Fun activities around Vic Falls
on Kev in Tanzania (Tanzania), 18/Sep/2009 07:37, 34 days ago
Walking safari, helicopter ride, rafting and booze cruise– obviously not all at once!Monday 7th SeptemberWe got up early as had booked a walking safari in the local national park (Mosi-Oa-Tunya). The car came at 7am and we jump aboard. We drove along the edge of the Zambezi and saw Elephants drinking water. We stopped at the drop off point and had some muffins for breakfast. There were 7 of us on the walking safari plus a guide and ranger (with an Ak-47– not sure it would stop a rhino or elephant…) the guide told us we could walk as there are no big cats in the park. He did however warn us about puff adders which unlike most snakes do not move away when they hear you coming!We walked for an hour or so, were taught lots of tracks and saw some Impala. The ranger spotted the rhinos and we approached them from the front rather than rear to prevent spooking them. They were magnificent (if a little stupid) they cannot see very well or jump and the guide was cautious as normally you observe them from behind a barrier… There were 5 rhino (white rhino) and he told us how 4 are new ones traded from South Africa. It was a sad story about the previous lot, one was poached, one fell into the Zambezi, one starved because it was depressed at lack of females and one got sick and died… No wonder they are endangered!After the Rhinos we walked some more and saw Wildebeest which the guide said are stupid and only migrate because they can see the Zebra doing it… We also saw some Giraffes and it was wonderful to be able to see them up close and not be in a car.We got back to the cars at around 10.15am and after helping to start one of the cars got back to Jolly Boys around 10.30am. Liz was getting ready to go and meet her best friend at the airport and I took some of her SLR film to the shop to get it processed.It was great to meet Jo, Liz’s best friend and in the afternoon we went on a helicopter flight over Vic Falls. It was majestic seeing the falls from above – you realise just how big and long they are and it puts it all into perspective. I was extra excited as it was my first helicopter flight (well worth the $130). Theride lasted 15 minutes and in addition to the falls over covered some of the game park – we were able to see Elephants from the air and some beautiful views of the Upper Zambezi.When we landed we watched the video of the flight, it was dodgy because they filmed us getting in but edited the video to show the falls in the wet season when the water level and falls are bigger– they wanted $45 for the video, I was much happier with my authentic photos!We got back to Jolly Boys on a high and had dinner and beers. Afterwards I taught Jo to play monopoly cards and she is now addicted!Had a nice sleep and wondered if I could top the helicopter flight…Tuesday 8th SeptemberGot up early again as today we were rafting in the morning on the Lower Zambezi and at 4pm we were going on a booze cruise!We were picked up and taken a posh hotel where we were fed an English breakfast and then briefed on rafting safety. Zambezi is a class 5 river (extremely difficult and violent…) and I have never rafted before but was excited. Bumped into Tim Packer from CIBA which random but cool to catch up. We had to sign a waver in case we were injured and then we were given our equipment. We were driven to the falls and put into teams of six. It was Liz, Jo and I with a nice American family (Dad and 2 sons). We had to walk down to ‘Boiling pot’ rapid again and I was glad that Liz and I had already been down there, it was quite a journey carrying you helmet, paddle and life jacket (glad we didn’t have to carry raft too!).Our leader was Scott from Wales and we had to jump into the Zambezi and then swim towards our raft (it was a bit like tombstoning but not too high– got the adrenaline pumping though). I jumped in and the strap on my helmet popped open it was very exciting and I swam over to the raft. We went through some drills with Scott, the 3 basic ones are forward, backwards and GET DOWN! GET DOWN involves you hiding in the bottom of the raft and hoping you don’t fall overboard, it called at the last possible minute so that you can control the rafts entry and direction in the rapids.Rapids 2 and 3 were easy to handle and rapid 4‘morning glory’ was a little more exciting (hence the name!) our biggest test came on rapid 5 ‘stairway to heaven’ which is the rivers first class 5 rapid (class 6 is deemed unraftable…)It was long with a steep drop in the middle, we watched the boats ahead and saw one capsize… Sod it lets go for it! We started off well but after the steep drop and hearing GET DOWN! I could feel the rafting tipping, I was going under, head first (good thing, wait until rapid 8!). I took a deep breath and being a good rafter tried to hold onto my paddle and the raft, this was folly,I was sucked under and lost grip of both the raft and my paddle. I recalled the safety briefing and decided not to panic just yet, I was tossed around a little under the water and then decided to try and reach the surface, I kicked in the direction I thought it was… Still no surface, now panic was creeping inside my gut but after thrashing out a little my head breached the surface of the river and I took a deep breath, safe for now…I looked around to get my bearings, another raft had capsized and I was far from my raft. Time to relax, I was still in the rapids but was bobbing along. Scott had flipped the raft back over but it was too far to swim. He was signalling me to swim hard right, oh sh*t there is rock ahead of me! I swam out into the middle of the river (swallowing plenty of water in the process– I blame the life jacket). My raft was righted and everyone else had been able to get back to it. The current was carrying me towards them so I put myself feet first and floated on my back down the river. A canoe came and picked me up with another girl. We were hauled into another raft for safe keeping – I was grinning like a maniac, having fun but happy to be out of the water for a bit.The guys in the raft were Aussies and gave me some stick about my rafting skills and cricket but I was happy as they had to paddle me to my raft– I won that one! I jumped in and swam over to my raft, everyone was safe and buzzing from the adrenaline. That was one of the hardest ones to handle Scott told us and then pointed out a crocodile lounging on the bank on our left…Rapid 6‘devil’s toilet bowl’ was easy and we managed that without incident (the crocodile was on my mind though…)Rapid 7‘Gulliver’s travels’ (class 5 again) was the toughest one on our stretch of water 700 metres of rapids with a rock in the middle. I was a little nervous coming into this one as had already been in the water but was ready for the next challenge! We rode the whole rapid without capsizing! Nearly lost a few on the way but we rode it out! My paddle hit Liz on the helmet and me in the face but I kept hold of it, we also hit the rock in the middle but came off to the left in one piece. It was so exciting and I had perfected my GET DOWN manoeuvre!Success! Scott was pleased and as we headed up to the next rapid‘midnight diner’ he gave us a choice of routes, the hard or easy way. We chose the hard way – we were here for the rafting experience! It had a big drop as we faced the middle rather than going around on the side. Scott said we have 50% chance to make this without capsizing – the raft ahead didn’t flip… We started well (dooming words) and managed to get down on the call but we were tipping again, this time I neglected my paddle and held on, went into the water feet first this time and my helmet was sucked off! Time to panic a little (didn’t want my head crushing!) Luckily Iheld onto the raft, I told Scott the helmet was gone and he pulled me up onto the upturned raft. We all got on and no one had been washed away. We flipped the raft, found my helmet and then carried on with the journey.Rapid 9‘commercial suicide’ we skipped, it is a class 6 rapid and only expert kayakers ride that one. Just last year a guy had died trying so I was happy to walking around this one – it was huge and very very violent! Plus we got to walk on Zimbabwe soil for a little bit!Our last rapid was rapid 10‘gnashing jaws of death’ (dunno who names them) and we were able to hand this one with ease. Well pulled over to the bank and congratulated each other on the trip – we had capsized twice but had all made it! Now came a different challenge, we had to climb up out of the gorge with our wet gear. The way up was perilous, I was worried about falling backwards (it was like the wooden ladder at St Gabriels down to the sea, just over 200 metres of it!) The ladders were rickety and the ground loose with scree but got stuck in and made my way to the top. It was great at the top there was a guy with free beers! So I had 3 and then we made our way back to the hotel for lunch and to watch the video and photos.Lunch as great and we watched the video and photos, we decided to buy both as they are fantastic. We stayed around the hotel and had showers as the booze would leave from here at 4pm. We passed time chatting about rafting and playing cards.The booze cruise was lovely and civilised, it was a small boat and we were plied with free snacks and beers. There was a crazy little American women on board along with a chunky Northern bloke who made comment about me being with the two girls, I told him due to local custom they were both my wives!We saw hippos and buffalos and there was a lovely sunset on the Zambezi river (Upper Zambezi not the rapids!). I was not sure if it was the free bar or the adrenaline from the morning but when we got back from the booze cruise I lazed around a bit as the girls played and then fell asleep.What a day!