Victoria Falls and Zambezi Rafting

Not too long ago, a month back, I drove down to Cape Point over Champman’s peak and I thought, well it can’t get better than this. The view was stunning and gorgeous, tall mountains on one side and vast blue ocean on the other side. The view from Cape Point and the drive down there was by far the best view I had seen.

A month down the line, Cape Point has however slipped to second spot in my memory – the reason being a trip to Victoria Falls, one of the 7 wonders of the world. Let me guide you through the experience.

We started from Capetown on a Friday, a hopping flight to Livingstone via Johannesburg to reach the Zambia side of the falls. Before I go on to describe further, here is a crisp introduction to Victoria Falls:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Falls

Day 1 at Victoria Falls

The pictures on Wikipedia depict the falls in peak rainy season. They then swell up to 1.7 kms in width, however at other times the river is not as wide. So, we walked over dry portion of the falls (the right end of the 4th picture on Wikipedia link). We walked over the rocky terrain, maneuvering through the slippery shaky rocks - half way through I wished I had a high ground clearance four wheel drive and that would have been some challenge! Anyways, we walked till the point where we were stopped by illegal security men. The walk back was a bit more challenging with a few drops of rain making the rocks a fraction more slippery. We managed to take a few pics of the falls and equally gasping wide and tall prominent fracture in the earth’s crust that resulted in creation of these falls – apparently it was a platonic shift that took place a hundred thousand years ago. We got back to the hotel before it got too dark – a well deserved dinner and we called it a day, all in excitement for the day that was to follow.


Day 2 at Victoria Falls

Day 2, it was time for water rafting - with a rather early morning for a Saturday, we were picked by the rafting tour operator. We trekked down the rocky mountain to get to the place where the rafting was to be flagged off. In the process, we signed a few legal disclaimers that actually added to the excitement (or is fear the right word?)! I had never done rafting before, so I actually didn’t have a clue to what was to follow - add to it, my limited swimming skills and experience meant that I had to rely on life jacket a lot more than some of the others around who had done this before!

With our rafting boats inflated, it was time to step in. First 5-10 minutes were pure instructions:
“Left turn” – meant those on the right paddled forward, on the left backwards and yeah, the exact opposite for “Right turn”, “Forward” meant keep pedaling but the most important instruction was “Get Down” - we had to stop pushing forward and get to inside base of the raft and somehow try to hold on to the ropes at the outer end. The first dip in the water was useful – helped me realize that it would be tough to get back without help!

There we go, its time to get to a series of 10 rapids, most of these of class 4 and 5, a couple of class 3 rapids. A class 6 rapid is almost a waterfall, so class 5 and 4 are challenging for sure. Just to help you understand, definition of a class 5 rapid is: “Long and violent rapids. Large waves that are unavoidable, Complex course, Scouting is a must”!! Here is the description of the rapids that we went through:

The first rapid was called rapid #3, nice one to get off to a start. We pedaled forward and then went down to make the raft stable. We had survived the first one with no one falling off – that was a bit of a confidence booster! This was probably the last “unnamed” rapid.

Rapid #4 was called “Morning Glory” somewhere between a class 4 and a 5, this was a challenge. The very force with which water hit us and the angle at the rapid was scary at the first go and 5 seconds later the reaction was “wow”! The status of our raft was – No one down till now and we were keeping things nice and steady.

Rapid #5 was “Stairway to Heaven” – this was a class 5 rapid and trust me there was a lot more of aggression to this one than depicted by the name that Led Zeppelin originally thought of! Till the tip of the rapid, I thought its going to be as calm as “Stairway to Heaven”, but suddenly reality struck us hard as we went down possibly 5-7 meters in our raft down the voluminous rapid. We stayed intact and then raised our pedals in celebration and parked our raft to see other rafts fight the battle. The next raft followed the same path and as I saw them go down I was like “Did we really really manage to do that? I am putting this on my CV for sure!” The third raft however had a bit of a nasty experience with 2 of them finding themselves off the raft. We then assumed the role of the rescue boat, got to this guy and pulled him up our raft. He was terrified and wanted to leave right there – it took him a couple of minutes to relax down and be part of the party again.

Rapid #6 was “devil’s toilet”, a class 4, all three rafts made through with reasonable comfort. We still had our record intact – no one off the raft as yet and we started to believe that we were the real professionals out there!

Rapid #7 was “Gulivers Travels”, a class 5. We had to push hard to gain some momentum here to help us steer in the right direction as we went down the rapid with a strong stream of water flowing from the direction perpendicular to our motion. We were warned that the raft could overturn here - the idea to hold on to the raft for as long as possible. As we went though this rapid, we did manage to keep the raft stable, but it ended up being a bit nasty with tons of water all over – However, eventually, Mr. Buoyancy (!!) helped our raft back to the water surface.

The bottom-line however still was that we remained “all intact”. We did it in great style, going down just at the right time and making sure we hold on to our respective corners. The front portion of the raft did go deep in water and I was like cough cough by the time we came out. However, it was time to raise our pedals and scream out "Yyyooo" again. We remain unscathed!


Rapid #8 was “Midnight Diner”– a set of 3 rapids. This was challenging. We had to again pedal hard and get through the first rapid (class 3), get the momentum high enough so that we could steer through heavy forces of the water flowing in the other direction and then go through a narrow gap down to the other 2 rapids. The first one was a piece of cake; the next two were not the worst we had been though. These were class 4 rapids, so we were fairly confident and we therefore chose the difficult path on this one rather than the option of having the easy way out by the side.

So, we went down the class 4 rapid expecting to come out of it stable. However, mid way through, I suddenly found water all over me. My first reaction was that probably the entire raft went under water, so I was like clam and relaxed for a few microseconds. A moment later, I thought there is way too much water all around and I am no more on the raft. This was when the reality struck – I was off the raft and I did not manage to hold on to the raft rope!!! *#^@!” Find it funny now, but at that moment I was a bit terrified. It was all a matter of 5 seconds, I was back on water surface with life jacket keeping me afloat. And then I thought, I should do my bit and try to swim as well! That was not required though, within a couple of seconds I could see the raft again and it was easy going from there on – got back close to the raft and I was then pulled up. Phew!!

Rapid #9 – “Commercial Suicide” was a class 6, almost a waterfall and only the highly professional can do it. So, we took it easy there and got off the raft and climbed down the rocks.

Our final rapid was Rapid #10 – “Gnashing Jaws of Death” – a class 4 again, which we did with relative ease – I was probably a bit defensive this time and got down well before we were told to do so!

For detailed description of the rapids, visit:
http://whitewater.safpar.com/zambezi_rapids.htm

This was followed by around 250 meters of almost vertical climb, too tiring after the 2 hour adventure and I took a bit more time to do it than some of the others who have been regulars to gym!!

It had been 2 hrs of absolute fun and excitement – possibly the most challenging experience I have ever had. This was a big part of the reason why I moved Victoria Falls trip a notch higher than the view at Cape Point.

Day 3 at Victoria Falls

The final day started with a “game” trip to Zambezi wild life. Saw a few wild animals, a few clicks to add to the trip snaps, but nothing as exciting as the previous day. Then I got a helicopter ride of the falls and region around it. It was just amazing to see Victoria Falls from up there - the wide river Zambezi falling into a crack on the surface of Earth, the tiny particles of misty cloud-like water particles created by the very force of the falls is a sight I would remember for a long time.

We flew back that afternoon to Cape Town, ending what had been an amazing trip. I haven’t seen too many places the world over, but for the little that I have, this was probably the best experience and view. I did give a serious thought about having water rafting as a back-up profession, but decided to stay with driving! The next post, when I get some time window, will be on driving experiences in South Africa.