Day 11: The Smoke That Thunders (Victoria Falls)

We end our day today at a hotel not more than 500 yards from one of The Seven Wonders of the Natural World: Victoria Falls, or Mosi-o- as it's known locally, meaning the Smoke That Thunders a name which we now fully appreciate. The Falls sit on the Zambezi River which forms the boundary between the countries of Zimbabwe and Zambia. We arrived through Zimbabwe at the Victoria Falls International Airport but crossed the border into Zambia to stay at a resort adjacent to the narrow strip of land that is the Zambian national park protecting the Falls and it's surrounding area. We have arrived during "the wet season" in which the Zambezi River carries significantly more water than it does in the summer months of September through December. The result of the sheer volume of water spilling over the falls is a roar that sounds as though you're under the falls even at a considerable distance and - more impressively - an all-encompassinging spray that is a product of the water crashing into the canyon below.






Picture of the Day: Sunset at the Lip of the Falls

The down side to the spray is that it obscures a good portion of the Falls from the hopeful viewer. But what it lacks in photo opportunities it more than makes up for in a unique experience where it feels as though one is walking among the Falls. One of the more interesting features of the waterfall is that the lip of the Falls and the surrounding area are actually at the same height. The Falls are formed as a result of the water dropping a thousand foot into a chasm that seems to be cut directly into the face of the earth. The water has actually formed a T-shaped canyon, where the top of the T is the width of the Falls (nearly a mile wide), but within a hundred yards downstream the canyon is less then a couple hundred yards wide. The eastern bank of the falls has a series of viewing pathways and bridges running parallel to the face of the Eastern Cataract, allowing the viewer to be walking nearly opposite of the lip of the Falls. During the wet season, this area is fully within the spray. It is hard to overstate the power of the water within - what appears to be - a harmless mist. The spray that results from the water plunging below can only be described as being within a rainstorm where the water is coming from every direction. At times it was difficult to see at all. We walked perhaps 100 yards into the spray until it was too much for both of us and we retreated back to the eastern banks. Of course, not much of this could be captured on my nice new camera since "walking among the Falls" should be read as "its very, very, very wet inside the spray!" So, the pictures below tell only part of the story, the rest ... you would have to experience it to fully appreciate it.







Above: View of the Falls from along the Eastern Bank. The spray begins to felt at this point (camera goes away).







Above: View from the (dry) Eastern Bank.






Above: View looking down the Canyon.

Another interesting element to the Falls is that none of it is "roped off" or limited to the public. Clearly, liability laws are not the same in Zambia as they are in the US. On the upstream side the path literally takes you to within feet of the bank of the River - at the Falls edge. Let me say that again: without trying at all, just by following the path, we ended up mere FEET from the edge of a thousand foot plummet - no bars, no ropes, just us and the River. It was stomach-dropping just to stand on flat ground this close to the edge.






Above: Lip of the Falls...






Above: Sunset over the Lip, With Sign in Foreground Warning Would-Be Crossers of the Falls, that it Could be Dangerous (You think?!).

Tomorrow we head back to Jo'burg and part ways, Becky back to the States and I to a weekend retreat in the Drakensburg Mountains before class starts next Tuesday.

Until then,

Becky & Rachel


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Location:Livingstone, Zambia