Old Drift is located 10kms upstream of the In line with the promise of luxury accommodation, this new kid in the park is right up there with the five star bush lodges. The Elephant Camp and Elephant Camp West. Read more on details on some extended stories from the days of the Drift in our Old Drift feature section on Life and Death at the Old Drift.įirst published in March 2018, copies of the new updated fourth edition (September 2022) of 'Life and Death at the Old Drift, Victoria Falls (1898-1905)' are available to order online through either (US site) or .uk (UK site) for payment in US Dollars or British Pounds.Īlso available for local printing and delivery through Amazon Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and also Japan.One of the newer safari lodges to open in Victoria Falls, Old Drift Lodge joins the Wild Horizons lodge portfolio which includes Quoting extensively from contemporary references and sources, the story follows the growth of this small European community and some of the colourful characters drawn to life on the banks of the Zambezi - despite the risks.įully illustrated with over 90 archive images and photographs. 'Life and Death at the Old Drift' presents a detailed history of this brief but pivotal period in the recent human history of the Falls.

Close by a stone cairn, erected by the Zambian National Monuments Commission in 1952, marks where the ferry pontoons arrived and the wagons once came ashore. After only a short number of years the days of the Drift were over, leaving only the graves of those who died and the memories of those lucky enough to have survived. The arrival of the railway from the southern Cape to the banks of the Zambezi in mid-1904, and the construction of the Victoria Falls Bridge - crossing the river just below the great waterfall and opened in 1905 - shifted the axis of activity away from the Old Drift, and the ramshackle gathering of huts was abandoned to the bush in favour of the new town of Livingstone. Below the Falls the river, trapped within the deep gorges, presents a natural barrier to travellers for hundreds of kilometres.Ī small settlement of evolved on the north bank and from 1898 to 1905 the crossing was a pivotal point in the transport of goods and people across the river, despite earning notoriety for the high mortality rate, with many settlers dying of malarial complications known as blackwater fever. The Old Drift holds a unique place within the story of the modern development of the region, established in 1898 and marking the main crossing point on the Zambezi River above the Victoria Falls for European travellers and traders heading north into the Kingdom of Barotseland (Western Zambia). We're pleased to announce a new updated and expanded fourth edition (258 pages, over 85,000 words), published September 2022.

The old drift