Victoria Falls

Coming to Victoria Falls is a lifelong dream, one that I never thought would be possible. But here we are. Our camp is located about 18km upriver from the Falls and a tour of the Falls is included with our stay. Our guide, Mailos, picked us at around 8:30 and about 45 minutes later we found ourselves at the thunderous entrance to the Falls.

The Falls straddles the Zambia/Zimbabwe border and we were on the Zambian side. We had planned to cross the border into Zimbabwe to see that side but it looked like the mist was too heavy on that side (you’ll see what we mean) and so we skipped that. This bridge, downstream from the Falls, lets you cross over the border.

While it is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, Victoria Falls is classified as the largest, based on its combined width of 5,604 feet (more than one mile wide!) and height of 354 feet, resulting in the world’s largest sheet of falling water. Victoria Falls is roughly twice the height of Niagara Falls and well over twice the width of Horseshoe Falls. In height and width Victoria Falls is rivalled only by Iguazu Falls in South America.

The Zambian name for Victoria Falls is “Mosi-ao-Tunya”, which translates as “The Smoke That Thunders”. The canyon into which the water falls is very narrow, and water falls from such a great height that it creates an upward spraying mist that then falls back down as rain. You can see this mist from miles away. In places the mist is so thick that you can’t even see the Falls.

There is a lovely (and wet!) path that you can follow right along the edge of the gorge, lf you’re less interested in getting drenched there is another a few yards away that parallels it under the trees. Here’s Jeff living on the edge.

As we walked along the path we couldn’t help but be overtaken by the sheer beauty of the Falls.

This was just our morning activity. We have planned our first game drive for the afternoon!