The Devil’s Swimming Pool: Swim On The Edge Of The Victoria Falls
When I was in school, I was obsessed with the Guinness Book of World Records.
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Not the big glossy one they have now either; the black and white pocket encyclopedia for geeks. As part of my everlasting nerdishness, I was obliged to know the biggest and longest and oldest of as many things as I could. One of these of course, was Victoria Falls: the largest sheet of falling water in the world, which lies on the border of
Maybe the most interesting thing about the falls however, isn’t the sheer size of them, the unusual shape of the falls, or the wildlife around them– it’s a swimming pool. As it happens, you can hang yourself inches from certain death quite comfortably in a rock pool right on the edge of the fall.
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Image from Fritz Da Kat
Looks like she’s about to take the 360-foot plunge, doesn’t it? Afraid it’s not true, as long as it’s not the wet season when the water is high enough for the current to actually sweep you off the edge. People can safely cavort in the “Devil’s Swimming Pool” without any problems. It’s so safe in fact, that these people took their kids:
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Image from Afric Photos
Of course, I’m not sure you’d want to put your ten-year-old in that position. Thinking of my stepbrothers, I’m almost certain somebody would end up dead. But the pool remains that safe, and people are consistently drawn to it.
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Images from St.Jai4us
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Image from Fritz Da Kat
If you have any knowledge of any other amazing rockpools, why don’t you drop us a comment. We might follow it up in a further post.
Major H/T to Life in The Fast Lane
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Comments
8 Responses to “The Devil’s Swimming Pool: Swim On The Edge Of The Victoria Falls”
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rkalajian
Posted: Apr 24th, 2008 at 8:52 pm1Reply to this comment.Breathtaking, yet scarey as all hell. No matter how safe it is, I don’t think I could bring myself to swim there.
I’m also terribly afraid of heights.
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ThisOneGal
Posted: Apr 24th, 2008 at 11:13 pm2Reply to this comment.i did this once, on the zambia side too. i asked our guide if he’d ever lost anyone and he laughed. that should have been my cue to run away fast but instead i got in the water and hung over the falls like superwoman. i guess going to africa in the first place is insane enough (to some) that once you’re there, things like this seem like no big deal.
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Suzanne
Posted: Apr 25th, 2008 at 12:58 am3Reply to this comment.wow! anyone who wants to swim on the edge of a waterfall is stupid! You could fall off and die.
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Zath
Posted: Apr 26th, 2008 at 1:33 am4Reply to this comment.What a cool thing to see - I’ve never heard of this before despite seeing stuff about these waterfalls before.
I’d like to think that I’d be up for having a go at this - the idea of it is very cool if nothing else!
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coolcuke
Posted: Apr 27th, 2008 at 12:48 pm5Reply to this comment.And people thought Micheal Jackson was an irresponsible parent for simply holding his child out over a balcony railing.
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Mark Barber
Posted: Apr 28th, 2008 at 2:47 pm6Reply to this comment.That looks great! I would LOVE to be in the pool with all those kids!
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mike
Posted: May 19th, 2008 at 4:17 pm7Reply to this comment.Not many brothas go there I bet
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lala
Posted: Jul 15th, 2008 at 7:12 pm8Reply to this comment.And people thought Micheal Jackson was an irresponsible parent for simply holding his child out over a balcony railing.
And people thought Micheal Jackson was an irresponsible parent for simply holding his child out over a balcony railing.
whats does that have to do with Mk?

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