One Word Sunday: Wet

Debbie’s ‘One Word Sunday Challenge’ is Wet and who hasn’t got some photos featuring water?

Here is where I would really like to be at the moment, in Umhlanga sitting on a bench looking out at the Indian Ocean.

Here in Florida, there are many birds who enjoy getting wet, like Mr Peli.

Last spring we spotted a few wet baby alligators enjoying a swim.

If you want to see a serious amount of wetness, then go to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Although it’s neither the widest nor highest waterfall in the world, it still happens to be the world’s largest sheet of falling water, and you can’t get much wetter than that.

 

Hope you’re all having a great Sunday.

To join in Debbie’s ‘One Word Sunday Challenge‘, just click the link.

 

 

 

A Word A Week Photo Challenge: ‘Spray’ from Mosi-ao-Tunya

This challenge from Sue of ‘A Word In Your Ear’, got me looking back at my pics from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. They are so perfect for the ‘Spray’ theme, that I’m sure you won’t mind seeing some of them again.

‘The smoke that thunders’ is the literal translation of the indigenous name  ‘Mosi-ao-Tunya. When the Zambezi River is in full flood (usually February or March) the Victoria Falls form the largest expanse of falling water in the world. During these months, over 500 million litres of water per minute go over the 1,708 m wide falls.

This impressive curtain of falling water, as viewed from the front seat of a helicopter. No, I wasn’t the pilot. 🙂

Rainbows are a permanent feature here, and I’ve read that at night, one can even see a moonbow, which is a lunar rainbow. Victoria Falls are one of the few places on earth where this natural phenomenon occurs regularly. Unfortunately I wasn’t aware of this when we were there, or I would have gone out to search for one.

The force of the water sends spray up to a kilometre high into the air that can be seen from 30 km away. There is never a quiet moment at Vic Falls, as the exhilarating sound of water cascading over the rocky cliffs, is always present. The spray cloud at the Falls, forms a constant rainstorm, which soaks the land, and supports the delicate flora of the ‘Rain Forest’.

I would advise the ladies not to bother blow-drying their hair either, as with all that spray flying around, it’s sure to get wet. I actually did get soaked to the skin, but that’s all part of the experience.

Wishing you all a very happy and relaxing weekend.

To see more entries for Sue’s challenge, just click here.

 

 

 

 

Rainbows and Waterfalls for Jake’s Challenge.

This week, Jake has asked for some Nature pics for his Sunday Post Challenge.  A few days ago, I posted pics of elephants I’d seen in Zimbabwe, and right next to those pics in my album, are some of the Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River. Its indigenous name is ‘Mosi-ao-Tunya’, meaning, ‘The Smoke that Thunders’, and you can see why. The roar of the water as it thunders over the falls, is quite deafening.

This colossal masterpiece of nature is the world’s largest sheet of falling water, being twice the height of Niagara falls, and twice the width of Horseshoe Falls. It’s the world’s largest sheet of falling water, with a width of 1,708 metres (5,604 ft) and a height of 108 metres (354 ft).

The spray from the falls typically rises to a height of over 400 metres (1,300 ft), and sometimes even twice as high, and is visible from up to 48 km (30 mi) away. At full moon, a “moonbow” can be seen in the spray. We didn’t see it at night, but here is a daylight rainbow.

There is a series of gorges which the Zambezi River pours through. The First Gorge is 110-meters wide (360 ft).

David Livingstone is credited with the discovery of this amazing wonder of nature in November 1855. What a thrill it must have been to stumble upon such a find, which has since been made a World Heritage Site.

In his writings about the Victoria Falls, he  said “No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.”

To see more entries for Jake’s Nature Challenge, and to admire his wonderful graphics,  just click on the badge below.