Giant Tree Aloe Branching
The plume of mist rising thousands of feet into the dry air and thunderous roar of the falls gave us a sense of her majesty long before we were anywhere near her. Victoria Falls is on a scale like no other waterfall we have seen. We were on a collecting trip traveling the Zambezi River between Zimbabwe and Zambia and paddling like mad trying not to capsize! If the hippos and crocs were not enough, the sheer size and fury of this river had us all on edge. Our guide Pap was an expert on these waters and barked a steady stream of commands. We were rapidly coming to a series of class 5 rapids and we had to go into them just right. All of a sudden another raft shot past us taking the slot we needed. It was too late! We shot directly over a boulder the size of an apartment building hanging up the front of the raft as the back bucked up and spilled all of us out into the foaming fury! As we regrouped on the banks downstream sans our raft, we tended to the wounded in our party. Several members had almost drowned, one had a serious cut, another broke a tooth, and Pap dislocated his arm. We were not interested in any more rafting even if we could find ours! It was on that trip that we discovered on an outcropping a wonderful tree aloe specimen that was full of seeds. This Aloe was a giant at 20’ and had multiple trunks sheathed in a lovely white paper bark. It has grown exceptionally fast and vigorous for us. Plants are shipped bare root.