RIVER RAFTING THE ZAMBEZI

8am pickup this morning in open air jeep to take us to the River Rafting excursion. It was a freezing cold drive as the mornings are very cold and until the sun comes up you would never believe you are in Africa. We were taken to the river where we were suited up in a wetsuit vest, helmet, and paddle. We had to sign safety waivers and then we were off again in the open air jeep. We drove for about 30 minutes through villages that we all wished we had our cameras to take pictures of (clearly on a river raft you don't want your good camera!) At the top of the canyon we were all instructed on what to do on the raft (how to paddle, what to do if you flip out, etc) and then we descended down an extremely steep pathway down the canyon. (You can see from the photos how high up the sides of the canyon are!) It was a treacherous climb on steps made of …. I want to say planks of wood, but they were more like sticks! Each of us ladies had a guide who held our hands and helped us down but the boys were on their own. At the bottom we got into the rafts and began our adventure. There are 25 rapids from the falls down the Zambezi classed from 1-5. Because we are in peak water time still, we are unable to raft the first 10 so we started on rapid 11. Our boat was dumped twice and it was very thrilling but also quite scary because once we flipped we still had to manage to hang onto the line on the raft in really angry rapids. We couldn't get back into the boat until we floated far enough through the rapid that we could be hauled back in. There were kayaks who came along and if you did not stay with your boat you were picked up and dragged back to the raft by them. As exciting as it was being tossed around like a rag doll in a washing machine, it was also incredibly cool to be floating down a river that is the border for two countries. On one riverbank it is Zambia and on the other it is Zimbabwe. We did see one crocodile in the river but were told that they don't like to be in the rapids so we are safe! We chose to believe that logic!!!! At the end of the 2 1/2 hour ride down 22 km of the river, we were taken out of the rafts and put on a gondola that took us back up the canyon. We were all very happy that we didn't have to hike back up!!!! We were then taken back to where we started and given lunch while watching the video and looking at pictures and highlights of our day. Was a fantastic experience that I will never soon forget….and right now I have some serious bruises to ensure that I couldn't forget if I tried!!!