Some info about the falls I went to see all of yesterday.
The Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya are situated on the Zambezi River, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, (17°55′1″S, 25°51′0″E) and are roughly 1.7 km (1 mile) wide and 128 m (420 ft) high. They are considered a remarkable spectacle because of the peculiar narrow slot-like chasm into which the water falls, so one can view the falls face-on.
Victoria is the largest single sheet of water in the world , over 100 metres tall, and over one mile wide
The falls are extremely broad at about 1.7 km across, and the height of the cascade varies from 80 m at the right bank to 108 m in the centre. This makes Victoria roughly twice the height of Niagara Falls, and well over twice the width of the horseshoe falls (Niagara's main portion). The falling water generates spray and mist that rises typically to a height of over 400 metres (and sometimes even twice as high), and is visible from up to 50 km (over 30 miles) away. At full moon, a "moonbow" can be seen in the spray instead of the daylight rainbow.
During the wet season the falls have over 500 million litres (19 million cubic feet) of water falling over its crestline each minute, and spray from this rises hundreds of metres into the air because of the incredible force of the falling water.
It was absolutely fantastic to see this wonder. The water is low right now and still you get soaked walking a fair distance aways from the falls due to the pressure of the falls. They were so beautiful and like a lot of other parts of the world they didn't have security everwhere or tall fences up (in fact they had no fences or anything at all near the cliff) so you felt like it was just you and this amazing thing in the middle of nowhere.
Before we got to Vic falls we where in another city where we did the rhino trek for the day and got drenched. It turned out that we could upgrade at this place from our tent to a bed in a dorm room for the price of $1. Still some people didn't take it. Me, it was one of the best dollars I've ever spent. The owner of this place was also a massage therapist so for $10 I got a 45 minute sports massage.
Our first day arriving in Vic Falls we went out to a restaurant with our group and had a buffet style meal where I got to eat ostrich, warthog and kudu (similar to a deer, but much better meat). We also got to see a bunch of different local dances accompanied by singing. I loved this and got called up to dance during one of them (I think I held my ground) Later that night we visited a local bar/club that had live music and our group (the only white people in there) danced the night away with the locals.
I got to spend a bit more time with Gift, who calls me steveini and teaches me some of the local language. We went out to lunch along with Egg (Erin) and had some local food where you eat with your hands which I quite enjoy.
For the next 20 days or so Jamie, Egg and I join a new bus crew and so get to meet all new people for the next leg of the trip up to Nairobi.
It amazes me how friendly everyone is here and it's not just to us because we our tourists with money or since we are white and stand out in a crowd but just watching them among each other there is a happy kindness that I haven't experienced anywhere else.
It is also strange to be in a city with tons of people around while baboons just wander through the streets, on top of buildings and are just there but don't really get in the way of the people.
In this part of the world when you are talking to someone about doing something such as "when will you be here to pick me up?" they could respond "just now" when they say just now it means that it could be anytime after at least 2 hours and could be as late as months from now.
To the same question they could also respond "now, now"
when they say this it means anytime from now until usually about the latest being 2 hours from now.
Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. -- Gandhi
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