I survived Victory Falls

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We arrived at Victoria Falls around lunch time on the 26th. The campsite that we stayed at was called The Rest Camp. It was where all the old people stay. There was another campsite down the road called Shoestrings, that was a load of fun. But Oasis is not allowed to stay there because it can get to rowdy. This was the last day of the trip for some of the passengers, so we had to do a truck clean. After the truck clean, we watched an information video on all the ways you can scare the shit our of yourself while in Victoria Falls.

That evening, we went to Shoestrings for a group dinner. It was another BBQ. I had Kudu meat for the first time. I thought it was beef so no big difference. For entertainment, a group of kids came to perform for us. They are called the Tin Can Kids (you can see them on youtube). They were discovered under a tree banging pots and trash cans dancing. Now, they come to the campsite and perform. The money they earn from donations helps buy school supplies. They were all very young and what they performed was all self taught through watching videos and dancing in front of each other. There was also another group of adults that danced later in the evening. They danced local dances with costumes while singing. At one point they did sing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", which was a little cheesy.

On July 27th, I was reminded that my heart still works. I had decided to take part in "Adreneline Day". I think when I was younger I believed to be andreneline junky, but now I am not so sure. The day started off very mild with a zipline that they call the flying fox. The harness is hooked to the line from your back, you take a running leap off the edge of a cliff and then hold your arms and legs up like you are flying. I flew 400 meters across a gorge. I came back with a smile on my face.

The second was a zipline. This time, i was strapped to the cable in a sitting position. When I was let go of, I was sent flying down into the gorge at 100 miles an hour. I loved this. When I came up I thought it couldn't get better than this. But wait, there's more!

The third event was the gorge swing, which I assumed being an adreneline junky, I would love. First, they have to put an extra harness on you for added protection. No problem. Then, they strap this very long rope to your harness, and request that you walk to the edge of this platform that is 120 meters high. Okay, this is a little problem. Then, they ask you how you would like to go off the edge. the easiest is just to hold on to the rope, okay that seems good. Then, the guy asked me, Are you ready? and of course, NO, I wasn't and his reply, You never will be. Before I knew it, I was yanked off the edge by these ropes, I screamed for about 4 seconds, thew up a little in the back of the throat, then I had plenty of time to watch as the rocks were rushing at me. The fall was 70 meters of 210 feet. This is enough time to be scared, rationalize that you are going to be okay, then realize the rope has not started to swing yet, so then you become very scared again. Right before the rope swings, you are almost comfortable with the thought that I am going to die! Then of course the swing came and I was at the bottom of the gorgeand I was excited taht I was alive so I had a victory scream. Then they pulled me back up which takes a few minutes and in that time, I told myself that the jump was awesome. I am so going to do that again. Then I made it to the top, they unhooked the ropes and I came to the conclusion, after the adrenaline wore off, that was the scariest fucking thing I have ever done and there is no way in hell that I ever want to do taht again!

The rest of the afternoon was a breeze. I had lunch and then went repelling. I tried this thing called rap-seiling, which is hwere you repell down a mountain face with the ropes attached to your back so you are facing the ground. Then you are suppsed to run down while pulling the rope toward you. I know that this is a bad description, but I can't think of any other way to say it. It is painful and very hard to breathe while doing it. Try it if you would like, but ouch!

As if the 27th was not exciting enough, I also signed up to do a tandem bungee jump with Jen on the 28th. We woke up in the morning and went to Victoria Falls. I had been in Vic Falls for almost 48 hours and I still have not seen this massive waterfall. I could however, hear it from my campsite, which is a 20 minute walk from the falls. They were beautiful. We went pretty early in the morning, so most of what we saw was misty or also known as a light rain fall. We were soaked after 10 seconds of this mist. By the end of the trail, the mist had cleared and we had an opportunity to have a great photo sessions and dry out.

Then we went on a short trail that brought us to a lookout to the bridge that I was planning on thowing myself off of later in the afternoon. The swing had scared me and I was terrified to do the bungee jump. Seeing someone jump off and almost hit the water didn't help the fear!

We had lunch at this great cafe called, Mama Africa's. They brought us proper dinner rolls with butter. Sooo good! I could hardly eat because, well I was in the process of being terrified to jump.

After lunch, I wanted to go shopping. I have been to Africa for 50 days and I had barely bought anything until this day. Within 30 minutes of being at this local market full of pushy vendors, I had traded all my food, all items that I no longer wanted, and all my money. I had a serious case of retail therapy trying to forget about this 111 meter or 333 feet jump that I was about to go on.

Judgmet time! We arrived at the bridge. To get to the jumping point, you have to actually leave Zimbabwe. They stamp this scratch sheet of paper and write down the number of people that you are with. It seemed very unofficial.

The first step is checking in. We had to sign our life away and be weighed in. The weight limit for the tandem bungee is 130kg and Jen and I are 118kg...dang it! They write your weight and the order that you signed your life away. I was number 19 and jen number 20. We then went back to the jump point, got our harness on and waited for our turn.

When we were finally called, we had ato almost crawl through this small door to get our onto the jumping ledge. We were then sat down, and people started taking pictures, asking us questions for our video, it was all a blur. It came to when the guy who was strapping us to the bungee said, "Are you paying attention? I am trying to keep you alive." Shoot! It must have been important, but he didn't repeat himself.

We were instructed to hop to the jump point anad wiggle our toes over the edge. At this point, I was still looking at the horizon, I barely glanced down to confirm my toes were in position. Arms out to the side, head and chest up, 5-4-3-2-1-Bungee and we were off. I had a moment of screaming but Jen's scream hurt my eardrums! She sounds just like movie scream. I was able to watch the water come rushing towards us and then there was a yank and we went back up. On the second drop, I told Jen to open her eyes and then we screamed at each other. Talk about a bonding moment. All my aerial experience of hanging upside down finally paid off if Africa. I was fine with being upside down for so long, where most people had a problem. When the guy finally came to retrieve us, I was very happy. Two reason: I was alive, and second, I felt like my right show was about to fall off. Which it wasn't.

I loved the bumgee jump, and Jen preferred the swing. Who would have ever thought anyone would like the swing! Jen was a machine of adrenaline. I have nothing on her bravery.

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Photos

Victoria Falls
We had a very long photo session at this view point b/c it was the only dry area.