Scope Zambezi Blast Challenge - Day 4: "Ghost Rider" Tamed

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Day 4: "Ghost Rider" Tamed
(Chris)
As not many people slept that well overnight there were several tired worn out looking people that day and although it was to be a shorter day we still had a few rapids to go and quite a bit of portering to do. Alison however was feeling much better.

As we couldn’t raft the next rapid we had to raft across to the other side of the river and then get out and take out all the equipment (we didn’t have the majority of the equipment we had been carrying for the last 2 days as it was being taken back to Livingstone by land). The guides had to go high up on the rocks by the edge to then use ropes to guide the rafts across the rapid. We then clambered down the rocks the other side and jumped back in the rafts.

Unfortunately, when we got back in the raft, the sickness hit again. This time it was poor old Pablo who stopped smiling and started groaning. This was shortly followed by some rather loud projectile vomiting off the raft (which we all found really funny - sorry Pablo) and a quick stop at the rocks so he could lower himself into the water, cling to a rock and relieve himself. (Sorry again for writing this but it was just too amusing).

We then did two more rapids and reached the Damsite. This originally was to be dammed across by Robert Mugabe (as one side of the river was now Zimbabwe) but it never quite happened. Here again we had to exit the rafts and porter them across the rocks, this was knackering stuff as they're quite heavy and the rocks don't help either especially when you have to go up hill. This seemed far more dangerous than doing the rapids themselves as one bad slip and you could up with a nasty injury, thankfully no one did. The only casualty was Pablo who spent the whole time curled up in a pool in the foetal position relieving himself again until someone went back to tell him we were leaving. Apparently 9 times in 20 mins (sorry again Pablo). Once back on the river we then continued on for "Son of Ghost Rider" a prelude run to the almighty hard hitting "Ghost Rider".

The “Ghost Rider” had been built up all week as the final rapid we would do on this trip that would no doubt flip us into the water as it is the largest rapid on the Zambezi - huge standing wave for 200m. So with Cameron again shrieking "Hard Forward" we approached it with trepidation but excited to finally be rafting the almighty one. Wow what a rush we got and this one for most of us is our favourite one and for Alison her second favourite one. With I think 5 of us (including myself) celebrating like mad to the camera as we thought we had made it Cameron was still shrieking at us to row leaving the 3 girls at the back Alison, Stacey & Louie to paddle. Not good as we hadn't realised we hadn't finished yet as we almost flipped back over. Now that would have been funny although maybe a tad embarrassing to have caused our own flip.

Cameron shrieks again in so not so nice words to "forward you f****** idiots". The 5 of us sit back down and start padding like our lives depend on it. We made it through though and then collapsed to the adrenalin rush and laughter as to how we almost fell in. So some 36 rapids later Team Extreme had no flips and one fall out, which for Cameron was his first week of no flips having done this trip 5/6 times already. We were just too good, Ghost Rider Tamed by Team Extreme! (Or more likely just extremely lucky).

Team Irish weren't so lucky and had another hard wipe out losing 3 of their crew to the rapids although this time they remembered to hold on when falling out so they were rescued by their own crew relatively quickly. They also lost 4 of their paddles so found it quite hard to escape out of the rapids. Banana Boat managed to survive it and had no flips all week, which although they were generally taking the safest runs each time was the first time (I think it was said) that Tembo had never not had a flip in a trip before, impressive stuff.

We then paddled up to the nearby beach to unload the rafts, collapse them down to then porter them up the rocks to be uploaded onto a helicopter. In the baking hot sun in the middle of the day with no real shade (this no doubt caused several more people to be ill later that day) we watched as the helicopter landed on a pile of rocks that had been flatted out for it to land on and for the guides to load the gear. It must have taken at least 6 trips. In between this a 3 seater helicopter was landing and taking away 3 of us at a time to fly back to Livingstone. On the flight over we got a view of the breathtaking Victoria Falls, not bad at all.

Although there was a bit of mix up for myself. Alison had gone out on an earlier flight than me as she was feeling poorly again. So I went out with 3 others on the 4 seater helicopter that had finished picking up the gear. To find ourselves then being dropped down in the middle of nowhere with no shade as well. (This definitely made Clive "triathlon man", who was picked up with me, ill later that day as he was already suffering a bit from the heat from where we waited originally to be picked up). Talk about scary stuff, far more so than the rapids. The 4 of us just looked bewildered as we couldn't understand why. We had been told that another helicopter would then pick us up, but it just made no sense to us. Then a couple of locals came wandering over and we weren't quite sure what to expect, but they were fine and just chatted to us for a bit before wandering off again. Then that helicopter came back and dropped off another 3 of us. So there were even more of us looking bewildered by it all.

Then finally the 3 seater helicopter turned up, but as 3 of the 4 I came with were suffering more in the heat than I was I waited for the next one. Then the 4 seater one came back on its final run with one spare seat and Cameron got out to swap places as well. So I went on this one and on the way back we were suppose to see the falls but it had run out of petrol so we had to land back at base much to our extreme annoyance. We did in the end get to see the falls on a flight that was later arranged for us that day. It was worth the wait as it certainly was impressive to see and probably more enjoyable as we had freshen up by then with a shower and change of clothes. After mentioning it to Cameron in the evening it turned out the company they hire the helicopters from had worked it out economically to run the flights like this. Obviously not well enough having to take the 4 of us back out in the more expensive helicopter to see the falls.

In the evening everyone was in much better spirits after having being able to freshen up with showers, baths, swimming pool by a bar and change of clean clothes. We all sat down for buffet food and relived our experiences. Then off to the bar to catch a glimpse of the filming that Tony had taken. Unfortunately it's going to be a month before we can get the final copy due to Tony's back load of work, hurry up Tony! (However this Weds 24th Sept ITV 2 9pm you can get some idea of our trip as Jack Osborne and Elijah Wood were filmed undertaking this trip a few weeks before us, so don't miss it). Not everyone made it to the bar as we had few more sick casualties that evening as we must have spent a good 4 hours in the middle of the day with the sun just beating down on us and no real shade. In the end at least 15 of the 23 man party ended up ill so it’s not the rapids you have to be worried about or even the crocodiles.

A few of us were then keen to head up in to town to check out it. Grubby an ex-kiwi now living in Zambia who had helped out with the transport of the gear overland also ran his own bar and campsite. So we headed out to this on a dodgy open back truck that had a cage with rows of seats at the back for us to sit on. And I can tell you from personal experience it was hold on tight for those sitting at either ends of the rows, otherwise you would have gone flying out when turning the corner. We were also hoping we wouldn't come unstuck here after having survived the Zambezi. After a 15 min journey on the truck through Livingstone town centre we ended up at Grubby's bar. This was old colonial house, where the bar was on the veranda and the campsite based in the garden. We stayed for a couple of hours and it was then time to catch a taxi back to hotel for some well earned sleep.

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