Go hard or go home .....

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Well, once again the only thing I can say right now is 'Oh my god'. Where do I even begin to talk about today? White Water Rafting through the Batoka Gorge!

We all met at 8:00am and had a breakfast roll and cup of tea, the guides obviously knew we would need as much energy as possible to get through the day ahead. James, one of the guides then introduced himself and gave us an idea of what the day would hold and piled us into a huge jeep which would take us the 10km to the falls.

We arrived at the falls soon after and put on our life jackets, helmets and each grabbed a rafting paddle. It turned out we had the same walk down to The Boiling Pot that I did a few days earlier. It was bad enough the other day but this morning it was raining, making the walk down quite slippery. It was OK in the end though, we just had to take it quite slowly to avoid breaking our necks before we had even got in the rafts. At the bottom we all sat on the rocks whilst we had a safety talk from Emmanual, another one of the guides. Basically he explained what to do in each of the possible 'falling in' situations. These were basically if flip over try and hold onto the raft, if you get stuck under the raft feel your way out and try and hold on, if you get swept away from the raft try to lie on your back and float on top of the water and one of the safety boats/kayaks would come and get you. In all situations they wanted you to also try and hold onto your paddle too as it saved having to go and find it afterwards. Alongside our two rafts there was a raft which acted as a safety boat and about 3/4 safety kayakers in one man kayaks who were very very skilled at what they did. We also had a video man in a kayak who would be trying to get all the action on film for our DVD. It was slightly scary to hear all the safety stuff, but at the same time reassuring (if we remembered what to do at the vital moment that is).

It was a cloudy, overcast day thank god as I think what we did would have been impossible in the heat and sun we have been experiencing. I still managed to get my legs burnt somehow though. Before we started I asked the guide if I could jump into the river. Basically I wanted to get into the water and get wet before we started so I could see how cold it was, what it felt like to be in there in a life jacket and helmet etc so it at least took away that surprise when I no doubt got chucked in later on! So, off I went and jumped in and was surprised to find the water was really warm! At least I wouldn't have to worry about getting freezing cold today!

White Water Rafting on the Zambezi River in Victoria Falls has been classified as Grade 5 - "extremely difficult, long and violent rapids, steep gradients, big drops and pressure areas". It is a high volume, pool-drop river with little exposed rock either in the rapids or in the pools below the rapids. During low water season rapids 1 - 25 are run which covers approximately 25km.

First of all, a quick guide to the classes given to rapids ...

* Class I - Small rapids with low waves and no obstructions
* Class II - More frequent rapids with few or no obstructions
* Class III - Waves up to four feet, with some maneuvering around obstructions
* Class IV - Very difficult, extended rapids.
* Class V - Long and violent rapids. Large waves that are unavoidable. Complex course.
* Class VI - Maximum difficulty. Involves serious risk to life.

Today we went through 8/9 class five rapids with all of the others at various lower classes. We also had to get out of the river and walk around a class 6 rapid as you are not allowed to run through these (insurance to go through these is not possible).

So a summary of my day then. We went through rapids 1 - 25 which took us about 6/7 absolutely exhausting hours. It has honestly been the most physically exhausting thing I have ever done which is mainly down to not having very strong shoulders and arms and having to paddle constantly for that time. Emmanuel was our guide and we were doing quite early early on and still getting a feel for things. We reached rapid 5, our first grade 5 rapid and Emmanuel gave us instructions of how to handle it. Basically, the guides shout commands as you as to when they want you to paddle, when they want you to duck in the boat and hold on for dear life, when to jump back up again and paddle etc etc. A quick summary of rapid 5 for you .....

"Stairway to Heaven" # 5: Class 5: Best in the early part of the season, with an 8m drop over 10m, very steep and powerful with a heap of massive waves and holes. Although it isn't too technical, it's size and volume make for an amazing spectacle and an even more amazing ride. Avoid the waterfalls and a hole on the left called the "catcher's mitt" plus a large pourover on the right.

As you can imagine, even approaching this rapid is basically quite terrifying. Especially when you see the drop you are about to go into. We went into the rapid and sure enough, we flipped right over! A few of us got stuck under the raft for what felt like a lifetime but on the DVD looks like about 5 seconds. It was quite honestly the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me. There was no air under there, the noise of rushing and constantly bubbling and shifting water I will never be able to explain to anyone. I was feeling my way out as instructed and as I thought I was popping up out of the side of the raft I actually popped up into the next section of the raft. This made me panic a little but eventually I found my way out and was washed away down the river. I was picked up by the safety boat and basically spent the next 5 minutes saying 'fucking hell' time and time again. The other raft didn't flip and were asking me if I was OK and what is was like, and I just kept saying 'fucking hell'. I still had my paddle though. Ha ha!

Despite being even more scared now, I got back into our raft and carried on. One of the other girls had got hit in the face on the flip and now had a fat nose and lip. We asked Emmanuel why we had flipped and he said that the faster and harder you paddle into a rapid the less chance you have of flipping. So, we made sure we were always paddling fast and hard, no matter how tired we were, or how scared we were of the rapid we were about to go into. We did not want to flip again! It took us a while to settle into it again before we came to a rapid where we were given a choice. On a lot of rapids there are easy and hard routes through. The guides have their motto 'Go hard or go home'. In others words, what is the point of doing it unless you are going to go the whole hog!! Considering what we had just been though some of the others were a little more shaken by it still than I was and so we went for the 50/50 option which gave us a 50% chance of flipping over again rather than the 100% chance if we went through another route. I was the only one who wanted 100% and was outvoted! Boo! Obviously we got through this one OK.

The next few rapids we were getting through with lots of hard work and you get a great sense of achievement when you do get through them. Loads of times the girls thought I was going to be thrown out because I just kept on paddling and didn't ever hold on. I didn't go in though!!!

The next eventful rapid was rapid 12a, once again, a quick summary for you .....

"Three Sisters" #12A,B,C: Class 3/4: 12B is the famous Zambezi surfing wave for kayakers - surfs best between August and December with two windows and a massive green shoulder and a big eddy. Rafters prefer the term "three little pigs".

As it suggests in its description, on rapid 12a we basically went surfing. This is when you just get stuck on top of a rapid and stay there surfing a while. So we sat there, hanging on, trying not to get thrown in or flipped, for about 1/2 minutes before it let us through. It was great fun! We were finally getting good at this!

After this there was a notorious rapid further along, rapid 18. This is where the camera man always made sure he filmed as, in his words, he was 'guaranteed some action'. A summary of rapid 18 for you ...

"Oblivion" # 18: Class 5: Three waves make up THE rapid on the Zambezi.. The 3rd crashing wave is responsible for more raft flips than any other in the world - only about 1 in 4 attempts succeed!

So, considering we flipped on rapid 5, what do you think happened to us here? OK OK, of course we flipped again!! This time it wasn't so bad though as a) we were kind of expecting it to happen and b) I didn't get stuck under the raft this time, and managed to hold onto the raft so didn't get swept downstream.

After this we had a few more to go through before we finished for the day and had lunch. On one bit they said we could get out and swim but considering we had seen loads of crocs the whole way down in the calm bits of water I didn't want to!! Ha ha!

So a summary of the day? I am exhausted, battered and beaten. We went through 25 rapids, flipped on two, went surfing on one, but at no other time did any of us get thrown out of the raft which we took as a little victory. At the end of the day I have survived but am now deaf in one ear (from the rushing water when trapped under the boat on the first flip) and I have twisted my knee quite badly. I also lost the bandage and dressing on my infected mossie bite on my foot the first time it flipped too.

It was an action packed day but we also got some quite times in there just floating down the river for a while in the absolutely beautiful Batoka Gorge. Zambia on one side of the gorge, Zimbabwe on the other. When we walked around the grade 6 rapid we did it on the Zimbabwe side so even though I don't have a stamp to prove it, technically I have been to Zimbabwe too!

The DVD is great and has our three best moments on it so anyone who wants to see it will have to give me a shout at some point for a screening!

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