Man walks Victoria Falls on Tightrope
- 9 years ago
Two tightrope walkers have inched their way across Zimbabwe's formidable Victoria Falls.
Lukas Irmler from Germany and Reinhard Kleindl from Austria completed the 100-metre crossing on a slack line stretched across the face of the falls.
The men had to negotiate for several months to get permission for the stunt.
Both eventually made the crossing without falling off and having to rely on their safety cords.
Mr Irmler said: "Here you have a lot of spray, a lot of water in the air, floating beside you, splashing your face and it's intimidating on the one side but also distracting.
"You need to have a clear visual view of the environment, you need to be focused on the anchor point to the very end you want to walk to and not get distracted by a lot of water crashing by the side, which is very hard mentally."
Mr Kleindl added: "Optically it's very difficult because the spray comes from the sides and it's like waves, they try to drag you, so it's really difficult for the optics and obviously everything is very heavy because it's soaked with water."
Earlier the same week another tightrope walker, Nik Wallenda, completed
Lukas Irmler from Germany and Reinhard Kleindl from Austria completed the 100-metre crossing on a slack line stretched across the face of the falls.
The men had to negotiate for several months to get permission for the stunt.
Both eventually made the crossing without falling off and having to rely on their safety cords.
Mr Irmler said: "Here you have a lot of spray, a lot of water in the air, floating beside you, splashing your face and it's intimidating on the one side but also distracting.
"You need to have a clear visual view of the environment, you need to be focused on the anchor point to the very end you want to walk to and not get distracted by a lot of water crashing by the side, which is very hard mentally."
Mr Kleindl added: "Optically it's very difficult because the spray comes from the sides and it's like waves, they try to drag you, so it's really difficult for the optics and obviously everything is very heavy because it's soaked with water."
Earlier the same week another tightrope walker, Nik Wallenda, completed