Welcome to suburban Vic Falls, European settlers first started living in the Vic Falls area circa 1901. The town expanded when the railway line was opened in 1904 and the Victoria Falls bridge opened in 1905 (see SideTracked)
ROYAL VISITS
HRH Princess Christian of Schleswig Holstein, fifth child and third daughter of Queen Victoria (after whom the Victoria Falls were named), and Princess Victoria, were the first Royal visitors to the Victoria Falls on 16 September 1904. The Duke and Duchess of Connaught - son and daughter-in-law of Queen Victoria - and Princess Patricia visited the Victoria Falls towards the end of 1910 when on their way from opening the new Union Parliament in Cape Town. They travelled in the first Royal Train, and did not stay at the same hotel, but instead spent four nights at Livingstone on their train, which they also used to make the short trip to the Falls for sightseeing. In June 1925, the Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales (later to become King Edward VIII, and subsequently Duke of Windsor after abdicating after only 10 months) spent a few nights at the Falls as part of his extensive tour of southern Africa. In 1934 Prince George, Duke of Kent, visited the Victoria Falls, arriving on the morning of 30th March, overnight by train from Bulawayo, and spending the easter weekend exploring the Falls.
TOWN EXPANDS
Very little development took place on the Zimbabwe side until the mid 1960s, after the break up of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyassaland. Until the end of the 1960s, Victoria Falls town still only had one hotel, which had originally been built to house workers building the Victoria Falls bridge. In the late 1960s the town of Victoria Falls at last began to take off. The Victoria Falls Casino, later the Makasa Sun Hotel was built in 1966, the casino was the first in the country. It is also remembered as the first, and thankfully only, high rise building in the town. In allowing the development, the then Rhodesian Front MP for the area overturned a council agreement that no construction would be built above the treeline. The building was eventually demolished in 1997 and a new hotel now stands in its place.
The airport opened in 1967, prior to this the area was served by Livingstone airport in Zambia. The 1970s saw a rapid growth in the development of the town, with the construction of new shopping complexes, housing, industrial premises, office accommodation and new hotels. The golf course was designed by Gary Player and opened in 1974.
ORIGINAL SETTLERS
Archaeological sites around the falls have yielded Homo habilis stone artifacts from 3 million years ago, 50,000-year-old Middle Stone Age tools and Late Stone Age (10,000 and 2,000 years ago) weapons, adornments and digging tools. Iron-using Khoisan hunter-gatherers displaced these Stone Age people and in turn were displaced by Bantu tribes such as the southern Tonga people known as the Batoka/Tokalea, who called the falls Shungu na mutitima. The Matabele, later arrivals, named them aManz' aThunqayo, and the Batswana and Makololo (whose language is used by the Lozi people) call them Mosi-o-Tunya. All these names mean essentially "the smoke that thunders"
FUTURE
The town continues to expand with large projects being completed at the airport and the expansion of the low density urban areas. The town is also a hot spot for adventure sports such as rafting and bungee, various festivals are held here annually too.
GZ is a small park located in the suburbs of Vic Falls town, the area is very bushy so decent shoes are advised. Park up close by and venture in, the area is covered but please keep a look out for muggles. please bring your own pen to sign the log and replace the cache as found.