I visited Victoria Falls during the wet season as I travelled overland from Cairo to Cape Town in 2015/2016.
The Zambezi is the 4th longest river in Africa at 2574km.
It rises in Zambia, flows thru Angola and the borders of Namibia and Botswana, back into Zambia and thunders down into Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls and thru Mozambique before emptying into the Indian Ocean.
David Livingstone is believed to be the first white person to have seen the falls and they are named in honour of Queen Victoria but the local name is still widely used: Mosi-oa-Tunya or “The Smoke That Thunders”.
The wet season in the catchment area runs from November to March, but the falls are over 1000 km from the source, so it is not until April that water is thundering over the Falls at more than 5000m3/sec.
I was there, mid-April and got to experience nature at its most powerful. 7 years later, I got to see Victoria Falls from the Zambian side, in September, and that is the dry season.
When is the best time to visit Victoria Falls?
Both are incredible experiences. The views in the dry season are the best, as in the wet season, the spray does its best to see that you don’t have much of a view. BUT if you want to witness nature at its most powerful, then the wet season if for you. Take a poncho and something like a waterproof GoPro.
Photos of Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side, in the wet season:
You might have read my post about how I half-crossed the Victoria Falls Bridge from the Zambia side. Here is the bridge taken from the Zimbabwe side:
The Town of Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side is purpose-built, and the falls are just a short walk from town.
I had taken a night minivan from Bulawayo, stayed at the classic backpacker hostel, Shoestrings Backpackers, backpacked the falls and then taken a night bus all the way to Pretoria in South Africa.