Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

How do you like your waterfalls? The obvious starting point to a discussion about Victoria Falls is to compare the site with a distant relative: Niagara Falls, which is well known to North American audiences. 

Victoria Falls is twice as tall as its counterpart in the West, and it is twice as wide. The African water seems to be spilling over a wide delta of sorts. It takes quite a while to see it all. Niagara Falls is more concentrated and powerful, so seeing the rush of water over the rocks is quite intense. They are both exciting to see in different ways. 

One other difference - there is virtually no economic development around Victoria Falls. It's a rain forest with trails for visitors. That is not the way Niagara Falls does it, to put it mildly. To each its own.  

Victoria Falls is considered to be the waterfall that produces the largest sheet of water in the world. It's worth noting that the water levels change during the course of the year. We saw it in early August, and there was enough water falling to create a mist that obscured the bottom of the falls. A few months ago, that wasn't the case. It's partly on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, although we stayed on the Zimbabwe side.  

By the way, you can see the mist from Victoria Falls over long distances when cruising on the Zambezi River.