without being seen. We were about to cross a border (Zambia/zimbabwe) to fly near a national park and to cross above a military base…

We were scratching the tree tops when we arrived at the falls, no one had seen us.
The view was breathtaking. The noise of the falls was covering the sound of our paramotors. We started to go up to get the full view. Rainbows were appearing everywhere in the spray. We were witnessing one of the greatest natural wonder of the planet from those magical flying machine : our paramotor. I rapidly realized how epic it was. No landing options and serious troubles if the paramotor stopped for any reason but the beauty of the place and the feeling of putting another unic flight on our list was more important to us. I could see that Horacio was enjoying it as much as I was. Our feeling at that point was probably near Livingston’s sensation when he was the first European to view the falls.

We stayed 30 minutes enjoying the show and shooting for our film. We came closer to the falls before to decide that it was time to escape. Every minute spent there was giving a better chance to the police to catch us…

We flew back to the forest and landed on a small road in between the trees. Our team was waiting for us, we packed rapidly and left the country.

Time flies but you are the pilot… Make the best out of it.