(PICTURES) ‘Welcoming 2022 in style”: Tourists throng Victoria Falls’ Rain Forest on New Year’s Day

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

Victoria Falls’ Rain Forest was a hive of activity on New Year’s Day as local and foreign tourists visited one of Zimbabwe’s most popular holiday resort.

VicFallsLive witnessed a heavy flow of traffic into the Rain Forest for most of the day.

Despite Covid-19 taking a toll on the Victoria Falls, it undoubtedly remains the attraction many visitors delight in as shown by the high volume of traffic.

The rainforest, which is considered as the world’s largest waterfall borders Zimbabwe and Zambia on the Zambezi River.

It is formed when the Zambezi River tumbles majestically across 1.7km and down 108 metres into the Batoka Gorge.

Among the attractions at the falls is a path through a unique rainforest with 16 viewing points on the Zimbabwean side, from the Devil’s Cataract to the Main Falls, Horseshoe Falls, Rainbow Falls and finally the Eastern Cataract in Zambia.

A stroll beneath the towering waterberry, fig, ebony and milkwood trees, among others, often give the visitor a glimpse of bushbuck, monkeys, baboons, warthog, as well as banded or slender mongoose and sometimes even a snake, often gentle.

Other small creatures include spiders, beautiful beetles, termites and the blister.

There’s also a rich variety of birds in the rainforest, including endemic species such as the schalow’s turaco, green pigeon, green sandpiper, emerald cuckoo, Senegal coucal, African wag-tail and the red-faced mousebird among other