Rafting the mighty Zambezi is one of those once in a lifetime experiences. We didn’t even think we would do it. We didn’t go to Africa to whitewater raft or to do ridiculous Kiwi adrenaline things. We went to see wild animals and wild landscapes.
But, a Scottish woman named Collette got us pumped up for it.
“you have to do the Zambezi, it’s just one of those things. Rafters the world around come here, it is big’.
Well, big it is. The highest graded rapid you can commercially do is a grade 5.
A grade 5 if you haven’t done rafting before is the equivalent of a 3m dumper sucking the sand off Sunshine Beach. A grade 5 can suck a raft under. It can hold you down for 10 seconds. Go on, count to 10, it’s a long time.
The Zambezi has 5 grade 5’s and the rest are 3’s and 4’s. It’s the highest concentration of goodness in the world.
These are serious rapids. They only run boats down 9 months a year. The other 3 months are high water, when the water can be 14m higher than when we went. One year a kayaker braved high water. In one section of whirlpools he was sucked under violently, and 9 minutes later they pulled his lifeless body out of the river.
6 to our boat.
Leon, Nunu, Rob, Kelly, Lauren and Andy. Plus our guide.
Another 4 boats from other people on our trip.
A flotilla heading down the river.
The other boats were less serious (competitive?) than ours, and as such they ate shit at a far greater level of consistency.
The first grade 4 we hit one boat got creamed and had 6 long swimmers hoping the crocs weren’t hanging around the rapids today.
We survived a couple of grade 5’s before we got to rapid 8 – Midnight Diner.
Our guide byu this stage wanted to show us the mighty Zambezi. He gave \us a choice here, to the right a grade 4, or through the middle a grade 5. He decided for us. And them some.
To the right of the right, the grade 5 actually became a 5 plus. This is where he took us.
Over one small wave
“HARD FORWARDS’
Over another wave
“GET DOWN”
We couldn’t see what was coming, it was hidden by another small wave. Over that one and then we saw the ginning jaws of death.
The boat fell into the yawning gap that came before the wall of white water. This was not just a steep wave with a crest on top. This was a wall of whitewater 3 meters high. It just sucked the boat under. Bodies fell everywhere, helmets crashing into paddles and other helmets.
Nik popped up first next to the boat. 3 seconds she as under, not too bad but scary the hell enough.
I popped up 4 seconds later and about 50m further down the river. My first instinct was to make sure Nunu was up, and then to count the rest. We had all made it. I started laughing uncontrollably, FUCK YEAH,. What a rush!! And another 2 grades 5’s to come!
