Victoria Falls / Mosi-oa-Tunya
Victoria Falls in situated on the Zambesi River, and can be viewed from the Zambian or Zimbabwean side. The falls are the largest in the world, not in terms of hight or width, but rather a combination of the two making it the largest curtain of water falling in the world (hight is 108m and width is 1708m). The native people refer to Victoria Falls as "mosi-oa-tunya" (or "mosi-o-tunya") meaning "smoke that thunders."
Flights to Victoria Falls
You can fly to Livingstone on the Zambian side, or to Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwean side. The only options from Cape Town or Nelspruit are to Livingstone.
Top things to do at Victoria Falls
1 |
Helicopter or microlight flight above the Victoria Falls. Note that for safety reasons you wont be allowed to take camera-equipment with on the microlight flights (Microlight flights are only from the Zambian side - Livingstone). |
2 |
View the rainbows through the spray in the sun and if it's full moon and the Zambesi is at its most thunderous, view a lunar rainbow at night. Walk across the bridge at the falls. |
3 |
Sunset cruise on the Zambesi |
4 |
Bungi Jump, zip line, abseil and gorge swing |
5 |
Visit the Crocodile Ranch and nature sanctuary |
6 |
Picnic on Livingstone Island in the middle of the falls, and Swim in devil's pool, right next to the falls (only in the dry season and only with an experienced guide). This is usually only possible during the months of September and December. |
7 |
White water rafting or canoeing in the Zambesi River. |
8 |
Wild Horizons Elephant Back Safari |
9 |
Visit the Victoria Falls Crocodile Ranch. |
10 |
Horse Riding |
When to go
rainy season |
The water volume is higher and the waterfalls more dramatic. However, the spray obscures viewing and you will get wet as you walk along the paths near the Victoria or if you cross the bridge. |
dry season |
The water volume is lower and the waterfall might just be trickling over. However, you get a clear view of the ledges beneath the falls. |
If you go during full moon you may see a rare lunary rainbow. The spray from Victoria Falls creates a rainbow when the sun is out. At night, the rainbow usually vanishes, except when there is a full moon and a clear sky, and when the Zambesi river is at its most thunderous (January to July).
Currency
The currency in Zimbabwe is US dollars. Whilst South African Rand are generally acceptable, traders often don't have change and convert at an unfavourable exchange rate (often multiplying the dollar price by 10).
Top Victoria Falls blogs
29 Mar 2010 |
Drew experienced the Victoria Falls at their maximum during the peak of the rainy season, with the thunderous sound of the falls being easily audible from the Zambesi Sun Hotel at which she was staying. The Zambesi Sun Hotel is well positioned, with an entrance straight into Mosi-o-Tunya National Park and the entrance to the Victoria Falls.
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Accommodation at Victoria Falls
There are a number of hotels at Victoria Falls and in Livingstone.
Map of Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls resources
History of Victoria Falls
1966 |
Zambia restricts border crossings at the Victoria Falls, in response to Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence, not opening the border crossing until 1980. |
1905 |
The Victoria Falls bridge is opened, and a railway is built to the Victoria Falls, as part of Cecil John Rhodes vision of a railway from Cape Town to Cairo (Rhodes insisted the bridge be built where the spray from the falls would hit the passing trains). Before the bridge was built the Zambesi was was crossed above the Victoria falls at the Old Drift by a barge towed across the river with a steel cable or by dugout canoe. |
1901 |
The possibility of using the waterfalls for hydroelectric power is explored. |
1875 |
Czech explorer Emil Holub makes the first detailed plan of the Victoria Falls and its surroundings, which is published in 1880. |
1860 |
David Livingstone returns to the falls with John Kirk, to make a detailed study of it. |
17 Nov 1855 |
David Livingstone is believed to be the first European to have viewed the Victoria Falls, which he did from Livingstone Island in Zambia. When reading that David Livingstone "discovered" the Victoria Falls you might be forgiven for thinking there was nobody around in the area...clearly not the case (the falls were well known to local tribes, but Europeans were sceptical of the claims thinking that the lack of mountains on the plateau made a waterfall unlikely). Livingstone names it Victoria Falls in honour of his Queen. Livingstone says of the Victoria Falls: "No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight." |
3m years ago |
Stone artifacts around the falls indicates the presence of Homo habilis. There are also 50,000 year old middle-stone-age tools and late-stone-age (2000 to 10,000 years ago). Khoisan hunter-gatherers displaced the Stone Age people, and the Khoisan were later replaced by Bantu tribes such as the Batoka/Tokalea. The Batoka/Tokalea named the waterfalls Shungu na mutitima. The Matabele arrived later and called the falls aManz' aThunqayo. The Batswana and Makololo call them Mosi-oa-Tunya - all these names essentially mean "smoke that thunders". |