Today is our visit to world famous Victoria Falls. Our guide for the day is “Sunny”, a local chap who’s lived in the area his whole life. On the way to the park, we stop by what’s called the “Big Tree”, a massive Bilbao, over 1200 years old and one of the largest in the world at around 79 feet high. It’s huge. The ubiquitous souvenir hawks offered some great deals! Maybe next time.
Victoria Falls has national parks on both sides of the Zambia and Zimbabwe borders. We entered on the Zimbabwe side. Depending on how measured, the falls are the largest in the world. Based on a combined width of 5,600 ft and height of 354 ft it is the world’s largest sheet of falling water. Discovered by David Livingstone, the falls were named in honor of Queen Victoria. In native language the fall name can be translated to “the smoke that thunders”.
Parking for the park is in the center of a massive craft market with probably a hundred or so stalls. The vendors are courteous, but persistent. Much of the stuff for sale is beautiful and quite cheap. Our luggage is far too small for any purchases.
The park itself is a popular place with quite a folk queued up at the entrance. Sunny was able to move us quickly through the checkpoints. Our visit coincided with the end of the rainy season when the spray from the falls is visible over 30 miles away. Very cool, but because of the spray the foot and face of the fall can’t be seen in many parts of the park. Guidance from Sunny suggested rain jackets & umbrellas. Good advice!
We hiked the length of the Zimbabwe side of the park and have some great pictures of mist and wet tourists! For such a busy area there was an abundance of wildlife – monkeys, deer & mongoose. Along the trail is the beautiful Victoria Falls Bridge which connects Zimbabwe and Zambia was conceived by Cecil Rhodes as part of a scheme to connect Cairo and Cape Town via rail. It was completed in 1904.
Lunch is at the famous Lookout Café which overlooks the junction of two branches of the Zambezi where they join into one of the Fall’s gorges. We had a great table and nice meal watching the wackos bungie jumping into the gorge. NFW!
We booked a ‘sundown cruise’ on the Zambezi upriver from the falls. There were quite a few hippos and crocs in the water along with some shore birds. A very nice evening and a beautiful sunset. Tomorrow, we leave Zimbabwe for Kruger National Park in South Africa.
