Re: Winter 2016 | Page 75

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, 73