We ate on the hotel's veranda, which overlooks one of the main gorges just below the Victoria Falls. In the distance you could see the bridge that spans the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe and the constant clouds of mist thrown up by the falls. For more than a mile, the Zambezi plunges 300 feet into a gorge. As it churns, boils and roars, the river sends up a spray that creates a mini-rainfall in places and a lush forest. But a few hundred feet beyond the falls, where the mist doesn't reach, the vegetation changes to dry, yellowing grasses and scrub trees.
Rainbows shimmer in the mist that rises more than a thousand feet into the air.
An umbrella would have been helpful at times. Some tourist wore raincoats and encased their cameras in plastic bags. Unlike Niagara Falls, there is no development around the African cataract. Only a paved footpath skirts the gorge and, if you're foolhardy, you can dangle your feet over the rocky lip opposite the falling water. Tourists also can get a bird's-eye view of the falls from a light plane, helicopter or ultralight.