Trip to Africa - Victoria Falls

October 21, 22, 2019
We made two excursions out to Victoria Falls, one in the afternoon and one the next morning at sunrise.

 Here I am at the entrance to the park.  Victoria Falls, the greatest waterfall in the world.

On the trail leading up to the famous Victoria Falls we came across a statue of this fella.

Doctor David Livingstone was a Scottish explorer and missionary who was presumably lost in Africa searching for the headwaters of the Nile River.  Henry Stanley was a newspaper reporter for the New York Herald, assigned by his paper to be the American representative on an expedition funded by the London Globe to try and find Dr. Livingstone.  Hollywood made a famous movie about the story.  The plaque at the foot of this statue says Doctor Livingstone discovered Victoria Falls at this spot.  Actually he didn't really discover it since there had been natives living there for decades who already new about it and led him to it.  But he discovered it for the Europeans.  Henry Stanley finally did find Dr. Livingstone, but he did not go home with them, instead staying in Africa to help the natives with his missionary work and to fight against slavery in East Africa.

 Victoria Falls is considered the greatest waterfalls in the world because of its size and volume of water.  It's located on the Zambezi River on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.  It was named by Doctor Livingstone for Queen Victoria of England.

 This is just one part where there was water was still flowing.

 Along the rim there was a great jungle path with creeping vines and stuff like you imagine in jungle Africa.

We ran into both Baboons and Monkeys on the trail.

 Jacquelyn and I really liked this jungle path.  It was so cool.

 While it is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, Victoria Falls is classified as the largest waterfall in the world.  This is based on its combined width of 1,708 meters (5,604 ft) and height of 108 meters (354 ft), resulting in the world's largest sheet of falling water. Victoria Falls is roughly twice the height of North America's Niagara Falls and well over twice the width of America's Horseshoe Falls.  In height and width Victoria Falls is rivaled only by Argentina and Brazil's Iguazu Falls.

 Dry.  this would typically be flowing with water.  Besides being the try time of the season they are experiencing a great drought.

 So we didn't get to see the falls in all its glory.  Not much water going over at this time.

 Jacquelyn at one of the overlooks.  Imagine if this was a sheet of solid waterfall.

 Sunrise over the falls.

 We saw a rainbow.

 Odd looking African birds.

 Back on the trail more baboons.

 And moneys.

 Casual baboon.

Video of Victoria Falls.

So much for Victoria Falls.  Maybe we'll come back some other day when there's some water.