Livingstone fancies itself as a mecca for adventure sport in sub-Saharan Africa. It has every right to do so: on the Zambian side of the Zambezi are 20 activities grouped by the Royal Livingstone Hotel into adrenalin, adventure, sport and luxury.
Depending on your budget, you can bungee jump off the famous railway bridge where one set of abortive Rhodesian peace talks between rebel Prime Minister Ian Smith and the leaders of the Zimbabwean freedom fighters took place.
It's a scenic spot for taking the leap and, as guide Justin Chimf-wembe pointed out, "it's a great activity if you have personal problems because they become very small when you look down into the Batoka Gorge".
There's also white water rafting in the water below. They say it's the best in the world. People who did it a decade ago still get that teary-eyed, slightly constipated look of terror as they retell their tales of popping out of the raging torrent like corks clutching on to their inflatables for dear life.
There are booze cruises on anything from a simple rowing boat to floating Mississippi-style gin palaces with brass fittings and teak bar counters.
You can take a microlight flight over the Victoria Falls or go up in a helicopter that would not look out of place in Airwolf.
You can abseil across the gorges, swim on the edge of the falls, walk with the animals, ride among them on horseback or peer down from the vantage point of a full-grown African elephant.
That's just the beginning.
Personally, I think a swim in the Devil's Armchair Pool and an elephant back safari were enough excitement. You can only get to the Devil's Pool when the Zambezi is not in spate - for the obvious reason that you'd go straight over the edge and plunge to your death more than 100 metres below.
When the river is low, however, it's a short boat transfer to Livingstone Island, the place where David Livingstone went on November 16, 1855, by dugout canoe to see the falls for himself.
It was where he uttered the now immortal words: "No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes, but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight."
The island is a heritage site; so only 16 visitors, excluding the guides from Tongabezi (www.tongabezi.com) are allowed in at a time.
There are five trips out each day, three from Zambia and two from the Zimbabwean side.
You swim out into the Zambezi with your guide to the little island that brackets the Devil's Armchair, get out on to the armchair and then jump up and out into the 2,5m deep pool. There's nothing between you and the falls except for a metre-thick slab of rock.
Once you've jumped in and have perched on the lip, you sit back and let the bream nibble at your toes until the whole party is in and it's time to get out. It's the only scary time.
"Face the ledge and hold on to it with both hands," says your guide. "Don't at any time let your feet float up."
The threat is implicit as you edge around, hand by hand, until you climb back on to the armchair and over to get back into the Zambezi to swim to Livingstone Island and full breakfast, complete with tea, scones and Eggs Benedict, the movie of what you've just done looping endlessly in your mind.
Slightly more sedate, but no less a tick in the checkbox of things to do before you die, is an hour-long safari on the back of an elephant.
Safari Par Excellence (www.safpar.com) runs it from their base at Thorntree River Lodge 10km upstream on the Zambezi, using eight African elephants.
They are led by Danny and Bop, two 40-year-old Zimbabwean bulls rescued from the great elephant culls there in early 90s.
The other elephants, with the exception of the two baby elephants, were orphaned in the later Zimbabwean droughts.
The elephants are not your zoo or circus variety as it is Safpar's policy, says Gerald Chibanda, the guide who will walk alongside the elephant back safari that afternoon, that they are allowed to behave like elephants.
Mashumbi is a case in point. "She was abducted by a herd of wild elephants," Gerald explains, "and only returned 10 months later. But by then she was pregnant."
Little Nandi, her two-year-old calf, is the result.
The adult elephants take up to two tourists each on their backs for the hour-long safari alongside, into, and through the Zambezi, offering a special experience and unparallelled vantage point to view the wildlife that abounds, from herds of impala to basking crocodiles, the ubiquitous nibbling bream, reed cormorants, waterbuck, fish eagles and even hippos.
The mahouds, or handlers, are experts not just at handling the massive creatures but as guides to the animal wonderland and as proud ambassadors of the country in which you're a guest.
On their return to the boma, the tourists dismount, either onto the special 3,5m wood platform or, in Bop's case, since he's too broad to get through, off his back as he kneels.
The denouement is the opportunity to say goodbye to your elephant, patting and feeding them.
The are few places in the world that you can do this and the DVD that has been made of the whole experience and is available to buy, after a couple of Mosi lagers and snacks, isn't just mawkish schmaltz but a critical memento of something you might never ever get around to again - but which you will want to remember forever.
