Day fifty two (continued)

Customs was not too bad again and it had been surprising how easy it had been to navigate with a New Zealand passport. We crossed over the Victoria Falls Bridge which separates Zambia from Zim. We got a quick view of the mighty falls before we reached the other side.

We set up camp in the Municipal Campsite and found the amenities to be to our liking. We seemed to be in the 20th century again. Nearby to the campsite was a Wimpy bar no less and also an icecream parlour. There were heaps of curio shops, clothes stores and most importantly a good bar with a jukebox and satellite TV. The local lager was Zambesi Export which is a pretty good drop as well.

In the evening we went to the Cattleman's Restaurant for a meal. It was a steakhouse in the true meaning of the word. I'm not kidding. You almost needed two people to bring out the spare ribs I ordered (more like brontosaurus ribs). Thoroughly recommended if you are a carnivore.

Day fifty three

It was a good day to get the washing sorted and other necessary jobs like mailing postcards etc.

In the late afternoon we went on a Booze Cruise on the Zambezi River. We all got really munted which was the object of the cruise of course. We saw some hippos and I got some good photos of the pink sunset on the river. Ted had about 5 chunders before we went back to Vic Falls village to visit the Explorer's Bar. Heather was the drunkest that I had seen her on the trip. Cathy and Michelle weren't far behind. Jill was another one to get quite langered. It was a funny night all round.

Day fifty four

Today was going to be a big day. The majority of the team were going Whitewater rafting on the Zambesi river. We were up early to have breakfast at the Lodge by the Falls. We met up with Kumuku (another truck tour) and a few others for the rafting. The tour operator that we used were an outfit called Safari Par Excellence. I got on the adventure raft (meaning you had to paddle rather than let the raft's oarsman do all the work) with Rob, Corey, Frank, Max, Dan and Brad. Our guide/oarsman was called Shifty Shengi.

We got our wetsuits and lifejackets on and walked down the walkway to the river and boarding area. The walkway turned into rockclambering as we got to the river's edge and I stubbed my toe just before I got to the raft. I was bleeding quite generously but I wasn't concerned about crocodiles sniffing blood in the water. Crocodiles can't live in fastmoving rivers with rapids like where we were going.

I climbed along a treacherous ledge following a rope down to the rafts. We had a training session on how to paddle, hold the safety ropes inside the raft, change sides of the raft etc. Then we were off.

We navigated the first three rapids without incident. Rapid 4b tipped us out of the raft by surprise as it hadn't been mentioned beforehand as a rapid to fear. I came to the surface underneath the raft and had to go back down again to get to the side of it. We clambered back in and pressed on. The rapids were excellent. It was like riding a bucking bronco combined with a rollercoaster. The rapids are Grade 5 which is the highest.

We were cruising along all right to rapid 8 when we got wiped out by a huge wave. I had been sitting up the very front having my turn in the rest spot and bore the full brunt of the wave. I got flung back about 20m behind the raft. Luckily they have guys in kayaks following the rafts and I grabbed the front of the kayak to get a free ride back to the raft.After we all got on we had to make for shore as Rapid 9 was classed as unrunnable although a few of the kayak guys managed to get through. Crazy.

We walked around the rapids but Tom slipped on the rocks and cut both his leg and eyebrow quite badly. He had to go back to town and was not a happy chappy. We went back into the water and got through rapid 10 before losing Brad and Frank over the side at 11. We stopped for a lunch break after that. I had been freezing on the raft but warmed up out of the cold wind.

We went back in again and survived the rest of the rapids until number 18 where we had tried to flip it on purpose, but only succeeded in losing Dan and Max over the side. That was the last rapid and we had to make a hellish climb out of the gorge. It was no small mercy that they had cold beers waiting for us at the top. There was even more beer flowing as we got driven back to the Falls. Overall, it had been a pretty satisfying day.

We watched all the videos of the day's action at the lodge later that night and saw how some of the other rafts had got on.

Day fifty five

In the morning a few of us went to see the Victoria Falls close up. It was possible to get good views of the falls from both sides of the river, meaning I had to get my passport stamped twice more to get views from all possible angles. The Zambian side was not as good. However they had a craft market nearby where I haggled with the carvers and bought a hippo and rhino made out of ironwood.

It turned out to be a full day and we got back to camp at 7pm. We ended up going to dinner at Explorers and met up with a few of the others to finish the night off.

Day fifty six

I got up to go for a game of golf with Paul, Max, Corey and Dan out at Elephant Hills Resort just out of town. The people at the clubhouse wouldn't let us on the course at first because we weren't wearing collars. In the end we hired caddies (a first for me) and swapped our shirts so we had collars. Apparently my caddie had caddied for Greg Norman quite recently.

We all played pretty badly. I am not making excuses but there were plenty of distractions. For starters there were animals all over the fairways which was pretty cool. I had to chip between two warthogs on the first fairway. On the next hole, our balls had to clear a pond infested with crocodiles. So it was slightly different from your everyday course. In the old days there used to be a lion that troubled people on the 12th hole every now and then. We only did the first nine holes.

After returning to camp I went with Jess and Vanessa to the Vic Falls Hotel which is very historical and posh and is priced accordingly. We could only afford to stay for one drink after having a good look around the premises. We ended up at Explorer's again for dinner and barflied till closing. Most of the others turned up during the course of the night. Ted bungee jumped off the Vic Falls Bridge after chickening out the day before and was buzzing.

Day fifty seven

We packed up and left Vic Falls at around mid morning and drove to the Botswana border which was not that far away.

Click here for Botswana.