Buoyant conduits of a water–syrup mixture were produced in syrup by injection from below. Low‐amplitude waves on the walls of these conduits have been theoretically shown to obey the Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation which has soliton solutions. However, qualitative soliton behavior persists even for very‐large‐amplitude waves. Collision properties of two waves are compared to KdV solitons using video images of 16 collisions. Wave amplitude is conserved upon collison to better than ±10%, but there is a slight enlargement of the large wave at the expense of the small wave. Position change in the trajectory of the waves due to wave–wave collison has the correct qualitative behavior when plotted against KdV theory. Wave packets that disperse into isolated solitary waves are also easy to observe.