This morning we went on a walking tour to see Victoria Falls. In one of the local languages, Lozi, it is called Mosi-oa-Tunya, or”The Smoke That Thunders.” It is considered to be one of the world’s largest waterfalls due to its width of 5,604 ft and height of 354 ft making it the largest volume of falling water. At this location it forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. As far as we know, David Livingstone was the first white person to see the falls and he did so on November 16, 1855 from what is now known as Livingstone Island, which is in the river right above the falls. He named it after Queen Victoria, but the Lozi name is still commonly used. The falls form as the Zambezi River drops into a narrow cleft called the First Gorge. This time of year the water levels are high (peak height is in April) and there is constant mist, which led to another tribal name for the falls: “The Place of the Rainbow.” During the dry season from later in our September through January, the water levels in the Zambezi get to as low as 1/10th of peak, exposing much of the rocky face of the falls and making it possible, although not necessarily wise, to walk across some stretches of the river at the crest.

David Livingstone came to Africa to explore the continent, especially to find the source of the Nile, to end the slave trade, and to spread Christianity. Whereas nearly all white European colonizers are not held in high regard here, our guides have told us that the locals do hold Livingstone in high regard, largely due to him trying to end the slave trade.

We took a walking tour to see the falls. We first walked along the side of the falls and along the Zambezi River just before the falls. You can look out to some islands just before the falls, including Livingstone Island.This is also where people today swim at the edge of the falls. The falls are in a crevice or gorge, so you can view them from the rock ledge facing them, which is what we did. It is very wet, since we are here at the high-water time and there is a lot of spray from the falls. It also makes it very pretty with constant rainbows and double rainbows. We were given ponchos to wear and without them we would have been absolutely soaked! The views were worth it.

The views that were really worth it, though, were from the helicopter tour of the falls we took a few hours later. There is no other way than by air to truly get a good view of these falls. Breathtaking! I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

On the way back from the falls our driver took us through the local market. These pictures are what I call “drive by” pictures, as he said some of the locals would not be comfortable with them being taken. They also are iphone, so I apologize for the quality, but I love local markets and seeing what is in them.

Surprise lunch Zambezi River cruise today.

Later on, we got to go on a brief safari to see white rhinos. Zambia has a total of 9 white rhinos that were given to them by South Africa. They are guarded 24/7 to protect them from poachers. Even with this kind of protection, they have had losses to poachers in the past. We were able to see 5 of the current 9 rhinos.