I approached the falls through the rainforest with all my senses on alert. I was so excited to see something I had only ever dreamt of seeing. I could hear the roar of the water, and even feel the light mist of spray on my hot skin that left behind droplets of water. As we turned a corner, and the roar got louder, I caught my first glimpse of the falls.
My heart raced and my breath was stolen from me and yes my eyes watered over as I gazed in awe at this incredible feature of nature and millions of litres of water spilling over the abyss that I once had only ever imagined.
The Victoria Falls is a spectacular natural wonder where the mighty Zambezi river flows tranquilly over a forest lined plateau dispersed with small islands, lagoons, hippos and deadly crocodiles, before plunging 110m into a terrifying gorge producing the world’s largest sheet of falling water, over one and a half kilometers across. It tumbles at a rate of half a million cubic meters per minute creating a unique tropical rainforest in the heart of scrubland. As it tumbles the river sends up a towering column of spray 400m high which is visible more than forty kilometers away during the wet season, appearing like rising smoke hence its African name ‘Mosi-ou-Tunya’ or ‘Smoke that Thunders’. David Livingstone, the famous explorer, first saw the falls on 17th November 1855, naming them in honor of Queen Victoria and marveling at their heavenly beauty saying;
“ 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 unique geography of the Victoria Falls mean that you can gaze at them face on from only 200m away, offering an unparalleled closeness to this awe inspiring natural element. From this close distance you can experience the spray, noise and spectacular rainbows that are ever present. I’ve spent a lot of time defending our Niagara falls up until the moment my eyes set on this spectacular sight. I can’t speak now of Niagara falls. In fact we are not talking about it at all.
We spent about 5 hours walking and taking in the view, the sounds, the feel. It’s is a playground for the senses. The hot Zimbabwean sun was soothed by the faint spray off the falls.
Eventually, hot and hungry we pried ourselves away from the beauty to see a few other sites, though could have easily spent the entire day there. The famous and historic Victoria Falls hotel which is the oldest in Zim and oozes elegance and has the most amazing view of the gorge and bridge into Zambia is where we found home respite from the heat (40 Celsius in the shade!) and had a kip under a beautiful tree to be awoken by the local, or resident warthogs.
Later we made our way to the Big Tree, which is indeed a big tree, a Baobab tree which I LOVE! It’s as if the tree is turned upside down and the roots at the top. And then on to watch a local “watering hole” to see if any Elephants might come to feed.
Eventually we made our way to supper at a local eatery called “in-da-belly” with a limited menu of Meat, crocodile or warthog.
I had ice-cream for dinner.
Graham full, and me on a sugar high we made our way back to the hostel and took in some african music and gin and tonics. It was the most wonderful day and more than worth the 12 hour drive.
Warning: a lot of photos below
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