I doubt that I’ll ever make it to Venzuela to see Angel Falls, the highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world—3212 feet, or 979 meters: 6 times the height of the Washington Monument. But this video, from the BBC’s Planet Earth, is a decent substitute:
And here’s a longer video, well worth watching. It also shows the plane from which Jimmie Angel first saw the spectacle in 1933. Trying to land on the plateau in 1937, he crashed the plane, but it was recovered by helicopter in 1970 and now sits by the airport in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela.
Wow, Angel Falls is new to me. Thanks for posting this.
Beautiful. But the second video has a couple of agonizing moments when the English-language narrator insists on calling the city of Ciudad Bolivar “Sooeydad Bolivar”.
I saw it from the air years ago. I thought the plane was going to do a roll with everyone moving to the right side to take a peek…
Saw it from the plane between Caracas and Canaima, many moons ago. Spectacular and spectacularly scary, with the macho pilot of the small plane.
Fantastic! Upper Yosemite Falls (UYF) is pretty cool too, and a whole lot easier to get to. It is probably near high water for UYF right now. At UYF high water the water hits the ground with tremendous force, Angel falls seems too high for this to happen (all the water appears to turn to mist by the bottom, although its hard to say).
That’s one of my favorite places on earth! Nothing more magical than exploring at the base (depending on flow; this time of year it’s an otherworldly howling monsoon down there), skinnydipping in the pools, hanging out in the cave, clambering on the ice cone in winter (note that this is all very dangerous and generally not recommended, but I happen to be very good at it and the risk is worth it to me). And of course the view from up top is stunning. I’d love to do the same at Angel someday.
Another one for the Bucket List! Beautiful!
I never knew that Angel Falls was named after a real person!
me neither. Happy to learn that it’s not the white, feathered, imaginary type, though.
What a beautiful Water Fall!
Reblogged this on aspiblog and commented:
Two great videos featuring the world’s tallest waterfall (all 979 metres of it)…
In the 70’s wife & I on a lark took a one day sightseeing flight – on an old C-47 – from Caracas. It first landed on a grassy field near the Canaima Lagoon falls that were just visible and thundered in the distance. Then the plane wound between tall mesas to the bottom of Angel Falls. There was cloud cover so we only saw a YUGE stream of water falling out of the clouds above as we were only a few hundred feet from the forest below and the C-47 shook alarmingly. It was a flight I’ll never forget!
If you like your Angel with a dash of adrenaline …
Never heard of this one. Beautiful. Thanks!