We and our luggage were transported on
the back of old army trucks to the David
Livingstone Lodge Hotel for the first night
of our trip. And this was when I first saw
the river that all the fuss was about. In
fact, before I saw the river, I saw the
notices warning of crocodiles, snakes,
hippos and no fishing. But what about
the rafting?!
At this point, the river is wide and slow
moving, gentle and even tranquil. A
short boat ride on the first evening
however put paid to any thought of
going for a swim as hippos appeared
from the river’s murky depths watched
afar by menacing looking crocs on the
opposite bank.
Nevertheless, we slept well that night
before being transported by truck to
a joining point at the base of Victoria
Falls. A 30 minute hike (or I should
say “scramble”) down the banks of the
Batoka Gorge to the foot of Victoria
Falls (also known as “the Smoke that
Thunders” in the local Bantu language)
and our first taste of what life on the river
would be like in the coming days.
With only a morning of safety training
(and my first real attempt at paddling
in a raft) we set off for the first of what
would be 48 Grade 4 and Grade 5 rapids
over the course of the next 100km. It is
true to say that 100km is only a drop in
the ocean to the 2,700km, which is the
length of the Zambezi, but nevertheless I
was soon to discover it was far enough.
The rapids on the Zambezi are infamous
and known throughout the world as
some of the most challenging. For those
who have ever white water rafted rapids,
you will know that these are graded 1 to
6. Grade 6 are “non runnable” and non
commercial, and so the Grade 4 and
Grade 5 rapids that I was to encounter
were as challenging as you could get.
With rapids having names such as
“Stairway to Heaven”, “Ghost Rider”,
“Oblivion”, “the Devil’s Toilet Bowl”
and “Open Season” it was possible to
anticipate what lay ahead.
Having successfully navigated at an
early stage one of the more challenging
rapids, Stairway to Heaven, my raft,
which included a brilliant Kiwi skipper,
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