The most interesting things about Victoria Falls. Luxurious Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) - detailed description, location, reviews, photos and videos.

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Majestic beauty and power, a roar that never stops for a second, a million splashes forming a cloud of steam and fog, a feeling of danger when you stand on the edge, and above all this grandeur a dazzling rainbow - this is exactly the picture you can see at Victoria Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the world.

In the local dialect, the waterfall has two names - Mosi-oa-Tunya, which translates as “thundering smoke”, and Chongue, which means “place of the rainbow”. In general, both names quite accurately characterize the waterfall.

It is located on the Zambezi River, which flows on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. It was discovered by the Englishman David Livingston, who quite rightly called the waterfall the most wonderful sight in Africa, and subsequently gave it the name of his queen.

Almost along its entire length, the Zambezi is a calm river, but its character changes dramatically when, quite unexpectedly, the basalt plateau along which it flows breaks off, and the river rapidly falls down from the height of the cliff, dividing into several streams. And the height there is really quite big - 108 meters, which is a lot for waterfalls of such width. Opposite the waterfall rises another basalt cliff, completely covered with tropical forest.

When to watch

The speed and strength of the waterfall flow varies depending on the time of year and season. In spring, when the water level in the Zambezi rises, the flow becomes powerful, fast and impetuous. During a period of drought, the nature of the waterfall becomes more meek, and islands on the river and along the edge of the cliff become exposed. So you can choose how you want to see it and come at this time of year.

Observation platforms

It is possible to view the waterfall from several points. One of the best vantage points is at the Knife's Edge Bridge, where you can see the East Stream, the Main Falls and the Boiling Pot, the turbulent place where the river turns and drops down into the Batoka Gorge.

There are no less convenient places on the railway bridge spanning the waterfall and at the Observation Tree. Here you can fully appreciate the Main Falls in all its terrible beauty and look into its seething emptiness.

The functions of Victoria Falls, however, are not limited to just pleasing the eyes of millions of tourists; it also has a practical application - to supply energy to many cities in Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The most unforgettable experience can be obtained, of course, only by seeing the entire waterfall in its entirety. Unfortunately, this cannot be done from a land-based site, but if you're on a budget, there are many local companies offering helicopter, paragliding and small private jet tours to the falls. The route of such excursions, as a rule, runs along the river and, in addition to Victoria, reveals many other local beauties. Just be careful, you won’t have much time to look at the waterfall.

Victoria Falls Museum

In the area of ​​the waterfall, not far from the parking lot where tourists and travelers are brought, there is a museum dedicated to the history of the waterfall. The museum's exposition tells how the waterfall has changed over its thousand-year history, how the water has gnawed and continues to gnaw through new areas in the soft and pliable rock.

Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park

Once you are near the waterfall, be sure to visit the Mosi-oa-Tunya (Thundering Smoke) National Park. Its area is small, but here you can see a large number of local animals - antelopes, zebras, giraffes, rhinoceroses. The animals here are extremely peaceful and not timid, since there are no predators here. On the Zimbabwean side there is another natural park, Victoria Falls.

In the area of ​​the waterfall, not far from the parking lot where tourists and travelers are brought, there is a museum dedicated to the history of the waterfall.

Entertainment and excursions

While staying at the waterfall, you can take other completely unforgettable excursions - for example, a canoe or rubber raft ride, a boat trip on the Zambezi River, a jeep safari in the national park or a horseback ride, and if as a child you were always interested in how This is riding an elephant, here you will have a great opportunity to find out everything from your own experience.

For lovers of adrenaline therapy, there is another great entertainment - bungee jumping. Just imagine this mind-blowing jump from the highest point of the waterfall on a rubber rope... Scary, but definitely worth a try.

Victoria Falls is one of the most famous in the world. Due to its height and beauty, it is one of the seven wonders of the planet. The waterfall is located in Zimbabwe and shares the poor country with Zambia. Every minute, several tens of millions of liters of water fall into the gorge here, which subsequently form a very dense water fog. Local residents nicknamed it the thundering smoke.

The width of Victoria Falls in the photo exceeds 1000 meters. If we take into account the ruptures of the drains, then the total size will be almost 2 kilometers. The height of Victoria Falls is 100 meters.

The noise that is heard when water falls can be heard 40 kilometers away in calm and quiet weather. From the same distance you can see splashes and misty clouds that rise up to 500 meters from the top of the waterfall.

It is at Victoria Falls that you can observe the most mysterious phenomenon in the world - lunar rainbows.

History of Victoria Falls

The first European explorer to visit Zambia and see this magnificent creation of nature was David Livingstone. He was originally from Scotland and in 1850 went on a trip to Africa. A few years later he saw this waterfall. Its greatness was so stunning that David could not look at the miracle of nature with a calm gaze and named it in honor of the reigning Queen Victoria. On one of the rocks of the Victoria Falls, he even wrote that such beauty cannot be compared with anything else in the world and the only thing missing here is the angels circling above the rising steam of the breaking water.

Upon arrival in England, Livingston described what he saw as follows: “I crawled to a cliff with a large rhinestone. My eyes were drawn into a huge crack that stretched over 1000 meters. This is the most amazing place I have been to in my entire life.”

Getting to Victoria Falls by 1905 was very difficult and only a few expeditioners visited it. That year a railway was built, which still passes near the miracle of the planet. Victoria is now recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

It should be noted that 100 years ago, residents of Zambia and Zimbabwe were afraid to approach the “Thundering Smoke”, but after an active influx of tourists they began to actively develop tourist complexes.

Victoria is the winner among waterfalls

The height of Victoria Falls is far from the highest in the world, but it has the most unusual shape. He falls into a narrow abyss, which was formed by breaking the earth's crust. In addition, the largest amount of flora and fauna grows in the basin of the territory.

Many geography buffs wonder why Victoria was recognized as the largest waterfall, because there are higher and wider rocks from which water flows, also forming a vivid picture of fog. The answer is simple, Victoria is the largest waterfall in terms of the total area of ​​the pool and the “falling wall” of water.

It is worth noting that during the dry season (September-December) the amount of water in the Zambezi River decreases significantly. Most of the waterfall becomes bare and even manages to be overgrown with greenery. During this period, you can walk along the upper part of the miracle of nature, jumping between streams.

At other times of the year, it can be seen even in the photo that Victoria Falls is dangerous. This wonder of the world is now responsible for a lot of deaths. The reason for this is the fast current and very slippery stones, which make it impossible to grab onto them. Livingston Island (the highest point before the cliff) is separated from the bottomless abyss by only a very small bridge. This place was nicknamed Devil's Pool by local Aboriginal people because of the many deaths that occurred here.

However, the rule: “Where there are people, there is extreme sports” is present in any interpretation and in any place. Even during floods, extreme sports enthusiasts stop in the middle of the river and near Livingston Island on the edge of the waterfall and take pictures. A person stopped in the middle of the river feels like tons of streams of water are flying past him.

During high water periods, the pool has recently been closed, and extreme sports enthusiasts are not allowed to approach the waterfall under any pretext.

Bungee jumping - double extreme

This type of extreme recreation is extremely popular in our country and abroad among people who cannot live without adrenaline in their blood. Those who want to feel how their blood is boiling can go to the Victoria Falls Bridge and jump into the abyss on an elastic rope, feeling free flight for a few seconds. A few meters from the water, the cable springs back and lifts the jumper a little upward. A few swings and the extreme lifts up.

The photo of Victoria Falls is very often compared with the well-known, and, as many believe, significantly neglected Iguazu, which is located in Brazil. However, if not for the intermittency of the waterfall walls, perhaps it would have won first place.

By visiting Victoria Falls along with the site, you will experience all the danger and grandeur of the waterfall. You need to see this body of water at least once in your life, when fast streams of water break on the ground and scatter into millions of small particles, creating a unique wall of fog. Come with the resort to Victoria Falls, take pictures of it and you will never forget this trip!

There is Victoria Falls, which is superior in width and is 120 meters, width - 1.8 km.

The Zambezi itself is a very calm river, which suddenly changes at the edge of the basalt plateau. The river here rushes down in five powerful streams, dumping about 550 million liters of water into the gorge per minute. The force of the impact of the water mass on the rock below is so strong that it seems as if the spray turns into “steam” and forms columns of “smoke” of enormous height.

Victoria Falls is an unusual natural phenomenon. It was formed when basalt was split into blocks by tectonic forces, as a result of which a crack formed across the bed of the Zambezi River, which was then expanded by powerful water flows. The river waters, squeezed by a narrow gorge, seethe and boil, creating a roar and roar. Victoria Falls is just the beginning of a narrow gorge that zigzags through cracks in basalt rock for almost 70 km.

The strength of the water flow varies depending on the season and time of year. In the spring, during high water, the water level in the Zambezi becomes higher, and the waterfall fills with force, becomes powerful, fast and impetuous. During drought, the temperament of the waterfall is tamed, and islands of land appear on the river and on the edge of the cliff.

If you swim up to the waterfall with the current, you get the impression that the water goes into the ground, because in front of you along the river you can see the “shore”. Opposite the waterfall there is another cliff covered with continuous tropical forest.

Victoria Falls is famous for a rare phenomenon: magnificent “lunar rainbows”. They are formed by the refraction of not only sunlight, but also moonlight. Night rainbows are especially attractive during the full moon, when the Zambezi River becomes full.

All tourists who decide to visit this attraction must take umbrellas, waterproof clothing and shoes with them. All equipment also requires protection from the splashes that Victoria Falls creates. The photos taken here will more than cover all these troubles. After all, only in this case the memories will remain imprinted.

Victoria is a waterfall that can be observed from several viewing platforms. One of the most successful is the bridge called “Knife Blade” - here you can see powerful streams of water and a place called “Boiling Cauldron”, where the river turns and goes into the Batoka Gorge. It is very convenient to appreciate this beautiful place from the railway bridge spanning the waterfall, as well as from the “Observation Tree”. Here the waterfall appears in all its frightening power and beauty.

Not far from the parking lot where tourists begin their excursion, there is a Museum of the History of the Waterfall. Its exhibitions tell about the changes that Victoria Falls has undergone over its long history, and about how water has carved and continues to carve out new areas in the rock.

On the Zimbabwean side, near the waterfall, there is the city of Victoria Falls with a reserve of the same name, as well as another national park called Mosi-oa-Tunya.

During an excursion to the waterfall, you can go canoeing or rafting down the river, go on a safari, go horseback riding or ride on elephants. For adrenaline junkies, bungee jumping is offered - jumping from the highest point of a waterfall on a rope.

1. Victoria Falls is located on the Zambezi River, the fourth largest in Africa, on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. The width of the waterfall is approximately 1800 meters, the height is 108 meters.

2. The waterfall was formed where the Zambezi falls sharply into a narrow (about 120 meters wide) chasm carved by water in a fault in the earth's crust. Numerous islands on the ridge divide the waterfall, forming channels. Over time, the waterfall retreated upstream, gnawing itself into more and more new crevices. These crevices now form a zigzag river bed with sheer walls.

3. Victoria Falls is the only waterfall in the world that is over 100 meters high and over a kilometer wide.

4. It is believed that the first European to see the waterfall was David Livingston. On November 17, 1855, while traveling from the headwaters of the Zambezi to the mouth of the river (1852-1856), Livingstone reached the falls and named it after Queen Victoria.

5. The force of the impact of multi-ton masses of water on the rock from below is such that the water turns into “steam” and is knocked back out into columns of “smoke” several hundred meters high, visible from a distance of tens of kilometers. A thunderous roar can be heard at almost the same distance. In the language of the Kololo tribe, who lived here in the 1800s, "Mosi-oa-Tunya" means "Smoke that thunders."

6. There are two islands on the crest of the falls that are large enough to part the curtain of water even at full flood: Boaruca Island (or Torrent Island) near the western shore, and Livingston Island near the middle. The main streams are called: Leaping Water (called by some the Devil's Stream), the Main Falls, the Rainbow Falls (the highest) and the East Stream.


7. During the rainy season, more than 500 million liters of water flow through the falls per minute, and in 1958, during the Zambezi flood, a record level of flow was recorded - more than 770 million liters per minute.

8. After the waterfall, the river flows through a series of narrow and steep gorges with many turns, and then falls into a large lake called the “Boiling Cauldron” - due to the numerous whirlpools, it seems that the water in it is really boiling.

9. Victoria Falls belongs to two national parks - Thundering Smoke (Zambia) and Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe). Their territory is home to many wild animals and more than a hundred species of birds. In 1989, the waterfall was declared part of the World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

10. At Victoria Falls, a rare natural phenomenon is observed - lunar rainbows. After all, a rainbow arises as a result of refraction and decomposition into component parts of the spectrum of light rays not only from the sun, but also from the moon. Night rainbows over Victoria are especially spectacular during the full moon, twice a year, when the Zambezi is at its deepest.


11. The falls were virtually unvisited by people until the railway to Bulawayo was built in 1905. After the introduction of the railway, they quickly gained popularity and maintained it until the end of British colonial rule.

12. Below the Boiling Cauldron, at approximately a 45-degree angle to the waterfall, there is a bridge across the gorge, one of five located on the Zambezi River. The arch-shaped bridge is 250 meters long, the top of the bridge is 125 meters above the lower level of the river.

13. At the very edge of Victoria Falls there is a place called Devil's Pool. This is a small stretch of water where you can swim in September and December without fear of being swept down the waterfall thanks to the rock jutting out at this point. The pool is popular with tourists who like to take risks, although according to statistics, on average one person per year dies from swimming here.

Since, thanks to the Scottish explorer, doctor and missionary Livingston, the world learned about the waterfall, which he named in honor of his Queen Victoria, guests from different countries have been drawn here. Agree, it would be strange to be next to the Thundering Smoke and refrain from visiting such a striking landmark of Africa? And we went there. I drove along and imagined how the Discovery was made... After a long drought, the river was low. But during the night nature recovered a little from the heat, and the warm, clean water smelled of freshness...

The first European on the Zambezi River at the waterfall

That's how it was. The water level has dropped significantly due to drought, but it is not for nothing that the name Zambezi means “great river” in the local dialect. Tropical dragonflies flew over the countless green islands dividing its vast expanse. Countless legions of waterfowl - gulls, waders, cormorants - fed on the rocky shallows; African skimmers silently maneuvered over the surface; fishing eagles scanned the depths in search of fish.

The hippopotamuses were serenely basking in the sun when a narrow, fidgety mokoro swam very close near two dark heads. The rower stood on the back side of the dugout boat and deftly, in complete silence, steered it with a long pole. The punt maneuvered in the middle of the river between slippery and jagged black rocks, overcame the angry currents surrounding them, and slid through rare areas of relatively calm water.

She was heading towards the roaring abyss, where the entire mass of water was rushing. A white cloud of fog hung over the cliff, which continuously fluctuated, then falling, then rising again. Several more heads of hippopotamuses surfaced, which, as if seeing off, turned their small round ears after the boat...

Mysterious natural phenomenon - Thundering Smoke

In the mid-19th century, many believed that the center of the continent was a desert. And he, for many months now, listened to reverent conversations about “Mosi oa Tunya”. Thundering Smoke... And I thought about this phenomenon. What is this? Perhaps there is a large volcanic area in an unexplored part of interior Africa? And he went to find this volcano and put it on the map.

But I found something much more remarkable. One day of the trip, suddenly, under a cloudless sky, a rainbow appeared on the horizon. Then distant thunder began to be heard in the hot midday atmosphere, and five columns of smoke became visible above the treetops, as if large areas of grass were burning in the savannah.

All this was incredibly strange; he had to encounter such phenomena for the first time in his life. It is noteworthy that in a district of sixty miles there was not a single local settlement, and this is not surprising: after all, people were convinced that Thundering Smoke was the possession of an evil and cruel Great Spirit.

The black faces of his native companions turned gray at the mere thought of approaching his abode. But he was not at all superstitious or fearful and considered it his duty to study this part of the continent before - after all, he was a missionary! - to bring the light of Christianity here.

Day after day, he turned over in his mind the possible causes of these incomprehensible natural phenomena, until he found himself on the threshold of the greatest waterfall in the world. One of the five great rivers of Africa, the Zambezi, which spread across a spacious valley a good mile wide, interrupted its smooth flow here. A gigantic crack in the earth's crust ran across the riverbed. The water made its way towards her through a fringe of small islands and rushed into the abyss with desperate madness.

In the footsteps of the great traveler

And so on November 16, 1855, with a pencil and notebook in his pocket, the greatest explorer in history, David Livingston, sails to one of these pieces of land. The island borders on one of its edges with a waterfall. What the restless European will see, lying flat on his stomach and looking with trepidation into the foamy abyss behind the sheer and inky-smooth ledge from which a thick curtain of water falls, will amaze him for life...

But these two ancient pictures of Victoria Falls, placed in the article, were made not by the hand of the great traveler, but by a completely different European - Thomas Baines, who reached Thundering Smoke on the Zambezi River a few years later than Livingstone.

Pay attention to the lower right corner of the photo with the monument; the same Mokoro boats are included in the composition.

Victoria Falls is included by UNESCO in the list of natural sites of the World Heritage of Humanity. It’s not far from Chobe National Park, where we were, to this wonder of the world. But the whole difficulty was that, according to the terms of renting our car, we could only drive it around Namibia and Botswana.

We had to arrange with the hotel for them to take us to the Rainbow Hotel in Victoria Falls Zimbabwe using their own transport, and then pick us up a day later.

Without hesitation, I quickly put my things for two days into my bag, Sanya carefully prepared a photo backpack, and here we are on a safari car going to the border with Zimbabwe. It’s good that we left early: by 8 o’clock there was a huge line behind us at the border. We were lucky with the ranger who accompanied us: he spoke with the immigration officer, helped us quickly get a visa and handed us over to a Zimbabwean driver, who dropped us off in a rattling minivan two hours later at a hotel in the town of Victoria Falls.

How to convey the greatness of a waterfall? What art can do this? For more than a hundred years, poets, writers and artists have tried to pay tribute to the outstanding landmark of the dark continent and, to the best of their talents, perpetuate it in their creations. But the time has come and digital cameras have appeared that are capable of capturing, down to the drop of precision, the grandeur and beauty of the water flying down.

Now Victoria Falls is captured in millions of photos. We intend to add our contribution to them by photographing sunset and sunrise, and to make these shots in all our skill - after all, he impressed us no less than his discoverer.

From heaven like one of the angels

The huge, powerful and unspeakably beautiful Victoria Falls... - so its discoverer Livingston was convinced - even heavenly angels in flight stare at it! Indeed, to appreciate its scale and understand how it works, you need to look at the thundering smoke of Mosi-oa-Tunya from above. Well, take-off command?

Victoria Falls is located approximately halfway between the source of the Zambezi and its mouth.

The river approaches this special section of its channel wide and calm. It flows slowly through flat terrain, forming wide floodplains. A complete idyll: long-legged herons catch pop-eyed frogs in the shallows, elephants knee-deep in water eat purple hyacinths and splash water on each other, eland antelopes graze on the shore...

And suddenly, absolutely unexpectedly, the river bed turns out to be cut by a narrow crack. It was as if someone had just slashed the living body of the Earth with a sharp knife and the edges of the cut had not yet separated. And a powerful avalanche of water poured into the gaping wound from the entire width of the river.

In a cloud of splashes, with a deafening noise and accompanied by a slight tremor of the earth's bowels, it falls into a deep abyss and seems to go into unknown depths. And this phenomenon of the sudden disappearance of a wide river is amazing.

Below the waterfall there is again almost flat terrain, which is cut through in sharp zigzags by several almost bottomless gorges, along which the Zambezi River runs furiously further. But more on that later.

Interesting facts: the height of Victoria Falls and more

So, a powerful water avalanche falls into a narrow abyss with steep walls, located at right angles to the upper channel. Let's hover right above the waterfall for a minute, but first a few numbers. Because statistics know everything:

• The length of Victoria Falls (coinciding with the width of the Zambezi River at this place) is 1708 meters.
• The width of the gorge is from one side to the opposite from 50 to 120 meters.
• The depth of the earth fault at its western end is 80 meters, in the middle – 108 meters. For clarity, my beloved’s bell tower would be hidden there along with the ball and cross crowning it.
• Just imagine: every minute, 500 million liters of water slide over the edge into the abyss during the rainy season. In dry conditions - much less, only 10 million liters. Compare - our standard bathtub holds about 200 liters of water.
• The creations of Victoria Falls are clouds of fog saturated with moisture. They envelop the seething gorge and stretch towards the sky; you can notice them even from a distance of 50 km.

More about Victoria Falls

How does he look compared to his brothers? Surprisingly and unexpectedly, it is not the tallest, nor the widest, nor even the deepest.

Waterfalls	Height (meters)	Width (meters)	Average consumption water (cub.m/sec)	Maximum water consumption (cub.m/sec)
Victoria	108	1708	1088	12800
Niagara	53	792	2400	5720
Iguazu	60-82	2700	1756	6000
Angel	979	107	300	?

And the peculiarity of this grandiose miracle of African nature is that, firstly, this waterfall is located not in the mountains, but in the middle of a flat area. Secondly, none of them have such a wide curtain of falling water. The mountain is falling like diamonds... It creates favorable conditions for numerous magnificent rainbows that connect the opposite edges of the gorge.

By the way, did you know, friends, that a rainbow is not an arc at all, but a circle?

What kind of rainbow is there?

It has been known since school that a rainbow is a special optical phenomenon that occurs when the rays of the sun are refracted in tiny drops of water. “The stream is swift and bright, rushes down in an alluring dance, Dozens of multi-colored rainbows lit up colorfully under the sun...” The beautiful sight of a double rainbow is not such a rare occurrence. Many have seen it after heavy rain, when the air is oversaturated with water droplets and the sunlight is refracted again.

We are all accustomed to thinking that a rainbow has the shape of an arc, since this is how people see it when standing on the surface of the earth. But if you observe this phenomenon at altitude, for example, from an airplane, then the viewer will see a full circle of a series of colors - the outside is red, orange, and so on, ending with the inner purple.

It’s rare to see something like this, and even rarer to photograph it. On the AirPano website, Russian photographers proudly present a photograph of a round rainbow at Victoria Falls, taken by them while filming panoramas for the project.

Victoria Falls is famous not only for its bright and juicy double and triple daytime rainbows, it is one of the few places on earth where there is a high chance of catching and filming such a rare and amazing natural phenomenon as a lunar rainbow.

Are you surprised? How can you see a rainbow at night, because it is the result of refraction of the sun's rays? Friends, correction – not sun rays, but light rays! This effect is possible when the full moon provides enough light and the sky is dark and clear. The lunar rainbow is perceived by the human eye as pale and white, although in reality it is just as colorful.

There are even misty rainbows here. They are very faintly colored and appear on columns of suspended water.

In the First Gorge along the ridge of the waterfall

Follow me, reader! Look: the river bed breaks in such a way that the front of the waterfall looks almost like a straight wall. During low water, only isolated streams fall along the rocky surface of the wall. The exposed areas of basalt dry out and stretch almost to the very bottom of the gorge. At this time, it becomes possible (though not entirely safe) to walk along the crest of the waterfall, crossing exposed shallows, treacherous rocks and sections of the river that are so deceptively calm before the sharp fall.

The structure of Victoria Falls from west to east looks like this:

• The first stream - 35 meters wide and 61 meters high - is called the Devil's Falls (or Cataract).
• It is followed by the island of Boaruka (Cataract), three hundred meters wide, where the natives worshiped the evil deity of the waterfall and brought him gifts.
• Behind the island begins the main cascade of the waterfall, called Main Falls. Its width is 460 and height is 83 meters.
• Next comes Livingston Island, overgrown with trees and bushes. It was here that the mokoro of the outstanding African explorer moored.
• The third, horseshoe-shaped stream that disappears during the dry season is the Horseshoe.
• Next comes the place of the most beautiful rainbows - the 99-meter Rainbow Falls.
• The last one is Eastern Cataract - an eastern waterfall, 98m high.

Zimbabwe or Zambia?

Oh, how we wanted to see this amazing natural phenomenon from above! But the helicopter flight cost so much that, tormented by this amount, we overcame our passionate desire. With legs, legs - closer to nature, we decided. And, having caught a taxi, we left the hotel to see the waterfall from our Zimbabwean side, because there was still time before sunset.

Victoria Falls is shared by two countries, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and therefore is part of two national parks - Mosi-oa-Tunya and Victoria Falls with an area of ​​66 square meters. km and 23 sq. km respectively. You can cross over to the Zambian side via a bridge, but we were afraid that without a yellow fever vaccination they wouldn’t let us in, so our dreams didn’t extend to the Zambian side.

However, looking ahead, I will say that we were wrong and this time we managed to visit Zambia without much difficulty and with minor financial losses. But the rules for obtaining a visa, unfortunately, often change and the next year we did not cross the Zambian border: one-day visas were abolished, and it would be stupid to buy a monthly one, which costs $50 per person for a couple of hours of stay in the country.

Watch Victoria Falls

We walked in the small Victoria Falls park for almost four hours, until dusk arrived. Of course, we took a souvenir photo with the bronze figure of Livingston, who did not take his eyes off his discovery. We were in Victoria Falls at the beginning of May, when the power of the waterfall was just beginning to decline, and it was incomparable!

On the shore opposite the water curtain, there is a tropical rain forest - dense bushes and groves of mahogany, fig and date palms, walking paths with many viewing platforms from which different points of view of the waterfall. The water of the Zambezi River rumbled, we did not take our eyes off the huge rushing streams. Clouds of water dust either completely covered the waterfall, or, like clouds, spread to the sides. Hundreds of small sparks danced around and played the brightest rainbows I have ever seen.

Friends, remember: the stones on the cliffs are wet, which means they are slippery, there are branches and thorns on the edges of the viewing platforms, so it is advisable to choose shoes for the excursion with a reliable fit and a hard sole. Hiking sandals that fasten at the ankle are great and will be quite comfortable.

Clothing here should be worn that you don’t mind getting wet; it’s even better if it dries quickly. My option with denim breeches turned out to be far from the best. But I want to note that a raincoat with a hood, usually recommended for tourists for such a walk, is completely pointless. Yes, it will protect you from splashes. But, since it’s forty degrees outside, you’ll sweat under it as if you were just wet. From my point of view, honestly getting wet is preferable.

A major bonus of the dry season: at this time, another rare opportunity is available on the Zimbabwean side - a view of the Victoria Falls from the lower part of the gorge, from where the water usually boils.

Where should we go?

A huge mass of water, compressed in a narrow canyon, seeks a way out and finds it in one single narrow and short gap leading to the second gorge. Entering it, the powerful stream turns sharply, forming a so-called boiling cauldron with whirlpools.

From here begins a zigzag cascade of narrow gorges with steep, 120–240 meter walls. Together with Victoria Falls itself, there are now eight of them. Did you notice the word “now”?

Various secrets of the Mosi-oa-Tunya waterfall

It's all about secrets - that's where it all begins. For me, my acquaintance with the Victoria Falls began at school age with an exciting search for treasures that were safely hidden by the Kaffir kings in a hiding place behind the falling streams. How many unforgettable adventures I had to experience together with Boussenard’s heroes...

Many adults are attracted by the veil of mystery hidden in ancient legends about a giant black snake with a gray-blue head. Chipik, a dangerous and fat monster lives in Mosi-oa-Tunya and drags people into its depths with the help of an unknown force. Well, yes, of course, they saw him.

No, it was not only Africans with fervent imaginations who saw it. Here, for example, is a testimony from 1925 of a certain Mr. V. Pare, who, in shallow water, went down the rocks into the canyon. Suddenly, a snake-like monster shot up from the water in front of him, literally standing on its tail. Several long seconds passed before the terrible creature disappeared into the depths of the cave at the foot of the Devil's cataract...

God knows who this man was and why no one allows himself to doubt the veracity of his story, but there were too many cases of this kind to simply give up on them. There's definitely something going on here.

But the real mystery of Mosi oa Tunya lies in the origins of this geological formation, consisting of a waterfall and seven surrounding steep gorges.

How Victoria Falls came to be

Now geologists adhere to this theory. During the Jurassic period, a huge stream of fiery lava splashed out through cracks in the earth's crust. He created the basalt plateau through which the Zambezi River now flows. But before this, many millions of years still had to pass. As it cooled, the basalt burst, and the cracks were slowly filled with sandstone, a much less durable material than basalt.

And when the powerful Zambezi flow flowed over the sandstone-filled fractures, the river began its endless work of washing away rocks, gradually, over thousands of years, forming a deep gorge with a wide waterfall tumbling into it. The earliest version of Victoria Falls formed about 5 million years ago and was much lower downstream than the modern one. Then the water fell from a cliff 140 m high, and its length was 3.3 km - a much larger formation.

The work of the water continued - it eroded the sandstone in the next crack upstream, and the waterfall moved in a zigzag. This is the eighth waterfall in the last 100,000 years. And not the last. The Devil's Cataract is the starting point for the formation of his next position. The satellite image shows two existing, not yet eroded, but very suitable cracks in the basalt.

Devil's Font and other entertainments

As soon as we checked into the hotel, we went to see what they were breathing in the town. What he saw made me think. It turned out that after the economic crisis in Zimbabwe they live quietly without a national currency. For a hang glider, a helicopter, a bungee jump, a visit to a park with a waterfall - all prices are not only in dollars, but they also really bite.

Zimbabweans are resourceful. To empty the pockets of tourists at Victoria Falls, they offer a lot of exciting opportunities - canoeing and watching the sunset, fishing on the Zambezi, white water rafting on the Zambezi River... But many of the offers are very dangerous.

For example, swimming in a small pool at the very edge of the waterfall at Livingston Island. It is unknown when and who was the first to discover this oddity in the riverbed, but it attracts tourists with hypnotic force. The Devil's Font is a three-meter hole of water, a natural stone barrier separates it from the roaring abyss. The Devil's Pool area is not fenced off in any way from the fast and furious currents that surround it, and, of course, tragic incidents happen here!

On a bridge full of adrenaline

An arched bridge is thrown across the Second Gorge, diagonally towards the waterfall, its length is 198 meters and its height is 128 meters above the Zambezi level. This engineering structure is part of the ambitious plan of Cecil John Rhodes - a politician, industrialist, financier and simply an extraordinary person who always wore an old shirt and trousers, although he was the diamond king and founder of the De Beers corporation.

The bridge was built as an element of a strategically important railway, which began in Cape Town, went across the Zambezi River and, according to plans, was supposed to end in Cairo. Fortune turned its back on Rhodes, the grandiose plan did not come true, but the constructed railway bridge is still functioning perfectly.

Additionally, it is used for pedestrian and vehicular travel. We stopped to take a few photos as heavy trucks transited the bridge and rumbled past the breathtaking views of Victoria Falls.

So, not only can you cross the bridge to the other side, it offers a cool opportunity to jump headfirst on a rope. I wonder why the majority of bungee jumpers are women?

One day, 22-year-old Australian Erin Langworthy succumbed to the temptation to swing on such a giant swing, but it didn’t work out. While bungee jumping from a bridge, her holding rubber rope broke. The free fall began at an altitude of 110 meters. Poor Erin - head down and her legs tied - flew straight into a river infested with crocodiles. The reptiles, who were clearly bored before, immediately became interested...

Fortunately, they managed to save the girl; she escaped with only fright, a broken collarbone, severe bruises and numerous bruises. But... is it worth the risk? Here's the incident on video:

We didn’t take any risks, but just stood on this bridge for a while. Livingston dedicated his remarkable discovery to Queen Victoria, but although she lived for a long century, she never saw this impressive waterfall. But in April 1947, her great-grandson George VI came here along with his wife and two daughters.

One of the princesses - then still very young Lilibet - would become Elizabeth II in the future. From this bridge, the royal family looked for a long time at the Zambezi River, on which two islands received new names in honor of the royal daughters. Now Princess Elizabeth Island belongs to Zimbabwe, and Princess Margaret Island is the territory of sovereign Zambia.

View from Zambia to Thundering Smoke

They don’t say “Zimbabwe” or “Zambia” here; the names of the countries are shortened to Zim and Zam. There is a hot, almost hot sun in the dark blue sky; it sets behind us. It's time to leave Zim and get to Zambia. We walk across the bridge, past the line for the bungee, past the line of cars heading to border control.

“How long will you stay? Are you planning to spend the night in Zimbabwe? We answer: “Yes”, they stamp our passports, then a standard wet rag, we pay for entrance to the park. “And it’s cheaper here,” we rejoice, we receive a piece of paper with route options and walk along Zambian soil.

We are the only white people here – also a kind of attraction. We, as wedding generals, are constantly asked to stand in the center of laughing groups to enliven the composition. Here the park is called “Thundering Smoke”, there is also a monument to Livingston, here is the same waterfall of stunning beauty, the same splashes and sparks.

Only there is not fog here, but a wall of water dust through which you have to walk. How right are those who say that the miracle of Victoria Falls must be seen from both Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Oooh! A gust of wind, a second of tropical downpour and we are wet as mice, not a single dry thread. Having waited until the next flock of visitors passed us, I pulled off my jeans and T-shirt, Sanya wrung them out and I pulled everything back on. I made it on time - another group of also wet and happy Chinese walked past.

Near the park there is a small souvenir market. Everything that was offered to us in Zimbabwe cannot be compared with the local assortment of elephants, hippos, and ebony wood figurines. It was more difficult to walk back across the bridge; my hands were pulling away souvenirs. We were among the last to cross the border, when the sun was almost at the horizon.

Who wants to be a trillionaire?

The town of Victoria Falls greeted us with the hubbub of street beggars and vendors. Seeing the pile of packages and bundles in our hands, they became two, no, three times more persistent. Buy this... Buy that, sir! Very cheap... But in Zim, one of the poorest countries in Africa, everything is shockingly expensive. However, Sanya could not resist and became the owner of a trillion dollars. True, Zimbabwean and out of circulation after the default, but still TRILLION - on the stunning banknote the zeros barely fit on one line.

You know about the annual Ig Nobel Prize, which is a parody of the Nobel Prize? It is always funny and is awarded for useless and meaningless discoveries. A worthy reward for its laureates is a hammer in a glass box or a similar wonderful bill - the original one hundred trillion Zimbabwean dollars in one piece of paper.

What could Zimbabweans get for their fabulous money? Almost nothing, you couldn’t even buy chocolates with such a bill. The Central Bank of Zimbabwe, conducting currency exchange in the country, for 250 trillion dollars in national currency, sparingly measured out one good old American dollar. The glory days for those dreaming of being a billionaire ended after dollarization, and the number of millionaires itself began to decline sharply - after all, the average salary in the country is about $253 per month.

The adventure comes to an end

Dusk came, for a billion people throughout Africa, another day with its joys and difficulties was ending... We had dinner at the hotel at a table by the pool. A local ethnic ensemble performed here this evening. Seeing us as the only and interested spectators, the artists gradually concentrated around us, which allowed us to record their inspired songs and dances on the phone.

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