Africa 19: We visit Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls is considered one of the wonders of the world.  It is considered the largest sheet of falling water in the world.

We're standing at the west end of the falls, here, looking straight down the roughly 350 foot wide gorge into which the water drops.

Further down the trail, we can see Cataract Island across the gorge. This channel of falling water is merely the warm up for what is to come.

Here we see the main sheet of falling water that is so big and so close that we could not see the end of it from here.

A wooded path takes us to the next viewing point.  Walking along here, I wondered why they bothered to issue all of us raincoats.

You may have to click on the picture above in order to see the people standing on Livingston Island across the gorge. Notice how the falls on the left are nearly obscured by spray.

Past here, the spray was so intense that we could not see any falling water, only white mist.

As the path neared the eastern end of the falls, the spray fell as heavy rain.  It became obvious at this point why they issued us raincoats.

The white blur at rainbow's end above is actually the waterfall.

It is said that the falls are best viewed from a helicopter.  We only live once, so we paid the $140 each and went for a ride.

Here, at the western end of the falls we get a better view of Cataract Island, bottom middle.

We can also see how high the spray rises at the eastern end where it rained on us two images above.

Now we are at the eastern end looking west.  At the top you can see the cataract shown closer up in the second photo in this post.

Notice how narrow the gorge is.  To the left of the bridge seen above is the Zambian border.

That bridge is a major artery for the transport of goods between Zimbabwe and Zambia.

If we were to make a recommendation about where to visit, we both agree that this is a spectacular sight.  But we would encourage one to visit Iguazu Falls (Click here for my Iguazu blog post entries.)  in Brazil and Argentina first.

Next time, bungee jumping off that bridge.  Yes, they really do.

Continue on to Post 20: Bungee Jumping Off Victoria Falls Bridge, by clicking here.