The Thunder that Roars!

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Victoria falls is spectacular. Words are not enough. The waterfall thunders into a narrow gorge; it spans nearly 2 km, dropping over a 100m cliff. Victoria Falls is one of the wonders of the world, and has to be seen, felt and heard.



The spray from the falls can be seen from miles away. Close up you feel the falls - the spray rises hundreds of metres into the air, it appears to be raining upwards! I wore my waterproof for my close encounter, I needed it!



Victoria Falls and the nearby town of Livingstone are also the adventure sports capital of Africa. I got into the spirit of that by white water rafting the mighty Zambezi river. The first picture on the right is of the raft just as it flipped over. I'm the person on the left of the picture holding on to the guide rope, just before I took an involuntary dip. More of that later.



The last blog finished on the 8th of June, when I was still in Cape Town. I had decided to book a tour to see Botswana and Vic Falls. I don't usually book tours, but in the case of Botswana it was a good idea. Botswana is not set up for traveling on a budget, the place is expensive. Vic Falls in Zambia is just across the border from Botswana, so most budget camping tours add a visit to the falls to their trip. My cheap camping tour was with Wagon Trails and left from Jo'burg on the 10th. So, first I had to get from Cape Town to Josie which is a long way.

JUNE 9th

I booked out of my hotel early and spent the morning at the V and A Waterfront in Cape Town. I had lunch in a smart riverside restaurant at lunch time, where I was served by a young black waitress who was from Zimbabwe. A lot of young Zimbabweans who can, have left their country. She reminded me of a Zimbabwean lodger I used to rent my spare room out to in my old house in England. Over the years I had a lot of African lodgers.



At 1.30pm I caught a taxi to the airport. I was flying from Cape Town to Jo'burg at 3pm. I needed to be in Jo'burg to meet the tour first thing in the morning. I flew with Kulula, a South African budget airline. It was very cheap, cheaper than driving and no more expensive than getting the bus, but a lot faster. Before I left I had text messaged Petra guest house to tell them when I would be arriving, the idea being that they could pick me up from the airport saving me a lot of money on the taxi fare. Taxi's from the airport are expensive.



The plane arrived in Jo'burg at about 5pm. There was no one there, so I text messaged. After half an hour, when no one had replied, I tried to phone, but I got no answer from the land line or the cell phone. So, after a while I decided to give up on them and try to get a bed somewhere else. The problem was that I had told Wagon Trails to pick me up from the Petra guest house. So, I had to phone Wagon trials to tell them that I was changing the pick up. By the time I phoned it was after office hours. So, when I phoned I got a message telling me to phone an after hours cellphone number. I got through to the out of office number and told them that I was changing the pick up point, and would let them know where I was staying as soon as I knew. They needed to know fairly soon, as I was due to be picked up at the unholy hour of 5.30am.



So, I took the advice of the person who answered the phone for Wagon Trails and phoned the airport backpackers. They came to the airport and gave me a free lift. The Airport Backpackers is within 2km of the airport. I took a single room, ordered a takeaway and watched television till I went to bed early, as I had a very early start.

10th JUNE

I got up at 4.30am in order to pack. I had paid for the room the previous night, so I let myself out through the security gate at 5.20am with the security code for the electronic gate I had been given. It was freezing cold. At 5.40am a minibus arrived with a driver and 2 other passengers. This was not the bus I was due to spend most of the next 10 days with. They were giving me a lift to the town of Mapani where I would meet my bus.



At 9am we met the minibus that was taking me on my tour in a car park in Mapani. I was handed over to the care of Andrew, my guide for the next 10 days. With Andrew in the bus were 3 other passengers, Nigel, Pam and their daughter Claire. It was a short drive to the border post for Botswana. After crossing the border it was a long drive to our camp for the night at Nata. We arrived at our camp at 5pm, set up the tents and had supper. Pam and Nigel made the meal, corned beef hash. Claire had been working in a school for several months in Botswana. She had finished her time in the school, so her parents had come out for a short holiday. Pam and Nigel were intending to see the place where Claire had been teaching after the tour.

11th JUNE

We got up very early - 4am! It meant we had to take down the tents in the pitch darkness. We left the camp at 5am. It was a long drive to the Zambian border at Kasungula.



At Kasungula we were picked up by a woman and driven to Vic Falls. We spent from 12.20 to 1.30pm walking beside the falls. There are footpaths that go very close to the falls. The sight is like nothing else on earth. It's also very wet. The spray from the falls goes up hundreds of metres, meaning that when you walk by the falls you are walking in permanent heavy rain. Not only do you feel the falls but also it roars.



After visiting the falls we set up camp and booked our activities for the next day. We didn't have long as we were going on a booze cruise down the Zambezie river at 3.30pm. The booze cruise lasted till 7pm. After that we returned to the campsite and used the internet. Nigel, Pam and Claire needed to do some research to see if they could get a flight from Gabarone in Botswana to Josie (Jo'burg). They found it was possible. They had been intending to leave the trip at Vic Falls. The flight from Gabarone meant that they could stay on the trip a bit longer and visit Chobe National Park in Botswana.

12th JUNE

We got up late! 7 am!



Today, I was going on a white water rafting tour that would take all day. The others were doing different activities. Nigel went micro-lighting and Pam and Claire went on an elephant tour. The rafting tour started at 8am with a full breakfast. After that we had a safety talk, before leaving for the river.



At the start of the rafting tour it was a long walk down a very difficult cliff path to the river side. We were split up into 3 rafting teams, my guide was known as Captain Baby face. Captain Baby face instructed us on how to control the raft and then we were off. On the raft with me was a group of very friendly Americans.



I managed to fall out of the raft twice. The first time the whole boat flipped over. To be honest, it was a bit scary when we all took an involuntary dip. It was scary because the waves were so big. When the boat flipped, and I came up for air, I was hit by another huge wave. I was hit by a number of big waves, each time that I came up to breath I was hit again. I was popping up and down in the water like a cork. As I did so, and tried to get my breath I swallowed litres of river water. As I popped up and down like a cork, it crossed my mind that I had paid good money to suffer like this.



Half way through the day we had to leave the river, to climb the cliffs again. I hadn't realized there would be so much walking and climbing on the trip. They made us do this because there was a part of the river that was not safe to raft. Having climbed up and down the cliffs we were given a lunch of sandwiches and fruit juice. After lunch we continued rafting till about 3pm, when we had a very long difficult climb up the cliffs. I found the climb after the long hard day difficult, but some of the tour staff were also lugging heavy equipment up the cliff. At least they rewarded us with free drinks when we got to the top. Despite being hard work, I enjoyed the day.



We returned to the campsite by some very bumpy dirt tracts, where we were fed again. After eating we we shown the video that had been made of the day. I bought a copy, to send back to my family in England.



Whilst I was on my tour, Andrew had gone to pick up Alison, who was joining the tour in Livingstone. She wasn't at the appointed guest house at the time arranged.



In the evening we had a drink at the bar and then went out to Livingstone for a Pizza. Whilst in Livingstone, Andrew checked to see if Alison had arrived at Jollyboys guest house and he made arrangements to pick her up from the guest house in the morning.

JUNE 13th

We got up late - 8pm! I had made a provisional booking for a helicopter flight over the Falls a couple of days before. They needed at least 4 people in order to run the flight. As I had heard nothing by 8am I was assuming that it wasn't going to run, so I was taking things very easy. I felt I needed a rest as the camping tour so far had been all go.



But, at 9am Andrew told me that the helicopter trip was going ahead at 10am. So, I had to pay and pack up quickly. Nigel offered to take my tent down for me whilst I was on the flights. The flight was 15 minutes over the Vic Falls - it was a very expensive 15mins, it cost me $85!



At 11am I returned to the camp. There I met Alison who was joining the tour. We then got straight in the bus and headed for the Botswana border.



The next part of the tour was in Botswana, where we were due to visit Chobe National Park, the Okavando Delta and the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. All that will be in the next blog. The Okavando Delta is one of the most stunning wildernesses in the world.

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Photos

The Mighty Zambezi
I'm the person on the left holding on to the guide rope before taking a dip.

Sunset over the Zambezie River
Picture taken on the booze cruise

Captain Babyface's raft
Our guide was known as Captain Babyface.