Vic Falls (really Livingstone), April, 2015

To be honest I couldn't imagine what I was going to do in Vic Falls ( Victoria Falls is in Zimbabwe, while Livingstone is the sister city in Zambia and we were staying across the river in Zambia) for three 'rest days'.  I knew that I couldn't just sit around the resort for the 3 days, so I booked a white water rafting tour with a group of our riders for the next morning.  Turns out that this tour included a Sunset Cruise and Dinner tour (known as the 'booze cruise' but since I don't drink much), I was looking forward to watching the sky light up after sunset while drinking cheap wine from a plastic cup.  We saw hippos wading in the water and other than that and the magnificent sunset, the cruise was quite uneventful for me.

BUT the white water rafting the following morning was anything but peaceful or uneventful!  Just getting down to the Zambezi River was terrifying for someone who doesn't like heights (me!). We had to scale down the gorge (hundreds of meters) by ladder (poles tied together for a makeshift steps).  I had to go down backwards holding the hand of the guide... very embarrassing but otherwise I don't think I would have made it.  

There were six of us and a guide in our raft (there are no photos as I thought I may lose my camera, if I had brought it).  We were told that the river was crocodile infested...but what did that matter we were on a raft with an expert guide!  We saw some small crocs and monkeys along the banks of the river.  

(These photos are for effect to show why it would be bad to be in the water with one of these.  These are all crocs who are either man eaters or threatened. They are now living on a protected croc farm where they laze around and get fed every second day but they would still happily eat you.)

Admittedly, the water was rather turblent in places, what does Caterory 4, 5 and 6 mean? And then, one of the other rafts flips over..thank god I'm in with the expert guide and strong cyclists.  Oops there goes another raft up on some rocks, poor them in these croc infested water. We are expertly handling all that came our way.  Ooh there's a big wave hoovering over our heads, what the ...crash, I'm holding onto the rope on the side of the raft but with the twisting of the wave I lose my grip and can feel myself being pulled under...I gasp for breathe but suck in water and swallow, my head surfaces , I can see my raft in the distance and there is another wave crashing down on me and another big drink of water...croc infested water... When my head surfaces again, I see Kevin (one of the riders from my boat), he looks much stronger than me, I don't know who grabbed whom first but I had a death grip on him and was prepared to drown him if need be (just kidding, of course ;)  A kayak soon came by and floated me over to the raft where I was literally plucked out of the water and thrown (yes, thrown) back into the boat.  Turns out 4 of the 6 of us were wash out of the boat but I was the only one who thought that I would die on the Zambezi and not on the roads of Africa. 

Then we arrive back at the lodge in time for the TDA bike donations to the locals to assist kids who have 20km or so to walk to school and medical workers who otherwise would have to walk to visit a sick patient.  The Zambezi Waterfront Lodge who very much appreciates our business had a draw to give away some adventure packages.  Who do you think won the Bungee Jump from Victoria Falls Bridge over the Zimbeze River?  You guessed it! Me! Congratulations! Luckily a friend agreed to trade me for a Bungee Swing, still had to jump off the Bridge but feet first, Yikes!  Then some else traded me for a Bungee Slide which is a zip line (more my speed); it was great and not too scary.

Brave face, ready to zip?  But at least I didn't have to jump.  The mist from Vic Falls is seen in the background.

Then we got offered a tour of the Zambezi canyon by helicopter!  It was great, when going over the side of the canyon my breath caught, the pilot zig-zagged us around the corners banking as we went.  Then we came up over the top I thought I could touch the trees.  It was fabulous!  

Here are 3 of the 5 people who did the bungee jump - they all survived, hurray!

The magnificent Victoria Falls.