The Zambezi River just below Victoria Falls between Zambia and Zimbabwe is a major white water rafting destination. This stretch is almost constant rapids; you get out of one and you can see or hear the next one. One section included a massive hole, (the biggest that I have encountered) which our river guide handled perfectly. We literally went right on the very edge (yes my side, I was looking straight down as if I was over the edge of a waterfall) without falling in. For those who don’t know about a hole in the rapids, it is just as it sounds; the currents create a spot where the water is dropping down into a hole and shooting back up the other side. When it is a big hole like this one it can be very difficult to get out of and few people would be able to stay in a raft that fell into such a hole. It was both very scary and thrilling.
Farther down we came to the big rapid! It was a class 6, rapids are put into classes, a class 3 being a typical rapid on most rafting trips, a 4 is bigger a class 5 is even bigger such as the one with the massive hole. A class 6 is not normally done in a raft, but only by very good kayaker’s, certainly not a group that included some firs time rafters. We pull over to get out and walk around it, but one boat goes just a little to far. They make it over but as the people are getting out the river is pulling at the boat trying to take it down river. Despite good efforts to pull the empty boat ashore we are unable. Finally two of the guides who have run this section before decide it will be easier to run it then to pull in the boat, so while several of us hold on to the rope and try not to let the river yank it away from us, they hop in and quickly get ready for a real ride. The second we let go they are gone, trying to have a little control of the boat and to get to the best spot for going over the falls and on thru the rapids. We all watch holding our breath as we watch them go! They make it! Sweet, that was fun even just watching, you could see other than the first couple seconds of trying to position themselves, they had very little control. Once you’re in a class 6 rapid in a raft, the river is in control.
We still have two rapids to go, but the biggest ones are behind us. Over half the people in our boat have been thrown into the water one or more times. I have not, partly due to chance and partly to skill of hanging on. But I don’t want to miss the fun of going through a rapid outside of the boat, so when the guide ask if anyone wants to jump in during the next rapid, I say YES! When he says jump I jump, and away I go down the river. Immediately I’m being pulled away from the boat, struggling to keep my feet down stream so that they will help deflect me off the rocks. Another wild ride to complete what has already been a wild one.
A few weeks later we are in Uganda and have the chance to whitewater on the White Nile just below Lake Victoria. Although it is not of the same caliber as the Zambezi it is still a good one plus it is the Nile and we will be among the last to ever do most of it. They were in the process of building a large dam that will close the river later that year (2011). Although there will still be rafting trips afterwards, our guide plans on quitting after numerous years because it just won’t be the same or as good.
The rapids are farther apart so we have to paddle a lot between rapids but I don’t mind, it’s all part of rafting. The rapids aren’t as big as the Zambezi’s either but don’t let that fool you. I went in three times this time, (remember that part of chance on where your sitting) none of them deliberately. One time the three of us in the back (including the guide) were literally catapulted out of the boat. Yes, airborne. That was quite fun!
Another time two or three of us went over the side. And then there was the one where our whole raft flipped. That time I managed to stay in the boat, but then when it goes over you need to abandon ship. I dunk under to get out from under the raft, when I come up I see several paddles so I grab them, then more paddles and then even more. By the time the raft had been flipped back and most people were in they only had one or two paddles; I had all the rest of them. They caught up to me and the bundle of paddles I was now holding. One woman was even farther downriver and we went after her.
Most of the people on this part of the trip had not been on the Zambezi and asked me which I liked better. It was really hard to say because they were both spectacular and very different. The Zambezi had constant rapids and bigger ones and was in a beautiful gorge, but the Nile was a blast getting flipped and catapulted plus it was the Nile.