White Water Rafting

I spent my last full day in Africa in the best possible way: white water rafting on the great Zambezi River! The Zambezi is one of Africa’s great waterways, originating in Zambia and emptying into the Indian Ocean via Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.

Our Wild Horizons raft on the Zambezi

I have only ever run the placid class-2 rapids of the Ottawa River. Fortunately I’m in Victoria Falls during the low water period, which is the best time to run the rapids of the Zambezi. We began near Danger Point, below the Falls, and navigated past 19 fierce and violent rapids, of which nearly half are graded at class-5 (we had to walk around the “un-runnable” class-6 rapids).

We started early in the morning and began the steep 400-ft descent into the gorge to get to our rafts. I much prefer hiking up than down… especially while carrying a paddle and not wearing proper shoes…

At the top of the gorge: the thieving goat that tried to head butt me in order to steal my mango, a gifted for me from our driver Agrippa (named after the Roman general!).

The view from near the bottom of the gorge, below the Victoria Falls railway bridge.

I shared my raft with 6 guys from China and 2 guides from Zimbabwe – and what a great team we were! Loud, boisterous, goofy. We bonded really quickly over the course of the day as we paddled along, tossing each other into the river for fun.

The route along the river was stunning: dramatic, rough-hewn basalt cliffs. Eagles were soaring above us. The sun was so searingly hot and the water so comfortably warm that we jumped in at every possible opportunity (where there weren’t any crocodiles, anyway).

The view from the raft

We flipped our raft a couple of times when we hit class-5 rapids, one of which drops 8 m over a 10-m span of white water but we were all swiftly collected and hauled back in. I enjoyed it each time – it was a welcome escape from the heat.

Paddling into a class-5 rapid: “Stairway to Heaven”

Our raft flips

We finished our day with a fabulous hike up out of the gorge (I was able to keep up with the impossibly fit, impossibly muscular Zimbabweans, which made me proud) and enjoyed an awesome meal. Best. Day. Ever. I’m going to be soooo sore tomorrow!!

Our amazing rafting team celebrating at the end of the day