![]() ![]() Seeing Victoria Falls for the first time from the cliffside paths that offer spectacular views of the cascading water is one of Africa’s bucket list experiences, but there are many other exciting ways to experience the falls. On the Zimbabwean side, the town of Victoria Falls sits right by the falls themselves, and offers a huge array of adrenaline sports and safari activities including bungee jumping, abseiling, white-water rafting and wildlife spotting from horseback. Stretching 1.7 kilometres wide, the falls span both Zimbabwe and Zambia, and on each side of the border there are pathways that take you to the edge of cliffs where you can get dramatic views (and get soaking wet from the spray). Zimbabwe’s most popular tourist attraction is known as Mosi-oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) and the spray it sends up is visible from 50 kilometres away. It will probably erode its way back to another east-west joint where a future line of the waterfall will eventually become established.Tumbling down 100-metre-high cliffs surrounded by lush forest, Victoria Falls is, without a doubt, one of Africa’s most astounding sights and one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World: the biggest sheet of falling water on the planet. The Devil’s Cataract, on the Zimbabwe side, which is lower than the rest of the present falls, shows how the force of water is starting to cut back along such a line of weakness. This process has been repeated over many years and the zigzag gorges represent seven previous lines of waterfalls. This gouging out of the soft zone again established a broad fall. Once this happened, it was only a question of time before the narrow gorges cut back into another transverse fracture zone of soft material. ![]() ![]() Gradual erosion of small joints that run north-south caused the river to be concentrated into a narrow fissure and the broad fall line was abandoned. Upstream retreat of the Falls is due to a second major series of joints running north-south. Since the Zambezi is flowing due south in the Livingstone area, these softer materials are very easily eroded to form the great east-west gorges. One dominant series of joints running in an east-west direction is associated with zones of soft material within the basalt. The basalt, through which the Zambezi runs for 209 kms in the Livingstone area is characterised by very marked joints or cracks, which may have developed as the molten lava cooled. It is thought that earth movement in an earlier geological period diverted the south-easterly flowing upper Zambezi River to a general easterly direction and so initiated the development of a waterfall in an area occupied by a massive bed of basalt which is about 305 m thick. It had never been seen before by European eyes, but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight” (Livingstone 1857). Of the surrounding area he wrote: “No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. ” Creeping with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambezi, and saw that a stream of a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet and then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen to twenty yards….the most wonderful sight I had witnessed in Africa.” He landed on the biggest island on the lip of the falls, now called Livingstone Island and from there obtained his first view of the Falls. He spent the night on Kalai Island a few kilometers upstream of the Falls, having come down river by foot, and the next morning set off in a small canoe to approach the thundering smoke. In 1851, Livingstone first heard of the great waterfall, but it was only in 1855 that he set out to visit it. *As of December 2016, the KAZA visa for entry into both Zimbabwe and Zambia is available at all major ports of entry into both countries, making it easier than ever to experience both sides of the falls. Other vantage points include Livingstone Island, the Falls Bridge, Devils Pool and the Lookout Tree, both of which command panoramic views across the Main Falls. One special vantage point is across the Knife-edge Bridge, where visitors can have the finest view of the Eastern Cataract and the Main Falls as well as the Boiling Pot, where the river turns and heads down the Batoka Gorge. A path along the edge of the forest provides the visitor prepared to brave the tremendous spray, with an unparalleled series of views of the Falls. The wide, basalt cliff over which the falls thunder, transforms the Zambezi from a placid river into a ferocious torrent cutting through a series of dramatic gorges.įacing the Falls is another sheer wall of basalt, rising to the same height, and capped by mist-soaked rain forest. ![]()
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