The Victoria Falls 
| The Victoria Falls |
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The Victoria Falls are one of the most spectacular waterfalls. They are situated on the river Zambezi, which constituted in this place the frontier between the Zambia and the Zimbabwe. The river flows into the cataract by about 1 700 meters of width, and a height of 128 meters. Its flowt is from 550 000 m3 per minutes in dry season to 5 000 000 m3 per minutes in period of flooding (from March to Mai). They give a particularly remarkable spectacle, in conformity with their particular disposition, they flows into a long fault of the plateau, to escape by a tight canyon. They can thus be seen full-face at some meters. |
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David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer, was the first European to observe the falls in 1855, and names it in the honor of the Queen Victoria, although they would be known of local populations under the name of Mosi-oa-Tunya, the "smoke which roars". The neighbouring Zambian town is of the name of the explorer. The falls are the place of two national parks, the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia and the Victoria Falls National Park in the Zimbabwe, and today one of the principal travel destinations in southern Africa.
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Many islet at the top of the fall divide the wave into a series of distinct falls. The thick and the underhand roaring produced are perceptible until a distance of about 40 km. Through the centuries, the falls have climbed up the below of the river, flowing out in different places of the gorges, forming nowadays the steep and zizag canyon below of the falls. |
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The pot, which is the beginning of an impressive series of gorges of 80 km lenght through which the river flows out after the falls, is barred by a long bridge of 198 meters and going up at 94 meters above waters. It is one of the four bridges crossing the river. It is a known place of practice of jump with the rubber band. The rafting is practised in the gorges lower. |
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During the rain season, the river carts some 9 100 m3 of water per second. During the dry season, the falls can occasionally be reduced to some cascades, and the roaring and the fog tend to disappear. When the wind blows, rainbows are formed above of the gorges. |
You'll have to share this unforgettable vision with lots of tourists, because the Victoria falls are one of the wonders of the planet. But the village not far from there owns good hotels, shops, a casino, and agencies organize all kinds of excursions, from a rafting course in the froth of the river to the flight over of the falls in aeroplane, without forgetting the jump with the rubber band from the the top of the bridge of railroad.
The artisanal village of the falls, Falls Craft Village, in the middle of the place, is built on the model of a tribal village, but the huts have been imported from differents regions of the country. The artisans products sculptures, basket work and other articles which we can naturally buy on the spot. From the village, the road leading to the statue of Livingstone goes in front of the "big tree", strange baobab of enormous dimensions : more than 20 m height and almost as much of circumference. It'd have more than thousand years.
On the river at some kilometers in the North of the village, the rearing of crocodiles of Spencer's Creek offers an unexpected attraction. One presents here several thousands of crocodiles of all ages and all sizes.
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