On a recent overland trip to Botswana and Zimbabwe with a group of 14 people we ended our trip in the adventure capital of Africa - Victoria Falls. On the 1st of September, Ashley, Jeremy, Paul, the two brothers from the UK (Graham and Keith) and myself from this group decided we were brave enough to go river rafting on the mighty Zambezi. We had a tight programme and had a lot to do so we opted for the half-day river raft which lasted from about 07:00 to 14:00 and did the majority of the rapids of the full-day river raft. The only real rapid that we've missed out because of this was "Oblivion" which is famed because it is the rapid that flip more rafts than any other rapid in the world. We'll be back for this in October.
Our boat: On the left from the front: Paul, Keith, Ashley and one of the medical students. On the right from the front: Jeremy, Graham, the other medical student and Lynette. With in the middle at the back - Ben.
Graham and Keith already had a real African experience in Botswana and wanted to end their trip on a high note - bungi jumping was out for them, but the river rafting option sounded more up their alley. We didn't tell them though that river rafting on the Zambezi is more dangerous than the highest commercial bungi jump (off Victoria Falls) which has a perfect safety record.
Before going into more detail about the trip it is important to give some background on the Zambezi and White Water Rafting on the Zambezi. The Zambezi River is classified as a "high-volume, pool-drop river" which means there are little exposed rocks, both in the rapids and the pools below. At the hight of the rainy season 500 000 cubic metres of water flow over the 1.7 kilometre wide Victoria Falls. In the Batoka Gorge the river starts narrowing and makes its way through various rapids (the drops) in between calmer stretches of water (the pools). Rapids in the Zambezi follow each other shortly (between 100 metres and 2 km) and provides the white water rafter with an excitement packed first day rafting, to be found nowhere else in the world.
Batoka Gorge is approximately 400 feet deep at the put-in-point and 750 feet at the takeout. It is interesting to note that the Zambezi River drops about 400 feet over the 24 kilometres as covered by the one-day raft trip and the depth of the river can reach up to 200 feet.
Rapids are graded on a scale from 1 - 6. With "1" being an easy rapid and "6" being commercially unrunnable. Low water (mid July - mid January) makes rafting on the Zambezi more difficult and rapids are graded higher. Nearly half of the rapids on this stretch of river is grade 5 and some rapids are graded 6 for example rapid 9 (Commercial suicide) on the first day and one has to portage the raft around this monster.
The British Canoe Union has classified the Zambezi river as a Grade 5 and describes it as "extremely difficult, long and violent rapids, steep gradients, big drops and pressure areas".
Rafting takes place between Victoria Falls and the Batoka Gorge 60 kilometres down the river. Rafting trips from .5 days to 7 days can be organised by Frontiers.
On the first of September we arrived at Ilala Lodge (the meeting place for Frontiers White Water Rafting) at sparrows, well at 07:00 for our pre-rafting brief and equipment hand-out. We were greeted with coffee and tea as well as some freshly baked sweet roles. Ben, Frontiers senior guide, enquired about medical conditions and explained more about the river, the equipment, procedures, the different types of "falling out" (short and long swims), what to do when the raft flips, how to help each other out of the river and finally gave us the choice of either paddling (Paddle Boats) or hanging on for dear life (traditional oar boats). We were told that the paddling was more strenuous and that your chances of falling out of the raft increases significantly. Naturally with Ashley in our group being the daredevil she is, "we" decided that we will go on a paddle boat. British Medical students joined our boat, to make up the quota, while the rest of the people decided to rather hang on for dear life. Ben was to be our guide while Max Chiwandire (Frontiers Rafting Manager) took the other group. An extra person in a kayak also accompanies the rafts for support for example if someone goes for a long swim (quite far away from the boat) the kayak 'rescues' this person and brings him/her back to the raft. Our support guy's name was Greg.
After we've received our life jackets (pulled in very tight around the chest), helmets and paddles, we made our way by foot down the Batoka gorge to just below the Victoria Falls bridge, and in front of the Victoria Falls Hotel. This is quite a steep, slippery road down and it is easy to loose ones footing. When arriving at the river, an extensive drill takes place with guides shouting commands at the top of their voices. The two most aggressive and heaviest people in the group is supposed to sit in front of the raft. Ashley, as well as the rest of the people that new her thought that she should have the honour, but according to Ben she didn't make it on the weight side. Paul and Jeremy were then given the task with great dissapointment from Ashley. When paddling it is extremely important to listen carefully to what your guide is 'screaming' and to work together as a team. It is also important that the smallest member of the raft must be able to pull in the heaviest member by using the life jackets to assist. This was off cause tested during the drill and took some time to get the hang of. People were unceremoniously dunked and then clumsily pulled back into the raft. After about a half an hour drill, we were ready for our first rapid.
Ben, discussed each rapid with us before going into it. This included where to go to if you fall off, what the rapid consists of and which path we were going to take. Rapid no. 4 (the first rapid run) is a grade 4 rapid and is called "Morning Glory". This is an exciting rapid to start with and has a hole in the middle. Both rafts negotiated this rapid without any casualties.
Our next rapid, rapid no. 5 is called "Stairway to Heaven" and the Zambezi drops 25 feet more than 300 feet and this was the first grade 5 rapid that we ran. This is one of the biggest commercially run rapids in the world and there is a lot of white water around you here. Again we had no casualties, but the adrenalin was pumping at this stage and we felt we could conquer the world.
Rapid no 6, "Devil's toilet bowl" (only a grade 4) brought us back to earth. This short rapid has a large whirlpool which threw Graham, one of the medical students and myself of spectacularly. After I went down it literally felt if I was being flushed down the Devil's toilet bowl with water whirring around my body and head. When the life jacket started working it pushed me up underneath the boat, and then shortly afterwards next to the front of the boat where Jeremy saw my glasses (secured with sport's strings as well as a string attached to my life jacket) pop up next to the boat after which I was rescued. At that stage I realised that Graham on of our UK companions was still missing from the boat, with a very worried Keith (brother) wondering what happened to him. Greg (our support guy in the Kayak) picked him up stream, quite some way from our raft, transported him to the other raft, which then brought him back to our raft. It was a very long swim and he was under the water for quite some time. This was definitely another story to add to list of stories going back to the UK.
Gulliver's travels (including "The Land of the Giants") was the next rapid, rapid no. 7.This is a grade 5 rapid and is the longest and technically most difficult rapid of the one day. In "The Land of the Giants" there are big rolling swells with braking water on top. Shouted directions from Ben was misunderstood and we went backwards into the rapid turning around halfway through the rapid. In this rapid one is greeted with high walls of white water all around.
In rapid no.8, "Midnight Diner" two runs are available one of which is the safety run and the other the mighty "Muncher". The channel on the Zambian side is easy and is only graded 3 while the "Muncher" is graded 5. Off-cause our boat had to take the Muncher! Going into the Muncher there are two fairly large rolling waves and then one large wave that curl towards the direction of approach with a "large" hole underneath. Keith and one of the medical students were munched here. While the medical student was helped in gracefully by Ben, Ashley determinately pulled Keith back into the raft.
The next rapid, rapid no. 8 is not called "Commercial Suicide" (grade 6) for nothing. Any company brave enough to take their clients through this rapid will be committing commercial suicide. This rapid has two parts with rafts being submersed for long periods under both parts. We had to portage our rafts around and this at times required some tricky manoeuvring around some narrow points overlooking the river. Nico, one of the guys in the kayaks, decided to put on a show for us by taking on "Commercial Suicide" He went down the first part of the rapid (mostly submersed by water) got out halfway through, climbed the cliff and then launched himself and his kayak into the second part of the rapid. Paul asked him later if he was still taking his pills which made him ask one of the other kayakers what was meant by this. The return answer was simple - "he thinks you're crazy".
After "Commercial Suicide" one rapid remained - "Gnashing jaws of death" which is a grade 4 rapid after which we had lunch in a beautiful setting in the gorge just above the river. Lunch consisted of beef stew, salads, rolls, fruit, ice cold orange cordial and coffee/tea.
If we thought the paddling in the river rafting was tiring, we were mistaken. An unsuspected ordeal awaited us after lunch! We had to get back up the gorge. The climb back out of the gorge from the lunch spot is approximately 750 foot and is a climb at a 2/1 gradient and is equivalent to climbing a 70-storey building. A lot of resting points and water can be found on the way up, but I felt this climb on my leg muscles for some time afterwards. At the top a Frontiers vehicle with ice cold beers and cool drinks were waiting for us.
That evening at 19:00 we went back to Ilala Lodge to look at our videos and our photos. It was a perfect ending to a perfect adrenalin packed day!
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