Monday 30 January 2017

Victoria Falls

Our next stop was Zimbabwe by way of Zambia.  We crossed the border on a bridge that had been built some 100 years previously.  This is the spot from which people bungee jump.

What a difference!  It  was very green and lush in comparison to the dryness of the camps we visited in Kenya.  It was clear that there had been a lot of rain and we were told that the rain had been unusually long-lived of late. In fact some parts of the country had been flooding.  This, of course, is good news for the falls as their force is dependant on the amount of rain.

We spent our first evening taking a boat cruise on the Zambezi river, the feeder to the falls.  It was fun, we saw many beautiful birds and also saw hippos stretching and yawning and getting ready to go ashore in the night to feed.




We also had a dramatic sunset as a strong rain storm made its way across the sky as we were returning.  This did not bode well for the following day as the rain looked like it was there to stay.



The next day was indeed a rainy one but we made our way to the falls nevertheless. These are so impressive.



The water falls over 100 metres over a rift with precipitous cliffs that are verdant with rain forest growth.  There is a rainforest throughout the park and we saw some monkeys as we entered.






We wore raincoats, but to no avail.  The spray was so thick it obscured the falls from view!  Also, there was an updraft which caused the spray to insinuate itself under the jacket so that by the end of our viewing experience we were soaked right down to our skin!

We stopped at a statue of Livingston who is revered for both his exploratory and missionary work.  It was he who named the falls after the Queen, although the natives had a different name for them originally.



We found a restaurant which looked our over the whirlpool downstream from the falls.  Crazy people do a bungee type swing from the cliff edge and while we were there we watched one man jump on a bungee, then swing out from the rock face and dangle below above the water waiting to be pulled back up.  Then...there was a power failure.   The poor man dangled for a full hour before the power was restored.  This is another reason to avoid bungee jumping as far as I am concerned.







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