Plume rainbow with Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls was the second natural wonder of the world I’ve experienced in my life. As I approached the falls, I could hear the water roaring in the background and I swear it was the most powerful sound I’ve ever heard. Have you ever heard a sound that you can actually feel in your body? It made my skin tingle. I was about to see the most magnificent waterfall in the world, and I could literally feel it. When we rounded the last corner and the falls came into view I had to stop and stare for a moment. Most people around me immediately took out their cameras and started snapping away. I took photos of course, but not immediately. I let the magnitude of it sink in first. I think sometimes our instinct to take photos immediately can take away the wonder of an experience. The photos will only serve as a reminder of the beauty, not a replication of it. So, just take a moment to be there. See the falls without the lens for a moment. It’s difficult to describe how spectacular it was. It was the kind of experience that makes you thank whatever you believe in that the earth was capable of such wonder. The sheer power in those waterfalls is greater than anything manmade. The waterfall formed a giant chasm in the earth and water poured out of it with a sound like thunder. As I watched the water flow, in that moment I believed that water would never stop roaring.
As we walked the pathway and made our way along the edge of the waterfall it progressively began to get mistier. Each viewpoint was just as spectacular as the last. The images that come to mind when I think about this walk are the rainbows. I’ve seen rainbows in my life but never have I seen as many as there were here. Everywhere I looked there was another and they were the brightest most amazing rainbows I’ve ever seen. One place I remember to be particularly special came at the end. We all walked to the end of a cliff where the spray was the most intense. I stepped out onto a rock and took it all in again. I could see so much of it from that one spot. I stopped trying to keep the water out and pulled my hood back and just let it soak my face. There was so much water. I stood there with a smile on my face and water dripping down my cheeks in the most incredible moment. Its moments like these where I am overwhelmed by how lucky I have been to experience things like this all my life.
Helicopter view of the falls
I don’t think I’ll ever forget the feeling that came over me when I first saw the falls. It was truly sublime. Nature is terrifying and beautiful all at once and I am grateful to have experienced a piece of it. The truth is I won’t remember these feelings of awe because of the pictures I took, I will remember because it was wild and powerful. I remember because I can still feel the water on my skin. I remember because I can still feel the falls roaring through my body.
Join Imprint Tours on our Southern Africa tour and experience Victoria Falls for yourself. Next departure Sept 2, 2021.
The author, viewing the falls from the Zambia side