Waterfalls
Big or small, waterfalls are a sight to behold. We look at three spectacular examples in Southern Africa
VICTORIA FALLS, ZAMBIA & ZIMBABWE
Victoria Falls are in the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It’s not the widest nor highest waterfall in the world (see box) but it’s called the largest because it takes up the most space if you multiply the maximum height (108m) by the breadth (about 1 700m). This is only in the rainy season, from February to May, when the Zambezi is in flood. In the dry season the waterfall is much smaller.
The waterfall was named by British explorer David Livingstone, who was probably the first European to see it. He came across it in 1855 and named it after Queen Victoria, the British monarch at the time. There are statues of Livingstone on both the Zimbabwean and Zambian sides of the falls.
But long before Livingstone arrived the locals had named the falls Mosi-oa-Tunya, a far more descriptive name – it means “the smoke that thunders”, referring to the water’s spray that looks like smoke and can be seen from afar, as well as the thundering noise all that falling water makes.
The falls are a world-famous tourist attraction. In the rainy season visitors have to wear raincoats because the spray is almost like rain. You can take helicopter and microlight flights to see the falls from above, and adventurous types can bungee-jump from the nearby bridge.
The truly daring sometimes take a dip in Devil’s Pool on the Zambian side – right at the edge of the waterfall. This can be done only when the river’s not in flood, or the force of the water would sweep you over the edge.