People sip coffee, enjoy exquisite cocktails, chit-chat, read
books or just sit and relax at Livingstone Hotel's deck that sticks
out over the Zambezi river. The deck is no more than half a kilometer
upstream of the falls, it seems to be a perfect setting for chill-out
- the river flows calmly, it's vast, actually it resembles more a
lake than a river. You can taste here the dolce vita of paradise and
yet you are just few hundred meters from the gates of hell.
This few hundreds meters away, this tranquil water, reaches the brink of the 100 meters deep and 1.7 kilometers wide precipice to become the single largest curtain of falling water on the planet!
The impact of such quantities of water falling from such a hight creates enormous clouds of spray. The rain here, is actually the opposite of rain - it does not fall, it literally springs up from the falls' crest, creating big white clouds that raise from the ground up to the sky. We saw this cloud every day from Livingstone town, 10 kilometers away from the falls, and they say that it is still easily visible 30 or even 50 kilometers away. The first time I spotted it, I could not believe that the falls can create this mass of steam; I thought – do they have a nuclear power plant there? 'The white smoke' looked as if it was coming out of these large, conical, condenser chimneys of a power plant producing terrible amounts of heat.
Victoria falls can be matched in size only by Iguazu Falls at the border of Argentina and Brazil. Iguazu is wider, but Victoria is higher. Both falls are surrounded by a thick, evergreen rainforest. That's why, while approaching both of them you get this similar strange feeling – you hear them from far away, but you don't see them; as you get closer, roaring of plunging water gets louder and louder, but you still cannot see them, because of too dense rainforest's foliage. You walk more and more impatiently and then, out of a sudden, you reach the edge of the cliff and the falls emerge in front of you, much closer and much bigger than you expected them to be! Iguazu is like a Latino man, it shows itself off at once in its all length and width, whereas Victoria is a like a prudish British lady, it hides its beauty behind the cloud of its mighty spray, only when you walk along its water curtain, it reveals its parts step by step. And this walk is a very wet one, an umbrella won't do, as you experience as much of horizontal rain as of vertical rain and anyway the vertical one 'falls' mainly from the bottom :). You come back completely soaked and all you think is that getting soaked never felt so good!
It is hard to find a name that depicts the Victoria Falls better that the one given by the indigenous people 'Mosi-oa-Tunya' – the Smoke that Thunders. The first white man to see this breathtaking sight was a famous explorer David Livingstone. Interesting enough, he caught a glimpse of it, not from the cliff in front of the falls, but from an island that lies in the middle of the precipice, just where the water starts its 100 meters plunge! So, off we went in the footsteps, or rather in the water-marks, of Dr Livingstone. Whereas in 1855 he got there in a dugout canoe, we made it in a speed boat. Alike Dr Livingstone we stood on the brink of the falls, and like him we admit that it has been one of the most exciting moments we had ever experienced. At this sight he has exclaimed: “Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight."
Imagine that you are on a small piece of rock, the water is raging all around you, you look to the right you see the falls, you look to the left you see the falls, you look below, you see 100 meters precipice and lots of white, wild water below. You stand there stunned by what you see and they tell you: 'it's jacuzzi time'! 'Jacuzzi?!' you ask: 'Where is that'? The answer is not exactly what you expect: 'Just there, in a pool at the brink of the falls, yes exactly there where the water starts its 100 meters free fall'. At first you don't believe that it's even possible, let alone you don't see any pool, all you see are just big masses of water flowing wildly forwards and down. Nevertheless, the guide grabs you firmly by the hand and leads in the direction he indicated before. 'Is he out of his mind and drags you to a certain death with him?' – you ask yourself. One step, second step ... tenth step, walking has never been such a frightening experience. And then you make it, you get into the pool, you feel the force of the current dragging you into the falls. The guide holds you tight, makes you sit. Only then you realise that you are in a pool indeed, there is a parapet that prevents you from flowing into the abyss. You lean back, it's a jacuzzi you will never forget! You are in a place called the Angel's pool, and yet you are just at an arm's length from hell.
This few hundreds meters away, this tranquil water, reaches the brink of the 100 meters deep and 1.7 kilometers wide precipice to become the single largest curtain of falling water on the planet!
The impact of such quantities of water falling from such a hight creates enormous clouds of spray. The rain here, is actually the opposite of rain - it does not fall, it literally springs up from the falls' crest, creating big white clouds that raise from the ground up to the sky. We saw this cloud every day from Livingstone town, 10 kilometers away from the falls, and they say that it is still easily visible 30 or even 50 kilometers away. The first time I spotted it, I could not believe that the falls can create this mass of steam; I thought – do they have a nuclear power plant there? 'The white smoke' looked as if it was coming out of these large, conical, condenser chimneys of a power plant producing terrible amounts of heat.
Victoria falls can be matched in size only by Iguazu Falls at the border of Argentina and Brazil. Iguazu is wider, but Victoria is higher. Both falls are surrounded by a thick, evergreen rainforest. That's why, while approaching both of them you get this similar strange feeling – you hear them from far away, but you don't see them; as you get closer, roaring of plunging water gets louder and louder, but you still cannot see them, because of too dense rainforest's foliage. You walk more and more impatiently and then, out of a sudden, you reach the edge of the cliff and the falls emerge in front of you, much closer and much bigger than you expected them to be! Iguazu is like a Latino man, it shows itself off at once in its all length and width, whereas Victoria is a like a prudish British lady, it hides its beauty behind the cloud of its mighty spray, only when you walk along its water curtain, it reveals its parts step by step. And this walk is a very wet one, an umbrella won't do, as you experience as much of horizontal rain as of vertical rain and anyway the vertical one 'falls' mainly from the bottom :). You come back completely soaked and all you think is that getting soaked never felt so good!
It is hard to find a name that depicts the Victoria Falls better that the one given by the indigenous people 'Mosi-oa-Tunya' – the Smoke that Thunders. The first white man to see this breathtaking sight was a famous explorer David Livingstone. Interesting enough, he caught a glimpse of it, not from the cliff in front of the falls, but from an island that lies in the middle of the precipice, just where the water starts its 100 meters plunge! So, off we went in the footsteps, or rather in the water-marks, of Dr Livingstone. Whereas in 1855 he got there in a dugout canoe, we made it in a speed boat. Alike Dr Livingstone we stood on the brink of the falls, and like him we admit that it has been one of the most exciting moments we had ever experienced. At this sight he has exclaimed: “Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight."
Imagine that you are on a small piece of rock, the water is raging all around you, you look to the right you see the falls, you look to the left you see the falls, you look below, you see 100 meters precipice and lots of white, wild water below. You stand there stunned by what you see and they tell you: 'it's jacuzzi time'! 'Jacuzzi?!' you ask: 'Where is that'? The answer is not exactly what you expect: 'Just there, in a pool at the brink of the falls, yes exactly there where the water starts its 100 meters free fall'. At first you don't believe that it's even possible, let alone you don't see any pool, all you see are just big masses of water flowing wildly forwards and down. Nevertheless, the guide grabs you firmly by the hand and leads in the direction he indicated before. 'Is he out of his mind and drags you to a certain death with him?' – you ask yourself. One step, second step ... tenth step, walking has never been such a frightening experience. And then you make it, you get into the pool, you feel the force of the current dragging you into the falls. The guide holds you tight, makes you sit. Only then you realise that you are in a pool indeed, there is a parapet that prevents you from flowing into the abyss. You lean back, it's a jacuzzi you will never forget! You are in a place called the Angel's pool, and yet you are just at an arm's length from hell.
On the way to jacuzzi :)
Can you see the people on the other side?
Fancy a water massagee?
Huraaah!
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