The Falls are called "smoke that thunders" because from miles away, it appears as billowing white smoke on the horizon. In reality, it is the spray of water and vapor rising 1500 feet in the sky. Our first glimpse of this phenomena was from the airplane at about 10,000 feet. We thought it was smoke from a fire. Boy, didn’t we feel silly to find out it was Victoria Falls !

These massive falls were first documented by Dr. David Livingstone (Dr. Livingstone, I presume) in 1855 and named it for the British Queen, Victoria. There is a statute of Dr. Livingstone down a path to the left as you enter the Falls area. Looking at the Falls from the Livingstone statute about mid-afternoon on a sunny day you will see the most beautiful rainbows. The Falls and the surrounding rain forest it has created is listed as a World Heritage Site and is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

There are no facilities, other than bathrooms, at the Falls. There is a small information center just beyond the entrance gate, where you can buy a soda or bottle water. There are a maze of paved walkways along the route, many lead to the edge of the chasm for a better view of the Falls.

Be prepared to get wet. It is inevitable. Outside the Falls, there are many vendors that will "rent" you a raincoat. It is a good idea to get one especially if you are carrying a backpack or camera equipment. Don’t pay more than $1 USD for each. Bring an extra plastic bag to wrap your camera in. There are many area where you will be standing, looking up at a blue sky and it will be raining- not just a soft mist- rain! If you don’t have anything with you that will be ruined by the water, just get wet, enjoy the falls, you will cherish the memories. AND, you will dry quickly in the Zimbabwe sun.

The signs on the ticket booth said it was $20 USD per person for entrance. However, we paid in Zim Dollars and it was equivalent to about $4 USD.

Before you see the falls, you already get a feel for their scale from both the volume of spray and the roar of the thunderous torrent which spews into the impressive gorge.

We visited at the start of July, which is allegedly the dry season. But don't worry--you will not be disappointed as the volume of water in the falls is still spectacularly high. Indeed, if you visit when the Zambezi is in spate, it is apparently much more difficult to see the falls if at all because of the dense spray which envelopes the entire park.

We spent most of a day in the park which although small, offers many different aspects of the falls. Also, the falls seem to create their own little localised weather systems capable of arousing gusting winds and clouds of spray amidst blasts of brilliant sunshine which create the most vivid rainbows imaginable. This truly is a natural wonder of the world--well worth the $10 entrance fee.

As well as the falls, the park is home to a considerable variety of creatures all of which are wild but used to visitors. During our visit we saw many solitary warthog and mobs of vervet monkeys (which are apparently rabid so be careful when they come up to touch you) and plentiful birdlife including white egrets.

Mosi-oa-Tunya - The Smoke That Thunders. The Falls have been known to African tribes for centuries, and were first discovered by European explorers when Dr Livingstone made one of his great trans-Africa expeditions in the 1800's. The story goes that upon hearing the Falls (which you can do from 20km away), and seeing the huge spray coming from them, many of his African porters fled in fear!

But these days, rather than fleeing, people flock to the Falls, to see this awesome wonder of the natural world. The Falls are about 2km wide, and drop around 100m into the gorge below.

The Falls form part of the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, and so can be seen from both sides. From the Zimbabwe view points, you can get a much better feel for the great expanse of the Falls, but in Zambia, you can walk out onto 'the knife edge', a sliver of land that stretches right into the centre of the Falls, thanks to a small connecting bridge, and so get a real feeling of complete immersion in the Falls.

When I've been most recently, we were in Zambia, so I'll recount the Falls from that side. As you walk through the park to the pathway along the front of the Falls, all you can hear is a great roar, as the Falls drop into the gorge below. The first sighting of them is at the very top end of them, looking right across their face. Of course, you can't see even close to the other end, due to the huge amount of spray coming up. Walking around the area, you will inevitably get wet, but never more so than on the connecting bridge out to the knife edge. We ran across this bridge, and by the time we got to some resemblance of cover, we were thoroughly drenched to the bone! There is just so much water in the air.

There are numerous viewing points of the Falls - on the ground, you really can't grasp all of them at once, they're just so big. We have wide-angle photos that are simply a wall of white-water, looking across a very narrow gap (maybe 40-50m) to the water wall. To grasp the imensity of the Falls, you really need to go into the air, and see them from above.

As you come back out of the Falls, there is a craft market with some great curios, and they are generally quite good prices, too.