Rafting the Zambezi

The indemnity form had the following words/phrases 'Class 5 rapids - extremely difficult, pressure zones, violent...'. The guides explained that the highest 'navigable' class of rapids for white water rafting was Class 5. We checked again that this was suitable for beginners and then signed the indemnity forms, hoping we wouldn't die. We had heard of a few deaths during rafting, particlarly people getting sucked into whirl pools and drowning. The others at least consoled us that drowing was a peaceful way to die (??)


So we walked down to the boiling pot to start our adventure rafting the gorge 200m around the corner from the base of Victoria Falls with Zambia on one side and Zimbabwe on the other. We managed to keep the raft upright over the first rapid. Unfortunately the group in the raft behind us did not and afterwards one of the girls grinned at us from the boat revealing half a tooth - it had been chipped off by the paddle on the first rapid!! What had we got ourselves into!

We continued on through rapids with extremely disconcerting names such as "the devil's washing machine" and localised vortexes with unofficial names discussed between backpackers such as "whirlpool of death". Thankfully we all got out and walked around "commercial suicide", that is with the exception of two of the local guides who took it on for kicks and survived with some incredible footwork, moving from front to back and side to side in the raft.


I (Renu) was complaining we had not yet flipped over through a rapid (we had an amazing guide!). So after we had passed throught "the 3 ugly sisters" and climbed "the mother" our guide kindly forced us into a flip within the big washing machine rapid. We have excellent video footage of this. This was the stack of the day, thanks to Nathan's artistic fall. I was actually held underwater for quite a long time and was then stuck under the raft. Luckily I found the rope and came up coughing and spluttering... Nathan managed to hold on to the raft, then fly through the air still holding on to the raft and paddle, as you can see in the following photos....

Next photo in sequence is at top of page :)

This is one of the most amazing experiences we have ever had!! Incidentally the scenery through the gorge was awesome and besides the risks of injury this is definitely the best way to see it.