Great Rivers episode 1 – Zambezi: Follow the journey of the mighty Zambezi – Africa’s wildest river. It floods across endless plains, fuelling the migration of 30,000 wildebeest, turning villages into islands accessible only by boat. It plunges over cliffs, creating the largest curtain of water on Earth – Victoria falls. It swells up to form great rapids, a challenge for elephants to cross, and it carves out deep, treacherous gorges where the mysterious Zambezi Wave offers the ultimate surfing experience.
Alternative stream
Zambezi spreads out to fill one of the greatest man-made lakes on Earth, home to giant crocodiles and the iconic African fish eagle, and it flows through ‘lost worlds’, some of the best places to see African wildlife, where unusual ‘wild guests’ check in at a safari lodge.
Finally, as it nears the Indian Ocean, the vast Zambezi delta gives local scientists a sign of hope for the future – a glimpse of the legendary herds of elephant and buffalo that once roamed here before the devastation of civil war.
Great Rivers episode 1 – Zambezi
The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is 1,390,000 square kilometres (540,000 sq mi), slightly less than half of the Nile’s. The 2,574-kilometre-long river (1,599 mi) rises in Zambia and flows through eastern Angola, along the north-eastern border of Namibia and the northern border of Botswana, then along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe to Mozambique, where it crosses the country to empty into the Indian Ocean.
The Zambezi’s most noted feature is Victoria Falls. Other notable falls include the Chavuma Falls at the border between Zambia and Angola, and Ngonye Falls, near Sioma in Western Zambia.
There are two main sources of hydroelectric power on the river, the Kariba Dam, which provides power to Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the Cahora Bassa Dam in Mozambique, which provides power to Mozambique and South Africa. There are additionally two smaller power stations along the Zambezi River in Zambia, one at Victoria Falls and the other one near Kalene Hill in Ikelenge District.
