Rafting on the Mighty Zambezi
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2005
1
115
137
Trip End
Sep 20, 2006
Victoria Falls,
Zimbabwe
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Jono was very enthusiastic to do this activity, Anne less so! So, that's how we ended up being briefed by a bloke called Trust on rafting safely, along with 4 other people from our truck - Will, Bailey, Phil & Jane. We were all in the same raft with our guide called Lee who has been rafting these rapids since 1998, we felt better for knowing that! We were kitted out with helmets, rafting top, live-vests and a paddle and set off descending into the gorge right beneath the bridge watching a couple of bungy-jumpers throwing themselves off as we went down.
01 - Here we go, straight into Morning Glory!
We got into our inflatable raft and did some quick training - paddling forwards, backwards, left & right. The first rapid was an easy one, a good warm-up and surprisingly fun, as were the next couple of rapids, all grades 1 to 4.
Then came Rapid 4, Morning Glory, the first grade 5 of the day. Lee briefed us on the route we'd be taking, informed us that there was a 50% chance of the raft flipping over & what to do if we found ourselves in the water...! It didn't take long - we headed straight into the angy, frothy water and the raft was flipped over almost immediately by an enormous wave!
Most people found themselves underneath the boat, being tossed and pulled around but able to bob up every so often to take a gulp of air from the pockets underneath formed by the raft. Lee was out and on top of the raft pretty much straight away and began hauling people un and onto the upturned raft.
Anne - I managed to find the rope on the side of the raft and somehow pulled myself out from under the boat. Suddenly I was whipped away and pulled over to the other side of the river, caught in a current
02 - and here we are going INTO Morning Glory!
. I was amazed at how the safety briefing kicked in and was even able to relax as all this was going on, concentrating on taking breaths when I could and not fighting the current, just bobbing along with it. I was picked up by a rescue kyak and deposited on another raft before transferring back onto our, by now upright, raft where the other people were recovering. We were all very excited about what had happened, a spectacular wipeout!We tackled the next two rapids with confidence - heck, we'd already capsized so we knew we'd survive if it happened again! It was good fun, they were class 3 & 4 rapids.
Rapid 7 - Gulliver's Travels - was our next class 5 as we hurtled into that one as we had with Morning Glory. Anne's not entirely sure what happened next but she ended up in the water again - the only one in the boat to go in this time!
Anne - Just like when the raft had capsized earlier I remembered all the safety info, didn't panic or thrash about, just held my breath and waited until I bobbed up to the surface. This time I had stayed close to the raft and the boys all hauled me back on board in a most UN-elegant manner!
03 - at the end of Morning Glory
We carried on down the river until we got to Rapid 8, nicknamed the Chicken Run. There were three possible routes for this one and everyone in the boat except for Anne wanted to go for the class 5 route which came with an 80% chance of the raft flipping over! Jono decided to join Anne in the Chicken Boat which was going for the KFC route through and required nothing more of us than that we hang on! (Anne - I for one had had enough of being flung into rapids for the time being!)
The Chicken Boat went through fine and we turned around to watch our raft-mates in the Kamikaze Boat throw themselves into the chaos of the class 5 rapids....and make it through the other side! They were very pleased with themselves!
Rapid 9 is called Commercial Suicide, a class 6 rapid which is unraftable. We got out an walked along the side of the river for this one, the rafts were sent down through the rapid empty. The trip leader & Chicken Boat guide, Trust, took his raft down the rapid himself - a tiny figure standing in the middle of the raft controlling it with just 2 long wooden oars and careering through all the foaming ANGRY water! He got through it fine and we were all duly impressed - our own guide, Lee, said that in all the years he had rafted the Zambezi he had never gone through Commercial Suicide & didn't really want to
04 - back in the raft and riding more rapids!
!Just a couple of smaller rapids followed, and then we stopped for lunch - a lovely picnic at the side of the river.
Back on the raft and our boat was down to a crew of 4 as 2 of our number were spending the afternoon 'riverboarding' - riding the rapids on boogie boards! Non of the rapids after lunch were more than class 4, so it was relatively gentle! No-one fell out, and we didn't flip over again, although another raft went over on a class 3 right at the beginning of the 2-parter Terminator rapid. It meant that they had to go through 2 rapids either bobbing around in the water or clinging onto their upturned raft!
The last rapids were actually quite enjoyable, not too vicious, but we were all pretty well exhausted by the time we passed through Rapid 19 - it didn't have a name but our guide Lee calls it 'Thank God I Survived'! We then had to walk up out of the gorge which was hard work and very hot, BUT there were chilled beers and soft drinks waiting for us at the top!
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Anne - I am REALLY glad I did the rafting, I'm not an adrenaline junkie at all but I can say I was able to enjoy it - even the dunkings I got! I'm not sure it's something I'll do again in a hurry though, well not class 5 rapids!
