| Mosi-oa-Tunya
National
Park
Safari 
Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park is an UNESCO World Heritage site that
is home to one half of the Mosi-oa-Tunya The
Smoke Which Thunders known worldwide as Victoria
Falls on the Zambezi River. The river forms the border between
Zambia and Zimbabwe, so the falls are shared by the two countries,
and the park is 'twin' to the Victoria Falls National
Park on the Zimbabwean side.
‘Mosi-oa-Tunya’ comes from the Kololo or Lozi language and the
name is now used throughout Zambia, and in parts of Zimbabwe.
We offer richest and wildest wildlife Mosi-oa-Tunya
National Park Safari. Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park is
home to the mighty and spectacular Victoria Falls in southern
Zambia.
Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park covers 66 km² (25.5 square miles)
from the Songwe Gorge below the falls in a north-west arc along
about 20 km of the Zambian river bank. It froms the south-western
boundary of the city of Livingstone and has two main sections,
each with separate entrances: a wildlife park at its north-western
end, and the land adjacent to the immense and awe-inspiring Victoria
Falls, which in the rainy season is the world's largest curtain
of falling water.
It extends downstream from the falls and to the south-east along
the Batoka Gorges
The wildlife section of the park
The wildlife park includes tall riverine forest with palm trees,
miombo woodland and grassland with plenty of birds, and animals
including giraffe, zebra, warthog, sable, eland, buffalo, impala
and other antelope. Animal numbers fell in droughts over the last
two decades. The park contained two white rhino which are not
indigenous and were imported from South Africa - they were both
poached during the night of June 6th, 2007. One was shot dead
and dehorned not far from the gate and the other received serious
bullet wounds but has triumphed against all odds and still lives
in the park under twenty four hours surveillance.The indigenous
(black rhino) was believed extinct in Zambia but has recently
been reintroduced in a pilot area). Elephants are sometimes seen
in the park when they cross the river in the dry season from the
Zimbabwean side. Hippopotamus and crocodile can be seen from the
river bank. Vervet monkeys and baboons are common as they are
in the rest of the national park outside the wildlife section.
Within the wildlife park is the Old Drift cemetery
where the first European settlers were buried. They made camp
by the river, but kept succumbing to a strange and fatal illness.
They blamed the yellow/green-barked 'Fever Trees' for this incurable
malady, while all the time it was the malarial mosquito causing
their demise. Before long the community moved to higher ground
and the town of Livingstone emerged.
The Falls section of the park
The Falls section of the national park includes the rainforest
on the cliff opposite the Eastern Cataract which is sustained
by spray from the falls. It contains plants rare for the area
such as pod mahogany, ebony, ivory palm, wild date palm and a
number of creepers and lianas. Small antelopes and warthogs inhabit
this area, and may also be seen in on the paths through the riverine
forest leading to the falls
In November 2005 a new statue of explorer David Livingstone was
erected in the park (the original and more famous Livingstone
statue is on the Zimbabwean side). A plaque was also unveiled
on Livingstone Island to mark the spot from where Livingstone
was the first European to see the falls.
The Knife-Edge Bridge was constructed in this area in the 1960s
to enable access on foot to the cliffs looking over the Rainbow
Falls and the First Gorge's exit to the Boiling Pot in the
Second Gorge. A steep footpath also goes down to the Boiling Pot,
with views of the Second Gorge and the Victoria Falls Bridge.
In the area directly before the river plunges over Victoria Falls,
there is a small undeveloped stretch of the park which is currently
the only riverfront location that can be accessed without paying
a fee. It is a crucial location for elephants to cross the river.
The tops of the deep gorges below the falls can be reached by
road and walking tracks through the park and are good places to
see klipspringers, clawless otters and 35 species
of raptors such as the Taita Falcon, Black Eagle,
Peregrine Falcon and Augur Buzzard, which all breed
there.
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