Wayfaring Travel Guide. Interesting vacation places, spa and resorts » Zimbabwe

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

misha — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:52:00 +0000

Victoria Falls, also called Mosi-oa-Tunya or ”the smoke that thunders” are magnificent falls in Zimbabwe. The Victorian Falls sits on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, so travelers must choose which country will be their spot of arrival.

The falls Boiling Point is the bridge which links Zambia on the left and Zimbabwe on the right. They are paradoxical places. Geologists describe them as among nature’s most destructive forces, place, where fluid water destroys solid rock, carving canyons so slowly to be predicted.

Livingstone Island.

The destructive power of the waterfalls is mostly marked by beauty: a heightened awareness of, and exculation in, the more fact of being present.

But all the glory of this place and of any other waterfall on earth has just natural purpose: it’s river’s way of getting back to normal.

Important – looking stone structures in Great Zimbabwe

Asya — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:31:12 +0000

The complex of ruins from which the modern nation of Zimbabwe took its name is one of the country’s greatest historical and cultural attractions. As Paul Tingay’s helpful guide explains, Great Zimbabwe, the largest ruins in Africa, covers almost 1,800 acres.
The ruins of this complex of massive stone walls undulate across almost 1,800 acres of present-day southeastern Zimbabwe. Begun during the eleventh century A.D. by Bantu-speaking ancestors of the Shona, Great Zimbabwe was constructed and expanded for more than 300 years in a local style that eschewed rectilinearly for flowing curves.
Neither the first nor the last of some 300 similar complexes located on the Zimbabwean plateau, Great Zimbabwe is set apart by the terrific scale of its structure. Its most formidable edifice, commonly referred to as the Great Enclosure, has walls as high as 36 feet extending approximately 820 feet, making it the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara Desert. In the 1800s, European travelers and English colonizers, stunned by Great Zimbabwe’s its grandeur and cunning workmanship, attributed the architecture to foreign powers. Such attributions were dismissed when archaeological investigations conducted during the first decades of the twentieth century confirmed both the antiquity of the site and its African origins.Around 850 AD, the Shona people move into the region, displacing earlier Bantu groups, with the Karanga clan living at Great Zimbabwe itself. The Karanga were expert metal workers, and a trade in gold, iron and copper was soon thriving with the Swahili and Arabs on the coast. The Karangas had a superior skill in political organization, and from a single clan, like the Romans, in time came to dominate all the surrounding peoples. In 943, the Arab voyager Al Masudi visits parts of East and South Africa and describes this powerful inland kingdom rich in gold and ivory.

Around 1000AD people began to build large stone buildings for their kings, positioning them away from land. Many believe this move may have occurred to escape the dangerous tsetse fly. About 150 of these great ruins similar to Great Zimbabwe exist today. Many of these have been severely impacted and almost demolished, at least 50, as a result of the hunger for gold by Europeans. The population of Great Zimbabwe, previously estimated at 1,000 before the outside dwelling areas were taken into consideration, is now believed to have been as high as 18,000.

The first whispered reports of a fabulous stone palace in the heart of southern Africa began dribbling into the coastal trading ports of Mozambique in the 16th century. In his 1552AD Asia, the most complete chronicle of the Portuguese conquests, J.Barros wrote of “a square fortress, masonry within and without, built of stones of marvelous size, and there appears to be no mortar joining them.”

Great Zimbabwe was an early example of a state in this region of southern Africa with much political, economic, and military power. With its formation, social and political organization became more hierarchical. This involved a move from village level organization to a larger, broader social and political organization resulting in the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe. Aspirant sculptors today use the same soapstone to carve copies of the same birds and this has helped launch a stone carving craft characteristically Zimbabwean.

One of the most spectacular natural wonders of the world

Asya — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 13:56:00 +0000

The largest waterfall on the planet, as well as being among the most unusual in form, and having arguably the most diverse and easily-seen wildlife of any major waterfall site. The Victoria falls is 1 708 meters wide, making it the largest curtain of water in the world. It drops between 90m and 107m into the Zambezi Gorge and an average of 550,000 cubic metres of water plummet over the edge every minute.
The falls are the stuff of legends, romance and myth. Long before the Scottish missionary and explorer, Dr David Livingstone â€˜discoveredâ€™ the falls on November 16, 1855, the local Batonga people had named them Mosi-Oa-Tunya, “the smoke that thunders”. The more prosaic Livingstone named them for his queen, but departed from his normal, pedestrian writing to observe in his diary that “scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight”.
Over at least 100,000 years, the falls have been receding upstream through the Batoka Gorges, eroding the sandstone-filled cracks to form the gorges. The river’s course in the current vicinity of the falls is north to south, so it opens up the large east-west cracks across its full width, then it cuts back through a short north-south crack to the next east-west one. The river has fallen in different eras into different chasms which now form a series of sharply zig-zagging gorges downstream from the falls.Victoria Falls is situated in Southern Africa – on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia – and occurs where the powerful Zambezi River plunges down a series of basalt gorges in a breathtaking display of several waterfalls. Mist from the waterfalls can be seen more than 20 kilometres away and the thundering roar can be heard long before the falls can be seen.

A number of activities can be undertaken. The “Flight of Angels” provides a fabulous vista of the falls, the upstream river and its many islands and for the more adventurous there is micro lighting with stunning views of the Fall. Rafting the wild rapids below the Falls is a very popular adventure. Visitors can also kayak, canoe, fish, go on guided walking safaris, ride on horseback and lunch on Livingstone’s Island. The sun downer cruises, nearby game farms and additional safari opportunities have firmly ensured that Victoria Falls has become one of Africa’s most visited attractions. Floating above the falls in a tandem microlight is perhaps the ultimate way to see what Livingstoneâ€™s angels saw, but for the less adventurous, there are regular helicopter and light aircraft flights for a similar perspective.

Mother nature was generous giving Zimbabwe one of the most beautiful waterfall in the world, the famous Victoria falls. While the Victoria Falls are one of natureâ€™s greatest splendours and Zimbabweâ€™s most famous World Heritage site, the attendant tourist boom-town is also the adventure capital of the world.

What about Rafting the Zambezi River

nerdeff — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:57:01 +0000

For all the fans of rafting the Zambezi River is probably a dreamed and must-do activity.

White Water Rafting on the Zambezi River below the Victoria Falls has been classified by the British Canoe Union as Grade 5 – extremely difficult, long and violent rapids, steep gradients, big drops and pressure areas. This is a high volume, pool-drop river – little exposed rock either in the rapids or in the pools below the rapids. The Zambezi White Water Rafting is internationally acclaimed as being the wildest in the world.

The enormous Zambezi River plunges 103 metres into a chasm almost 2km in length. In full flood the water makes a deafening roar throwing up towering clouds of spray which create multitudes of sparkling rainbows and constantly drenches the opposite cliff in rain.

Rafting is conducted on both sides of the Zambezi River, in Zimbabwe and Zambia below the Victoria Falls. Options include one and a half day rafting trips or rafting expeditions. The main rafting operations in Victoria Falls are:

* Shearwater Adventures (operating from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe)
* Safari Par Excellence (in Zimbabwe and Zambia – the latter departure in low water season gives you access to the Boiling Pot),
* Adrift / Kandahar (a relatively small outfit offering very personalised trips)

Top tips for rafting the Zambezi* Use lots of waterproof sunscreen, factor one million if you can find it. Keep applying it.
* If youâ€™re coming from, or heading to, Zimbabwe, itâ€™s cheaper on that side of the border.
* If you have a waterproof camera that youâ€™re confident you can stop from getting lost or smashed up, bring it.
* Apply some more sunscreen.
* September/October is the best time to do it (apparently). By best, I mean scariest.
* The first section of the river isnâ€™t open when the wet season is in full swing (generally some time between December and April). They have â€˜sievesâ€™ that can swallow a raft for over a minute then.
* Only little crocs make it over the Falls, no need to worry.
* You missed a bit with that sunscreen.

Gorge Swing, Rafting, Sandboarding

I will be happy to hear some insights from anyone who has been there…