START 10:18:45 Close-ups of an aerial photograph or relief map of the Zambezi River and the Victoria Falls on the border between Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). An AEC Regal bus with Victoria Falls and Livingstone on its destination boards motors through the small town of Victoria Falls and comes to a stop. A bumpy travelling shot inside the bus sitting next to a few Rhodesian passengers.

10:19:13 Views of a statue of the Scottish missionary and explorer, David Livingstone (1813-1873), who was the first European to see the massive waterfall on the Zambezi that local people knew as Mosi-oa-Tunya - 'the smoke that thunders' - in November 1855 and subsequently named Victoria Falls,with the dates of his birth and death and the words 'Missionary', 'Explorer' and 'Liberator' inscribed around its base.

10:20:10 Views filmed on the Southern Rhodesian side of the Victoria Falls of the torrent of water and spray at the Devil's Cataract, a short distance away from the site of Livingstone's statue. From 10:20:15 to 10:21:22 and from 10:21:22 to 10:21:34 , the camera is running at high-speed to produce slow-motion shots of the tremendous volume of water cascading from the Devil's Cataract and other sections of the Falls into the deep gorge below. Close-up of a sign indicating directions to Palm Grove, a nearby hotel, and the Boiling Pot, the section of the Victoria Falls where the gorge below the Falls makes a sharp turn, thus creating extremely turbulent currents in the Zambezi River.

10:23:08 A view from the Northern Rhodesia side of the border looking along the line of the gorge below the Falls. An African man carrying a tin can makes his way through a section of rain forest created by the spray from the Falls. Views filmed in the gorge on the Northern Rhodesian side of the Zambezi in slow-motion and at normal speed showing the flow of the river and its turbulent currents and 128 metres above it the Victoria Falls Bridge. Views from the Northern Rhodesian side of the 250 metre long road and railway bridge showing a section of African infantrymen (Northern Rhodesian Regiment (NRR)?) marching across it, Sergeant John Wernham's Ford 15-cwt truck motoring across the bridge from the Southern Rhodesian side past an armed African soldier on sentry duty pacing up and down in regulation fashion near his corrugated iron sentry box. Another armed sentry is seen patrolling the north bank of the Zambezi directly beneath the bridge's massive steel arch consisting of huge curved steel plates and an intricate lattice-work of girders.

10:25:30 Views from Victoria Falls Bridge showing the Zambezi flowing through the gorge downstream from the Victoria Falls at a reduced volume as it is the dry season. A short distance upstream of the Falls, a paddle boat crewed by four Africans returns to a landing stage on the Southern Rhodesian side of the Zambezi with two Europeans wearing pith hats on board. After the soldiers have left the boat, a young European woman gets into the boat for a trip along the river. Views from the Zambezi itself a short distance away from the Devil's Cauldron and other sections of the Victoria Falls as the river flows over rocks before reaching the chasm. The European woman and her dog walk through the bush near the river bank. She emerges from the trees wearing a swimming costume and makes her way through the shallows at the river's edge.

END 10:26:48

Views of Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River, filmed during the dry season (July-September).

Notes

Summary: John Wernham recorded audio commentary over this film on 14 May 1992.

Summary: The Victoria Falls are 1.7 kilometres wide. At the height of the rainy season (November-March), nearly 550 million litres of water cascade every sixty seconds into the chasm below. There are five 'falls' - the Devil's Cataract, Main Falls, Rainbow Falls and Horseshoe Falls, which are all on the Zimbabwean side. The fifth one, the Eastern Cataract, is in Zambia.

The brainchild of Cecil Rhodes, mining millionaire and imperialist, the Victoria Falls Bridge was designed by Sir Ralph Freeman, the same engineer who helped design the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It took just 14 months to build and was completed in 1905. For years, the bridge was the principal land route between the Copperbelt in Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) and the Congo and southern Africa's largest ports, Capetown and Durban in South Africa. Despite its age and plans to build new crossings over the Zambezi, it still remains in service.

Remarks: Excellent footage of this major African landmark and tourist attraction. This material, together with the rest of Wernham's film record of his time in Africa, constitutes a valuable record at this time in the continent's colonial history.