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The smaller waterfall features of Victoria Falls.
Pictured above: Daring at Armchair Falls.
Photo: David Rogers
On the western edge of Livingstone Island is a small depression known as Armchair Falls, also known as the Angels Arcmchair and the Devils Punchbowl. During the dry season it is possible to actually swim in this small natural pool right on the lip of the Falls.
The armchair is a volcanic vent with a rocky shelf that protects the swimmer from the water rushing past. To sit in this pool is to experience the ultimate rush of Victoria Falls, perched on what feels like the very edge of the world, with the mad sound of water meeting rock filling ones ears and the proximity to death gnawing ones gut.
From Viewpoint XI, you have the option of taking a path back to the car park or proceeding on to Danger Point. The rainforest ends abruptly here, giving way to grassland with clumps of low palms and shrubs.
Horseshoe Falls is directly opposite this viewpoint and has been so named because of the u-shaped fissure that has been eroded out of the top of the Falls.
In the dry season, the waterfall often dries up from this point eastwards. Swifts and martins nest on the ledges on the rock face around Horseshoe Falls, while the longtailed wagtail is often on the spray-covered rocks.
Rainbow Falls is the highest of the Falls at 108mand is situated directly opposite Viewpoint XIII.
It is advisable to be extremely careful here as the rocks are notoriously slippery. It was at this point that a South African tourist fell to his death on New Years Eve in 2005. Fifty-year-old Michael Drake, head of Johannesburgs Summit College, was taking photographs of the Falls. He dropped his specs, slipped while trying to pick them up and plummeted into the gorge.
How a rainbow works
Rainbows are caused by refraction, or the bending of light. Light bends because it moves through water and air at different speeds, and in this process white light gets split into its component colours, all of which have different frequencies, with red being the slowest and purple the highest.
Boiling Pot and Palm Grove
Danger Point
Devils Cataract
Eastern Cataract
Knifes Edge
Livingstone Island
Livingstones Statue
Main Falls
Smaller Falls
Victoria Falls Bridge
Brett Hilton-Barber and Lee R. Berger. Copyright © 2010 Prime Origins.
Points of Interest |
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Boiling Pot and Palm Grove Danger Point Devils Cataract Eastern Cataract Knifes Edge Livingstone Island Livingstones Statue Main Falls Smaller Falls Victoria Falls Bridge |
Game Reserves |
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Map of Hwange Game Reserve
Matetsi Private Game Reserve Mosi oa Tunya Park Smaller Reserves Victoria Falls National Park Zambezi National Park |
About Victoria Falls |
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About Victoria Falls
Adrenalin Capital of Africa Becoming a Boom Town Experiencing Victoria Falls Getting to Victoria Falls The Mighty Zambezi The Smoke that Thunders |
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The Zambia Side
The Zimbabwe Side |
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Falls Convention Centre
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