The Discovery of Victoria Falls

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Dr Livingstone we presume?

Once our group got through the border ordeal we headed for the Falls. Right through Livingstone, where we are actually staying. We are here in a 'high water' season, and because of very heavy rains the water is more massive then usual.

Traditionally, Victoria Falls was visited by the Zimbabwean side, that side had some of the better views and the hotels and infrastructure was superior and right on the water. In comparison, Livingstone was just a town nearby, poor and with little tourist (or any other) infrastructure. Well these days, given the political issues and monetary issues, people are flooding the streets of Livingstone, and the town itself is struggling to build an infrastructure that can handle the tourists. Myself, and many others, won't visit Zimbabwe, primarily because we refuse to give Mugabe the 100 US dollars it would cost to get in there. Products are cheap enough (where they exist, which isn't many places as inflation is so rampant they can't stock shelves), that many would never spend 100 dollars elsewhere in the country thereby leaving Mugabe as the primary beneficiary of tourism.

So, to sum up, minus walking across the bridge to the other side, which is generally free or really cheap, I will not be going to Zimbabwe.

So back to Livingstone, the man, I mean, not the city. David Livingstone was looking for the source of the Nile. He was quite a bit off the mark, and frankly probably a bit off his rocker considering he hacked through jungle for months on end, contracting malaria, sleeping sickness and other issues, which should have killed him, and was the cause of his death some years later.

I mean really! Was it that pressing to have to figure this out? Patience would have yielded better medicines, superior road building technologies, and GoogleMaps. It gets some stuff wrong, but by and large does a great job of spotting the Nile.

So, of course, it probably didn't take much to discover that this wasn't the Nile - for instance it was running the wrong direction, but he did "discover" the Zambezi River and the Mosi-oa-Tunya (the Smoke that Thunders), and promptly renamed it Victoria Falls after the Queen, in a most original move. These falls were then, and are now, the worlds largest waterfalls - the stats:

-There are seven major gorges, most of which rise about 400 ft high and are nearly vertical drops.
-This is twice the height of Niagara Falls
-It is about 5700 feet wide, which is about 30% wider than Niagara, and to visualize, about 17 football fields back to back.
-In high season about 10x the amount of water falls versus low season.


The area is 'rainy'. Like a heavy rain, and going across the first footbridge it really hits you, as you have water cascading down beside you and then rushing right back up on either side of this bridge. Its the greenest area I've seen since being in Southern Africa too.

Its hard to describe, but I'm glad to have seen it. And tomorrow, I've signed up to white water raft it!

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Photos

Jess on the Slippery Bridge
In my little blue raincoat!

Some Slippery Wet Grass
Very Misty

Zambezi Bridge
People Bungee Jump off of this if you can believe it.