Waterfall thundering smoke. See with your own eyes the grandiose Victoria Falls and the amazing award of the Shnobel Prize. Mysterious natural phenomenon - Thundering Smoke

"Thundering" "Thundering" is the name of several ships of the Russian Navy. The frigate, laid down on August 31, 1762 in Arkhangelsk and assembled by May 31, 1763, had 32 guns. He belonged to the White Sea fleet. In 1765 it was relocated to Kronstadt. Was decommissioned in 1778 Parusnoye

What is a waterfall? When a stream or river overflows over a stone wall in the form of a cliff or cliff, it creates a waterfall. Where the wall does not break off vertically, but has a flat shape, the flowing water is called a cascade. Sometimes in the cascade water flows over a whole series

Waterfall Waterfall - this is the name of the place where a river or stream falls from a steep or even steep ledge. Thresholds are not quite correctly distinguished from V. - a series of successive, but usually insignificant height V., which are often instead of one large. V. author TSB

Victoria Falls Recently, tourists began to combine a trip to South Africa with a visit to Victoria Falls. This is reasonable, since it is impractical to fly to the ends of the world just for the sake of a waterfall. A visit from South Africa takes just a few hours. Of course, this is not

The world famous Victoria Falls, which locals call “Mosi-oa-Tunya” (“Thundering Smoke”), is one of the most picturesque and enchanting spectacles on the African continent.

Victoria Falls is a legendary landmark that attracts tourists from all over the world. Here mighty river The Zambezi falls down, forming a water curtain almost 2 kilometers long. Such a sight meets tourists who come here in spring, when the river is filled with water as much as possible, so that every second 5 million liters of water fall down 100 meters and 30 km from the waterfall you can see clouds of steam rising above the water.

The waterfall is just the beginning of a picturesque section of the river bed, because the river, shrouded in a cloud of spray, roars right there into a narrow gorge, along which it zigzags for almost 70 km. These intricate twists and turns are caused by cracks in the rock widened over millennia by the force of water alone. The Zambezi River wanders over a plateau formed from layers of sandstone and basalt; where these two different rocks meet, cracks are formed.

Indeed, the spray of water rising from the waterfall forms a cloud that looks like smoke from afar. The waterfall owes its name to David Livingston, the discoverer and the first white man who saw it in 1885 and decided to name it after the English Queen Victoria. When the local natives took him to the waterfall and showed him 546 million liters of water, which every minute crash into a 100-meter abyss, David Livingston was so shocked by what he saw that he immediately christened him with the name of the queen.

At the waterfall, the width of the Zambezi River reaches 1.6 km. Water falls with a roar into the 106-meter gap formed on its way.

In 1857, David Livingston wrote that in England no one can even imagine the beauty of this spectacle: “No one can imagine the beauty of the spectacle in comparison with anything seen in England. The eyes of a European have never seen such a thing before, but the sight so beautiful must have been admired by the angels in their flight! "

Professor Livingston described the falls as the most beautiful sight he had seen in Africa: “Crawling fearfully towards the cliff, I looked down into a huge crack that stretched from coast to coast of the wide Zambezi, and saw a stream thousands of yards wide rushed down onto a hundred feet and then suddenly collapsed in a space of fifteen to twenty yards ... I have witnessed the most wonderful sight in Africa! ”

The waterfall is extremely wide, approximately 1800 meters wide, the height of the water falling varies from 80 meters at the right bank of the waterfall to 108 meters in the center. Victoria Falls is about twice the height of Niagara Falls and more than twice as wide as its main part ("Horseshoe"). Falling water creates spray and fog that can rise to heights of 400 meters and more. The fog created by the waterfall is visible up to 50 kilometers away. During the rainy season, more than 500 million liters of water per minute pass through the waterfall, due to the enormous force of the falling water, the spray rises hundreds of meters into the air. In 1958, during the floods in the Zambezi, a record level of flow was noted - more than 770 million liters per minute.

Access to the waterfall From the Zimbabwe side, entrance to the Victoria Falls National Park is paid (25 USD). The hotels are located in the town of Victoria Falls. The closest to the waterfall are Victoria Falls Hotel 5 *, The Kingdom at Victoria Falls 4 * and Ilala Lodge 5 *. From the side of Zambia, everything is much more interesting. If you stay in one of the hotels of the Sun International group (Zambezi Sun 3 * or The Royal Livingstone 5 *, then the entrance to the waterfall is free for you and unlimited directly from the hotel territory. For those who live in other hotels and lodges, the entrance is paid - 30 USD Plus, you have to travel every time, as the rest of the hotels are located upstream of the Zambezi.

The waterfall, according to some parameters, is the largest waterfall in the world, and is also one of the most unusual in shape (the waterfall is an extraordinary sight - a narrow abyss into which water falls), and has perhaps the most diverse and easily observed wildlife of any part of the waterfall ...

Although Victoria Falls is neither the tallest nor the widest falls in the world, its status as the largest is based on a width of 1708 and a height of 108 meters, forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world. Numerous islets on the crest of the waterfall divide the water stream into several branches. The dense fog and thunderous roar produced by the waterfall can be perceived from a distance of approximately 40 km.

A few meters ahead and you fall down with the waterfall.

Ever since, thanks to the Scottish explorer, doctor and missionary Livingston, the world learned about the waterfall, which he named after his Queen Victoria, guests from different countries... Agree, it would be strange to be near the Thundering Smoke and refrain from visiting such a striking sight in Africa? And we went there. I rode and imagined how the Discovery was made ... After a long drought, the river was low. But during the night, nature recovered a little from the heat, and the warm, clear water smelled fresh ...

First European on the Zambezi River at the waterfall

And so it was. The water level has dropped significantly due to drought, but it is not for nothing that in the local dialect the name Zambezi means “great river”. Tropical dragonflies were hovering over the countless green islands dividing its vast expanse. Innumerable legions of waterfowl - gulls, sandpipers, cormorants - were feeding on the rocky shallows, African skimmers were silently maneuvering over the very surface, fishing eagles scanned the depth in search of fish.

The hippos were serenely basking in the sun as a narrow, fidgety mokoro swam very close by about two dark heads. The rower stood on the back of the dugout boat and deftly, in complete silence, steered it with a long pole. The flat-bottomed maneuver in the middle of the river between slippery and jagged black rocks, overcame the surrounding furious streams, glided over rare areas of relatively calm water.

She was heading towards the roaring abyss, where the entire mass of water rushed. A white cloud of fog hung over the precipice, which constantly fluctuated, then descending, then rising again. Several more hippopotamus heads emerged, which, as if seeing off, turned their little round ears after the boat ...

Mysterious natural phenomenon - Thundering Smoke

In the mid-19th century, many believed that the center of the continent was occupied by the desert. And he, for many months now, had been listening to reverent talk about Mosi oa Tunya. Thundering Smoke ... And I was thinking about this phenomenon. What is it? Perhaps there is a large volcanic region in an unexplored part of inner Africa? And he went to find this volcano and place it on the map.

But I found something much more wonderful. On one of the travel days, a rainbow suddenly appeared on the horizon under a cloudless sky. Then, in the hot midday atmosphere, distant thunder began to be heard, and five columns of smoke were visible above the treetops, as if large patches of grass were burning in the savannah.

All this was incredibly strange, he had to face such phenomena for the first time in his life. It is noteworthy that in the area of \u200b\u200bsixty miles there was not a single local settlement, and this is not surprising: after all, people were convinced that Thundering Smoke was the possession of an evil and cruel Great Spirit.

The black faces of his native companions turned gray at the thought of approaching his abode. But he was not at all superstitious or fearful and considered it his duty to study this part of the continent before - after all, he was a missionary! - to bring here the light of Christianity.

He went over in his mind day after day possible reasons the emergence of these incomprehensible natural phenomena, until he was on the verge of the greatest waterfall in the world. One of the five great rivers of Africa, the Zambezi, which spread over a vast valley a mile wide, interrupted its smooth flow here. Across the channel was a giant crack in the earth's crust. Water made its way to it through the border of small islands and, with desperate madness, threw itself into the abyss.

In the footsteps of the great traveler

And on November 16, 1855, with a pencil and a notebook in his pocket, the greatest explorer in history, David Livingston, is sailing to one of these pieces of land. The islet is bordered by a waterfall with one edge. What a restless European will see, lying on his stomach and looking with trepidation into the foamy abyss behind the steep and ink-smooth ledge, from which a thick curtain of water rushed down, will amaze him for life ...

But these two old pictures of Victoria Falls, placed in the article, were not made by the hand of a great traveler, but by a completely different European - Thomas Baines, who reached Thundering Smoke on the Zambezi River a few years after Livingstone.

Pay attention to the lower right corner of the photo with the monument; the composition includes the very Mokoro boats.

Victoria Falls included in the UNESCO list of natural sites World heritage humanity. It is not far from the Chobe National Park, where we were, to this wonder of the world. But the whole difficulty was that according to the terms of renting our car, we could only drive around Namibia and Botswana.

I had to arrange at the hotel so that they would take us to the Rainbow Hotel in Victoria Falls Zimbabwe on their own transport, and take us back a day later.

How to convey the greatness of the waterfall? What art is it for? For more than a hundred years, poets, writers and artists have tried to pay tribute to the outstanding landmark of the black continent and, to the best of their talent, immortalize it in their creations. But the time has come and digital cameras have appeared, capable of capturing the grandeur and beauty of water flying down to the nearest drop.

Victoria Falls has now been featured in millions of photos. We intend to add our bit to them by filming the sunset and dawn, and to make these shots in all our skill - after all, he made an impression on us no less than on his discoverer.

From heaven like one of the angels

The huge, powerful and unspeakably beautiful Victoria Falls ... Even the heavenly angels in flight were stare at it, as its discoverer Livingston was convinced! Indeed, in order to assess its scale and understand how it works, you need to look at the roaring smoke of Mosi-oa-Tunya from above. Well, take off team?

Victoria Falls is located approximately halfway between the source of the Zambezi and its mouth.

To this particular section of its channel, the river approaches wide and calm. It flows slowly over flat terrain, forming wide floodplains. It is a continuous idyll: ankle-eared herons catch big-eyed frogs in the shallows, elephants knee-deep in water eat purple hyacinths and splash water on each other, cannes antelopes graze on the shore ...

And suddenly, absolutely unexpectedly, the river bed is cut by a narrow crack. It was as if someone had just slashed the living body of the Earth with a sharp knife and the edges of the cut had not yet parted. And a powerful avalanche of water poured into the gaping wound from the entire width of the river.

In a cloud of spray, with a deafening noise and accompanied by a slight shudder of the earth's interior, she falls into a deep abyss and seems to go into unknown depths. And this phenomenon of the sudden disappearance of a wide river is amazing.

Below the waterfall, there is again an almost flat terrain, which is cut with sharp zigzags by several almost bottomless gorges, along which the Zambezi River runs raging along. But more on that later.

Interesting facts: the height of Victoria Falls and more

So, a powerful water avalanche falls into a narrow abyss with steep walls, located at right angles to the upper channel. Let's hover just over the waterfall for a minute, but first, a few numbers. Since statistics know everything:

• The length of Victoria Falls (which coincides with the width of the Zambezi River at this point) is 1708 meters.
• The width of the gorge is from one side to the opposite from 50 to 120 meters.
• The depth of the earth fault at its western end is 80 meters, in the middle - 108 meters. For clarity, the bell tower of my beloved would be hidden there along with the ball and cross crowning it.
• Just imagine: every minute 500 million liters of water slide over the edge into the abyss during the rainy season. In dry it is much less, only 10 million liters. Compare - our standard bathtub holds about 200 liters of water.
• The products of Victoria Falls are clouds of fog saturated with moisture. They envelop the seething gorge and stretch towards the sky, you can see them even at a distance of 50 km.

More about Victoria Falls

And how does he look against the background of his fellows? Surprisingly and surprisingly, it is neither the tallest, nor the widest, nor even the deepest.

And the peculiarity of this grandiose miracle of African nature is that, firstly, this waterfall is located not in a mountain, but in the middle of a flat area. Secondly, none of them has such a wide curtain of falling water. Almazna mountain falls ... It creates favorable conditions for numerous magnificent rainbows that connect the opposite edges of the gorge.

By the way, did you know, friends, that a rainbow is not an arc at all, but a circle?

What is a rainbow

It has been known since school that a rainbow is a special optical phenomenon that occurs when the sun's rays are refracted in tiny drops of water. “The stream is swift and bright, In an alluring dance it breaks down, Dozens of multi-colored rainbows Colorfully lit up under the sun ...” The beautiful sight of a double rainbow is not so rare. It was seen by many after a heavy rain, when the air is oversaturated with water droplets, sunlight refracts again.

We are all accustomed to believing that the rainbow is in the shape of an arc, since this is how people see it, standing on the surface of the earth. But if you observe this phenomenon in heights, for example, from an airplane, then the viewer will see a full circle from a series of colors - outside red, orange, and so on, ending with the inner purple.

It is rarely possible to see this, even less often it is possible to photograph. On the AirPano website, Russian photographers are proud to present a photograph of a round rainbow at Victoria Falls, taken during the filming of panoramas for the project.

Victoria Falls is famous not only for its bright and juicy double, triple daytime rainbows, it is one of the few places on earth where there are great chances to catch and photograph such a rare and amazing natural phenomenon as the lunar rainbow.

Are you surprised? How can you see a rainbow at night, because it is the result of the refraction of the sun's rays? Friends, the amendment is not solar, but light rays! This effect is possible when the full moon provides enough light and the sky is dark and clear. The lunar rainbow is perceived by the human eye as pale and white, although in fact it is just as colorful.

There are even foggy rainbows. They are very weakly colored and appear on the columns of water suspension.

In the First Gorge along the ridge of the waterfall

Follow me, reader! Look: the riverbed breaks in such a way that the front of the waterfall looks like an almost straight wall. During low water, only separate streams fall on the rocky surface of the wall. The exposed areas of basalt dry up and stretch almost to the very bottom of the gorge. At this time, it becomes possible (although not entirely safe) to walk along the ridge of the waterfall, crossing the exposed shallows, treacherous stones and sections of the river, so deceptively calm before a sharp fall.

The structure of Victoria Falls from west to east looks like this:

• The first stream - 35 meters wide and 61 meters high - is called the Devil's waterfall (or cataract).
• It is followed by the island of Boaruka (Cataract), three hundred meters wide, on which the natives worshiped the evil deity of the waterfall and brought him gifts.
• The main cascade of the waterfall, called Main Falls, begins behind the island. It is 460 meters wide and 83 meters high.
• Next is Livingston Island, overgrown with trees and bushes. It was here that the Mokoro of the outstanding explorer of Africa moored.
• The third, disappearing in the dry season, a horseshoe-shaped stream - Horseshoe.
• Next is the place of the most beautiful rainbows - the 99-meter Rainbow Falls.
• The last one is Eastern-Cataract - eastern waterfall, 98m high.

Zimbabwe or Zambia?

Oh, how we wanted to see an amazing natural phenomenon from above! But the helicopter flight cost so much that, tormented by this amount, we overcame our passionate desire. Feet, legs - closer to nature, we decided. And, having caught a taxi, we went from the hotel to watch the waterfall from our Zimbabwean side, for there was still time before sunset.

Victoria Falls are divided between two countries Zambia and Zimbabwe, therefore it is part of two national parks at once - "Mosi-oa-Tunya" and "Victoria Falls" with an area of \u200b\u200b66 sq. km and 23 sq. km respectively. You can cross the bridge to the Zambian side, but we feared that we would not be allowed there without a yellow fever vaccination, so our dreams did not extend to the Zambian side.

However, running ahead, I will say that we were mistaken and this time without much difficulty with small financial losses managed to visit Zambia. But the rules for obtaining a visa, unfortunately, often change, and next year we did not cross the Zambian border: we canceled one-day visas, and buying a monthly one, which costs $ 50 per person for a couple of hours of stay in the country, would be stupid.

See Victoria Falls

We walked in small Victoria Falls Park for nearly four hours, until dusk. Of course, they were photographed for memory at the bronze figure of Livingstone, who did not take his eyes off his discovery. We were in Victoria Falls in early May, when the power of the falls is just starting to wane and it was incomparable!

On the shore opposite the water curtain, there is a tropical rain forest - dense bushes and groves of mahogany, figs and date palms, walking paths with many viewing platforms from different points of view of the waterfall. The water of the Zambezi River thundered, we did not take our eyes off the huge rushing streams. Clouds of water dust, then completely covered the waterfall, then, like clouds, spread to the sides. Hundreds of little sparks danced around and the most bright rainbows I've ever seen.

Friends, remember: the stones on the cliffs are wet, which means they are slippery, on the edges observation platforms branches and thorns are sketched out, so it is advisable to choose shoes for an excursion with a secure fit and a solid sole. Ankle-fastened tourist sandals are great, they will be quite comfortable in them.

Clothes here should be worn such that it is not a pity to get wet, it is even better if it dries quickly. My version with denim breeches was far from the best. But I want to note that a raincoat jacket with a hood that is usually recommended for tourists for such a walk is completely meaningless. Yes, it will save you from splashing. But, since it is forty degrees outside, under it you will sweat as if you were just wet. From my point of view, honestly getting wet is preferable.

A big bonus for the dry season: during this time, another rare opportunity is available on the Zimbabwean side - a view of Victoria Falls from the bottom of the gorge, from where the water usually boils.

Where should we sail?

Compressed in a narrow canyon, a huge mass of water seeks out and finds it in a single narrow and short gap leading to the second gorge. Entering it, a powerful stream turns sharply, forming a so-called boiling cauldron with whirlpools.

From here begins a zigzag cascade of narrow gorges with steep, 120–240 meter high walls. Together with the Victoria Falls itself, there are now eight of them. Have you noticed the word "now"?

Different secrets of the Mosi-oa-Tunya waterfall

It's all about secrets - everything starts with them. For me, acquaintance with the Victoria Falls began at school age with an exciting treasure hunt that was safely hidden by the Kaffir kings in a cache behind the falling streams. How many unforgettable adventures I had to go through together with the heroes of Boussinard ...

For many adults, Thundering Smoke beckons with a veil of mystery hidden in the ancient legends of a giant black snake with a gray-blue head. Chipik, a dangerous and fat monster, lives in Mosi-oa-Tunya and draws people into his depths with the help of an unknown force. Well, yes, of course, he was seen.

No, it was not only seen by Africans with fervent imaginations. For example, here is the testimony from 1925 of a certain Mr. V. Pare, who, in shallow water, descended the rocks into the canyon. Suddenly, a snake-like monster shot up out of the water in front of him, standing literally on its tail. Several long seconds passed before the terrible creature disappeared into the depths of the cave at the foot of the Devil's cataract ...

God only knows who this man was and why no one allows himself to doubt the veracity of his story, but there were too many cases of this kind to simply give up on them. There is definitely something here.

But the real secret of Mosi oa Tunya is connected with the origin of this geological formation, consisting of a waterfall and seven steep gorges adjacent to it.

How Victoria Falls originated

Geologists now adhere to this theory. During the Jurassic period, a huge stream of fiery lava splashed through cracks in the earth's crust. He created that basalt plateau, along which the Zambezi River flows now. But before that, many millions of years still had to pass. Cooling down, the basalt burst, the cracks slowly filled with sandstone - a much less durable material than basalt.

And when the powerful stream of the Zambezi flowed over the sandstone-filled fractures, the river began its endless labor of washing away the rocks, gradually, over thousands of years, forming a deep gorge with a wide waterfall falling into it. The earliest version of Victoria Falls was formed about 5 million years ago and was much further downstream than the current one. Then the water fell from a cliff 140 m high, and its length was 3.3 km - a much larger formation.

The work of the water continued - it eroded the sandstone in the next crack upstream, and the waterfall zigzagged. This is the eighth waterfall in the last 100,000 years. And not the last one. The Devil's cataract is the starting point for forming his next position. The satellite image shows two existing, not yet eroded, but very suitable cracks in the basalt.

Devil's Font and other entertainment

Having barely settled in the hotel, we went to see what they breathe in the town. What he saw made me think. It turned out that after the economic crisis in Zimbabwe they live quietly without a national currency. For a hang glider, a helicopter, a bungee, a visit to the park with a waterfall - all the prices are not only in dollars, but, moreover, they really bite.

Zimbabweans are resourceful. To empty the pockets of tourists at Victoria Falls, they offer many exciting opportunities - canoe walks and sunset, fishing in the Zambezi, rafting on the white water of the Zambezi ... But many of the proposals are quite dangerous.

For example, swimming in the small pool at the very edge of the falls off Livingston Island. It is not known when and who first discovered this oddity in the river bed, but it attracts tourists with a hypnotic force. The Devil's Font is a three-meter hole with water; a natural stone barrier separates it from the roaring abyss. The devil's pool area is not fenced off from the fast and violent currents that surround it, and, of course, tragic accidents happen here!

On a bridge full of adrenaline

An arched bridge is thrown across the Second Gorge, diagonally to the waterfall, its length is 198 meters and a height of 128 meters above the Zambezi level. This engineering structure is part of the ambitious plan of Cecil John Rhodes - a politician, industrialist, financier and just an extraordinary person who constantly wore an old shirt and trousers, although he was the diamond king and founder of the De Beers Corporation.

The bridge was erected as part of a strategically important railway, which began in Cape Town, went across the Zambezi River and, according to plans, was supposed to end in Cairo. Fortune turned her back on Rhodes, the grandiose plan did not materialize, but the constructed railway bridge is still functioning perfectly.

Additionally, it is used for pedestrian and car travel. We paused to take a few photos, and heavy trucks, transiting across the bridge, hummed as they drove past breathtaking views of Victoria Falls.

So, on the bridge you can not only go to the other side, it offers a cool opportunity to jump off on a rope with your head down. I wonder why the majority of bungee jumpers are women?

One day, 22-year-old Australian Erin Langworthy succumbed to the temptation to swing on such a giant swing, but failed. During bungee jumping from the bridge, her holding rubber rope snapped. The free fall began at 110 meters. Poor Erin - head down and with her legs tied - was flying straight into the river teeming with crocodiles. The reptiles, who were clearly bored before that, immediately became interested ...

Fortunately, they managed to save the girl, she escaped with just a fright, a broken collarbone, severe bruises and numerous bruises. But ... is it worth the risk? Here is the incident on the video:

We did not risk it, but just stood on this bridge for a while. Livingston dedicated his remarkable discovery to Queen Victoria, however, although she lived a long century, she never saw this impressive waterfall. But in April 1947, her great-grandson George VI arrived here with his wife and two daughters.

One of the princesses - then still very young Lilibet - will become Elizabeth II in the future. From this bridge, the royal family looked for a long time at the Zambezi River, on which two islands received new names in honor of the royal daughters. Now Princess Elizabeth Island belongs to Zimbabwe, and Princess Margaret Island is the territory of sovereign Zambia.

View from Zambia to the Thundering Smoke

They don't say "Zimbabwe" or "Zambia" here, the names of the countries are shortened to short Zim and Zam. In the dark blue sky, a hot, almost hot sun, it sets behind us. It's time to leave Zim and get to Zambia. We walk across the bridge, past the bungee queue, past the line of cars to the border control.

“Will you be long? Are you planning to spend the night in Zimbabwe? " We answer: "Yes", they stamp our passports, then a standard wet rag, we pay for the entrance to the park. “And here it’s cheaper,” we rejoice, we receive a leaflet with route options and walk along the Zambian land.

Here we are the only white people - also a kind of attraction. As wedding generals, we are continually asked to stand to liven up the composition in the center of the laughing groups. Here the park is called "Thundering Smoke", there is also a monument to Livingston, here is the same waterfall of stunning beauty, the same splashes and sparks.

Only here is not fog, but a wall of water dust, through which you have to go. How right are those who say that the miracle of Victoria Falls should be seen, both from Zambia and from Zimbabwe.

Oooh! A gust of wind, a second tropical downpour and we, wet as mice, not a single dry thread. Waiting until another flock of visitors passed us, I pulled off my jeans and a T-shirt, Sanya squeezed them out and I pulled everything back. I made it on time - another group of also wet and happy Chinese walked by.

There is a small souvenir market near the park. Everything that was offered to us in Zimbabwe cannot be compared with the local assortment of elephants, hippos, ebony figurines. It was more difficult to walk back across the bridge, hands were holding back souvenirs. We crossed the border among the last, when the sun was already almost on the horizon.

Who Wants to be a Trillionaire?

Victoria Falls greeted us with a hubbub of street beggars and traders. Seeing a bunch of packages and parcels in our hands, they became twice, no three times more insistent. Buy this ... Buy this sir! Very cheap ... But in Zim, one of the poorest countries in Africa, everything is shockingly expensive. However, Sanya could not resist and became the owner of a trillion dollars. True, Zimbabweans and those out of circulation after the default, but still TRILLION - on the stunning banknote, the zeros barely fit in one line.

You know about the annual Nobel Prize, which is a parody of the Nobel Prize? She is always funny and awarded for useless and meaningless discoveries. A worthy reward for its laureates is a hammer in a glass box or a similar wonderful bill - a genuine one hundred trillion Zimbabwean dollars in one piece.

What could the Zimbabweans get for their fabulous money? Practically nothing, it was impossible to buy even chocolates for such a bill. The Central Bank of Zimbabwe, conducting currency exchange in the country, for 250 trillion dollars in national currency, meagerly measured one good old American dollar. Glorious days for those dreaming of being a billionaire ended after dollarization, and the number of millionaires itself has plummeted - after all, the average salary in the country is about $ 253 per month.

The adventure is coming to an end

Twilight came, for a billion people all over Africa, another day was ending with its joys and difficulties ... We had dinner at the hotel at a table by the pool. A local ethnic group performed here tonight. Seeing us as the only and interested audience, the artists gradually concentrated around us, which allowed us to record their inspired songs and dances on the phone.

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Being landlocked is not at all frustrating local population of Zimbabwe, they have enough miracles in the rivers. And one of these miracles - victoria Fallssuperior in height to Niagara.

This miracle was discovered by the English explorer and missionary David Livingston. At first, the waterfall only annoyed him with its noise, but later the explorer saw all the beauty and power of the waterfall. AND sheer delight resulted in a flattering name in honor of Queen Victoria.

The indigenous population called him “ thundering smoke»Because of the noisy stream of water rushing down from a height of 108 km. Water dust, rising to a height of 400 meters, gives rise to huge extraordinary rainbows that you will not find anywhere else.

Organize observation platforms very difficult because zambezi river falls into a narrow crevice, to which it is not possible to approach. But through this gorge passes railwayopening the inner world of a mighty waterfall.

During the rainy season, up to 500 million liters of water falls every minute, and during drought, only a few streams. The Zambezi from a full-flowing calm river can turn into an impassable and dangerous river. This should not be forgotten by tourists who decide to raft down the river. The waterfall is reliably guarded from all sides by nature reserves and is under the strict supervision of UNESCO.