Life on the Zambezi

It didn’t take a lot to convince me to go rafting down the Zambezi, all she did was ask. It was Leilani’s last weekend in Zambia and she wanted to go rafting. I hadn’t been down the river yet on this trip, but have made it a priority every time I make it up to Victoria Falls. This trip was no different, I’m just surprised it took me so long.

Saturday morning we headed down to the river with our roommate Kent who would be taking us down the river. I had one request to Kent, please just make sure we flip the raft. This shouldn’t be much of a problem on the Zambezi as the water is low and the rapids are big.

The day starts with a nice long trek from the top of Victoria Falls down the gorge to the Boiling Pot. This would be where we would start our day rafting down the river. We headed off with a pretty full boat with 8 people that would be on board with us. The day starts off pretty easy with a grade 3 rapid called Morning Glory, but quickly progresses to the reason it is one of the hardest rivers in the world to raft with grade 4 and 5 rapids for the rest of the day. Stairway to Heaven left us a bit jarred around but again no flip. After a bumpy ride down The Devil’s Toilet Bowl, we pumped our leaking raft back up to try and ensure a flip on number 7, Gullivers Travels. This rapid has three options with the right being the easiest, the middle being harder and the left, Star Trek, for those that have lost most of their braincells drinking the night before. We headed to the left down Star Trek, a twenty foot drop down into giant ten plus foot waves. The raft got folded in half with the front of the boat nearly touching the back. Unbelievable we somehow made it through without flipping, but with only 3 people left on board. We had one more chance to flip on the Gnashing Jaws of Death but again our boat was about as soft as a Cadillac and we just got thrown out of the boat without a flip. We stopped for a lunch break and said goodbye to those who were only doing a half day. Most importantly we were able to switch rafts and get a nice firm raft which should be easier to flip. We didn’t get much time to digest before we were off down the river again. Kent promised us a flip on number twelve, the Three Ugly Sisters, a progression of three rapids with number two being the big one. We headed down the first rapid without issues and continued to number two. This was a massive wave off of a big drop. We went in getting sucked in for a decent surf which turned our boat around backwards before throwing us out. I was out of the boat and was quickly swimming for the eddy on the left. I made it to the eddy and was able to get back into the boat. We were going back into the rapid by paddling up the eddy and swinging back into the rapid. It was amazing to go up the river and get sucked into the rapid. All you can do is get down and hold on while the raft surfs. We got another classic surf and lost some more people from the boat but still no flip. Unfortunately, as one of the ladies got tossed out of the raft her oar hit Leilani and knocked out one of her front teeth. She was a champ though and we headed back into the second ugly sister three more times without a flip but with some great surfing. We continued down the river, front tooth missing, and still no flip. There was one more chance to get a flip, on number eighteen, Oblivion. Oblivion is my favourite rapid on the river. It is 3 massive waves in a row. If you hit it right you get a good surf on the second rapid and then it throws the boat up into the air vertical with people getting thrown everywhere. Today would be no different. We had our surf and got tossed into the air, but not far enough and we were left without a flip on the last big rapid of the day. Kent was on a mission though and on number 22, Morning Shave, we finally flipped the boat but only by everyone sitting in the back quarter of the boat going into the rapid. It was like a row of dominoes as we all went tumbling on top of each other and the boat coming down on top of us. We had finally flipped. It was a classic day of rafting down the Zambezi and was topped off with the walk out of the gorge with cold beer waiting at the top for the ride back to town.