What is a Tufa waterfall?

Please click HERE to read on my Wordpress-blog more about the Tufa waterfall and to see more beautiful images with a link to a movie I've compiled with images. This link will open in a new window.

When we'd gone on the boat trip on the Blyde River ("Blyde" means "joy"), we were told by the guide that this tufa waterfall has the shape of a face. That is so true, we could really see the "face" , that's why this tufa waterfall is called the "Crying Tufa", it literally looks like it's crying...
The fall is about 43m and that makes it the 3rd longest in the world. Incidentally, the Blyde River Canyon is also the third largest in the world! (read my other posts about the Blyde River Canyon by following the labels). 1. Grand Canyon 2. Fish River Canyon (Namibia)
The Blyde River Canyon is the greenest Canyon in the world.
A tufa waterfall is formed when water running over dolomite rock absorbs calcium. Mosses which grow on the rocks in the stream extract carbon dioxide during photosynthesis which precipitates the calcium from the water to deposit it as layers of tufa on the surface of the waterfall - a process that takes millions of years. The waterfall continue to flow underneath this rock-hard outer shell. There are only a few active tufa waterfalls in the world - one of which is at the Blyderivierspoort Dam.


I think this is perhaps what an ant sees when it looks up!
And now, the best part of all, that's ME! Say hello.....! I was looking for some scraps and hoping the people in the car would throw me something! In particular the lady! She was so friendly to me, I really thought she was gonna throw me something...heard words like....ahw....hungry...poor thingy....look....siestog....arme ding!