Beast: The longest waterfall in the world plunges into the depths.
Here crocodiles hunt their prey - but the real threat are the
tourists.
Lunchtime at Zambezi Sun Resort Hotel: white-skinned guests lounging
in front of cucumber sandwiches and the first beer of the day bored in
the garden trimmed. At a distance, behind cantilevered pool and sun
terrace, to agree on a tent-like stage five locals with Hammond organ
and electric drums supposedly African ways. Moses Banpeter can rotate
only about the eyes. "That's bad." The 56-year-old gardener knows the
neighboring Victoria Falls yet, as each year came only a few thousand
tourists. "That was a different world."
A world that is hardly imaginable today. For the longest waterfall in
the world on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe - twice as high
and half times as wide as Niagara Falls - is one of the most famous
sights in Africa and is also available at many World Cup tourists on
the itinerary.
The Heart of Africa, here it is pulsed, here it is pumping. The
Kololo, in the 19th Century came and settled, called the cases
Mosi-oa-Tunya, "the smoke that thunders". Gurgling rage would be more
accurate, especially now, from March to July, after the rainy season.
Then all the water flows into the coronary veins to the heart of
Africa. It is far away from the West, from Angola, Congo, Botswana and
Namibia. From the river network of the Caprivi Strip, from the Kwando,
the Chobe, and the Luanginga Kabompo. Wreath-shaped flow of the rivers
on the Victoria Falls, located 60 kilometers to about to unite in the
Zambezi.
The people living on this river, the falls and the tourists - over a
million are born each year. Of whom also lives Joyce Line Mutumba. The
29-year-old waiter at one of the many excursion steamer Zambezi above
the falls. Now she stands on the shore, looking at the gray-blue
throats and holding her arm in the sun. Two inch thick scar on her
forearm silvery shine. "That was the damn crocodile, I get goose bumps
still with fear." And at 32 degrees in the shade.
It hisses, growls and roars
The Zambezi is the fourth longest river in Africa after the Nile,
Congo and Niger. 2660 km elevated water which pushes slowly through
the savannah. However, the closer the Zambezi is the edge of Victoria
Falls, the more he goes to the width decreases, ride on, becomes more
powerful, the more his swollen belly. Then he bursts into the depths.
Unexpectedly, as it explode in a cloud of spray. With hiss, hiss and
roar.
Every second, thunders the contents of five Olympic swimming pools in
these 108 meters deep, gaping maw with its 1.7-mile-wide basalt lip.
Well 110 million liters per second. The performance of the cases
corresponds to the twelve nuclear power plants. Imaginable water
masses? Eventually, no more.
The throat, swallowed all these pools, framed by a dense, deep green
rain forest. It spans a wide sweeping rainbow, painted by the sun in
heavy tropical colors.
It was nearly 155 years ago, the 16th November 1855th David
Livingstone, a Scottish missionary, had been years before heard of a
smoke that supposedly somewhere in the middle of the African bush. On
that November day, but he settled for a canoe ride escarpment and was
overwhelmed. He named the falls after his Queen.
Livingstone, a rather dry, stubborn Scot had traveled for more than
six years in southern Africa and seen a lot. But he faltered at the
first sight of the cases of the "Wonderful at all in Africa." Here is
an incredible beauty has become a reality. "The Victoria Falls, the
scenes are so beautifully that even the angels in the air to stop and
stare."
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