Victoria Falls:

Peerless jewel of Zimbabwe

by Premasara EPASINGHE

Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in South Africa. It consists mainly of a plateau, 900 to 1500m – 2950 – 4900 feet high, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. Zimbabwe consists of a land area of 390,579 sq km or 150,873sq miles. Its capital is Harare.

With its astonishingly varied tapestry of landscape Zimbabwe is a beautiful country. About 20 p.c. of the surface area consists of parks and wildlife sanctuaries. On my visit to Zimbabwe, I visited some wild sanctuaries. All creatures, big medium small, impalas, bucks, cheetahs, hippos, Rhinos, lions, leopards, buffaloes and elephants etc. are in plenty.

You will fall asleep with the sounds of a bush, the hungry roar of a lion, the high pitched gissle of a hyena, echoing in your ears, long after the beautiful Zimbabweans sun-set.

I was very fortunate to witness the great world wonder marvel the majestic Victoria Falls which is considered as the peerless jewel of Zimbabwe.

The local name for the magnificent waterfalls is Mosi-da-Tunya.

Victoria falls is on the River Zambezi, on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. Formed by water erosion along a fracture in the earth's crust, islets divide the falls into five main sections.

David Livingstone discovered the beautiful waterfall in 1855. The maximum drop of Victoria Fall is 108m or 355 feet. Minimum width is 1,700m or 5,580 feet.

The Scottish explorer of Africa David Livingstone (1813-1873), went to South Africa as a missionary in 1841, became famous through his account of journey across the continent from Angola to Mozambique (1853-56). As the discoverer of the breath-taking Victoria Waterfalls, his name will live, forever.

Rain Forest

It was a very pleasant sun-kissed morning. The whole area was surrounded by Rain Forest.

The silvery cool-breeze was a soothing balm to our body and mind. The environment is pleasing. Silver dew drops cover our body. It was a lifetime experience.

As we trod the path we came across the majestic statue of David Livingstone the explorer of the world marvel in 1873.

There are few lines engraved. Below the statue. It speaks volumes about the Majestic Victoria Falls.

*A Sri Chinmoy Peace Falls.
*Victoria Falls.
*Soul stirring power – breadth beauty
*Life elevating majesty.
*As this Thundering cascade descends.
*From the height rainbow vision
*Delights our eyes and uplift our spirits
*One of the most significant landmarks around the globe.

Inscription

At the entrance to the Victoria Falls there lies a granite rock inscription. It reads as follows:

Welcome to Mosi-oa-Tunya

The gigantic range of Victoria Falls is about one mile in distance approximately. The massive flow of water splashes down about 100 metres echoing the whole area.

The writer stands beside the statue of David Livingstone

The sister Tributary of the gigantic, Majestic Victoria Falls is known as the Devil. It descends on his own from a height of about 75 metres. We went down the slippery 73 steps down the precipice, hanging on to big stone creepers which falls from massive trees.

It was no doubt a risky, but as adventurous journey.

Horton Plains

The “Devil Falls”, reminded me so much of our own “Baker Falls” of our beautiful Horton Plains in Nuwara Eliya. The water that originates flow from the Victoria Falls, pours down from the river Zambezi in Zambia. It is the fourth longest river to Nile, Nigera and Congo. The panoramic, breath-taking view of this peerless gem-Victoria falls and Devil Falls are etched in my mind.

The Rainbow Falls, which is about 105 km has gone dry.

The River Zambezi, Presently has not provided much water to Rainbow Falls.

When I spoke to some of the natives, they said. During the rainy season , there appears a beautiful rainbow which covers the entire area. Due to this reason it is known as ‘Rainbow Falls'.

I also had a boat trip in the River Zambezi. It was fantastic and memorable trip. The cruise lunch I had in the River Zambezi, was memorable.

Their cultural music and dancing of their tribes were magnificent. While sailing in the Zambezi River, we witnessed a couple of “Hippos” and some of the gigantic crocodile, more then 25 feet in length sun bathing on the banks of the majestic river Zambezi.

In the evening, on our way to enplane for Harare, Capital of Zimbabwe, we visited another amazing place a private crocodile farm in a land of about 30 acres.

There we saw more than 50,000 crocodiles of various sizes big, Small, medium and large.