Scope Zambezi Blast Challenge - Day 2: "Snoring is my night time theme tune"

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Day 2: "Snoring is my night time theme tune"
(Alison)
On Tuesday morning consciousness arrived with the cold. After the intense daytime heat, few were prepared for the deep chill that arrived during the night. I grabbed my fleece and tried to put it on in my sleeping bag, but couldn’t for the life of me find the right arm hole. Desperate to get back to sleep, I wrapped myself up in it instead and tightened the string around the hood of my sleeping bag so to let as little air as possible through. At last it was light and time to wake up. Looking around I was surprised to find Pablo’s feet right next to my bed. Cameron came round to wake everyone up around 6am. Chris was having none of it and pulled his sleeping bag across his face, which Cameron found hilarious. Pablo began to groan and sat up. He had ended up sleeping on a really thin matt. He said this was because someone had nicked his inflatable matt, but it turned out later it was just because he’d left it by the fire the night before. He was groaning because his back hurt so much and said he thought he’d fallen down the rocks but couldn’t remember because he was drunk.

After packing up our personal gear, eating breakfast (eggs, bacon, unattractive chipolata sized sausages, which tasted better than they looked, and beans) it was time to clear up camp and get it packed onto the boats. It was a pretty tricky business carrying all the bags up and down the rocks to the boats, and took quite a while to get everything together and on the water. It was the first time I’d had to fill the water bottles from the river and was completely paranoid that I’d put too much iodine to treat it and we would spend all morning wanting the loo as a result.

Caroline decided to join our boat. After the two flips the day before aboard the “hard and fast” boat, she wanted to stay upright for a while and thought she try her chances with us. So we all piled in and paddled-off. We practiced moving over to the right or left of the boat as all the kit we were now carrying meant that the manoeuvre we’d learnt the day before had to change. Having all our gear on the boat made a big difference to its weight. It felt much more stable going down the rapids.

I was at the front right of the boat, which was cool, as I got to be lead paddler and set the pace with my strokes. I enjoyed that as there is more room to move and the people in the front of the boat get hit by the full force of the waves in the rapids, so it is much more exhilarating. When you are at the front and you go over a wave, you can see the full height of the drop down the wave in front of you and have to lean right over to get your paddle into the water. I was also chuffed (in an entirely smug and not very self-depreciating way) because Cam told everyone to watch how I paddled and to copy me if they wanted to paddle properly.

We went over quite a few rapids that morning, including "The Mother", "The Washing Machine", "The Terminators" and the aptly named "Creamy White Buttocks". There were quite a few rapids where the guides got out and took a look at the falls before we went down them, to decide on their approach. I think this was part of the reason we got out on the rocks before the rapid, but the main reason was so we could see why it got its name. The reason was that it had a big rocky crack! Also, Tony wanted some footage of Tembo plotting out the route he was going to take down the rapid on Scouse’s bared bum!

Along the way we had some cool animal sightings: baboons clambering over rocks towards us, one with a baby on its back, lots of small geckos and another small croc, a pair of huge black eagles (apparently they mate for life) and an iguana clambering up the rocks.

We had lunch on a rocky outcrop at the top of "Oblivion". There was a bit more shelter from the sun than the day before, although there was also a bit more of a climb to find somewhere private to pee. While we were eating (a yummy pasta salad amongst other things) a couple of other rafts on a day trip came past. We watched as they went over the falls. The first one didn’t look like it was going to make it. It seemed to be swamped with water and was being thrown all over the place. It made it through though. The second raft wasn’t so successful; it flipped and cast its crew into the river. One of the safety kayaks also seemed to get stuck and the guy was paddling on the spot for what seemed like ages. Emmanuel was having quite a laugh at him.

Seeing the boat go over focused our minds, and we made sure we concentrated hard when it was our turn to take on "Oblivion". We were again expecting to be flipped on this one as it has several hard waves hitting one after another. The third crashing wave is supposedly responsible for more raft flips than any other in the world - only about one in four attempts succeed! Pablo was in the front of the boat in the lead position for the first time and we all paddled like mad to make sure we got down as none of us fancied a swim so soon after lunch. The real event though was watching Trevor come over in the kit raft. He’s an imposing figure - tall and strong- and was perched at the back of the raft which was filled with everything from the kitchen gear to the portable loo (obviously packed separately). He had two huge oars and we watched as the boat tipped over the edge and he rowed down the crazy white water to the bottom.

The afternoon was hilarious. We’d had some pretty random conversations in the morning, including a rather gruesome discussion of workplace accidents, but in the afternoon it just got silly. Pablo seemed to have a song for every occasion and stopped paddling every time he started talking, which caused much hilarity in the boat. Caroline accused him of snoring but he retorted it was just his night time theme tune. In the end it just got to that situation where we’d all been laughing so much that even the not very funny stuff had us in creases. So we were all in a great mood when we pulled into camp that afternoon.

This campsite was right next to the river, with a great view in both directions. As we were setting up a cable car running down into the valley bought in an injured Sledge, accompanied by Grubby, to spend the evening with us. Dinner was being cooked over the fire that evening, so the first job was to collect as much firewood as possible. I was quite proud of my stack of wood until I got back to the fire to find Clive dragging what looked like half a tree across the beach!

A few of us ladies then found a secluded spot in the water by a sand dune to have a bit of a clean and wash our hair, as we were all feeling pretty gross by then. At first I was paranoid about crocs but its surprising how quickly I forgot to look out for them. I found the best way to wash my hair was just to stick my head under the water while holding my breath. It wasn’t very elegant and I felt like a dog when flicking my hair back, but it seemed to do the job. We were quite pleased to get back on the beach and find that an evening snack of cheese and biscuits was ready.

The rest of the evening was much like the first - drinking beer, eating (amazing beef sausages and awesome apple crumble made by Seb), chatting, watching Pablo flash dancing and listening to music. I was pretty sure I saw the star constellations Southern Cross, the Big Dipper (Ursa Major?) and Orion before the moon came up. The moonlight was beautiful, unbelievably bright and clear. There were huge fire flies which flashed as they flew past. Like the night before, the loo had an incredible moonlit view. It got pretty cold again, once the sun went down, so this time I made sure I wore a long-sleeved t-shirt and fleece when I went to bed. It was amazing lying there looking at the moon.

Some of the others slept next to the fire and the following morning we found out that Pablo had stood up during the night, half asleep, in order to go to bed, and put a foot in the fire, jumped back quickly and landed on Tembo’s head. Apparently someone had also been putting more wood on the fire and a spark had jumped off and set fire to Tembo’s sleeping bag. He showed me the burn hole the next morning.

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