The Eastcott Family Blog: White Water Rafting in the Zambezi River

After getting to Livingstone and checking out the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls our next adventure was a white water rafting trip down the Zambezi River as a present from Trish.

The river is currently in ‘high water’ time which means not all of the rapids are open and the rapids are not nearly as crazy as they are during the ‘low water’ time (which Lisa was very grateful for). We started bright and early in the morning, got picked up from the hostel, checked in at the rafting office, got our life vests, helmets and paddles, got assigned our group (we had 7 people total) and loaded in the trucks to head to Rapid 10 which is where we would start the day. After a very cold drive we unloaded from the trucks, had our safety briefing for the day, took a group photo and headed down the cliff side to get to the actual river. Close to an hour later we were finally at the water (the walk down took forever). Our groups raft was carrying a first aid box so we were last in the water which also meant we got the last raft. The last raft of course was the one that was ‘buggered’ as our guide Ken put it (turns out it had quite a few holes in it and we had to stop after each rapid to re-pump it up). We named ourselves Team MacGyver.

On the Zambezi each rapid has a number and a name (or the number is the name), we did rapids 10-25 which are:

Rapid 10: Gnashing Jaws of Death

Rapid 11: Overland Truck Eater

Rapid 12a, b & c: The Three Ugly Sisters

Rapid 13: The Mother

Rapid 14: Rapid 14

Rapid 15: The Washing Machine

Rapid 16: The Terminator

Rapid 17: Rapid 17

Rapid 18: Oblivion

Rapid 19: Rapid 19

Rapid 20: Rapid 20

Rapid 21: Rapid 21

Rapid 22: Morning Shave

Rapid 23: Morning Shower

Rapid 24: Rapid 24

Rapid 25: Rapid 25

Shortly after getting settled into the boat we had a quick lesson and were on our way down Rapid 10. We made it through the first few rapids before having to get out of the boat and walk across the rocks to skip one of the rapids which was supposedly filled with whirlpools (the guides took the rafts themselves). After the 30 minute hike we were back in the boat and were doing quite well on the rapids, that is until we hit Rapid 15 aka The Washing Machine. Shortly after entering we lost one of our guys who got stuck under the boat. After trying to find him and realizing he was underneath we started paddling again, found him and finally got him back in the raft. After a short break we hit Rapid 16 aka The Terminator which is where we lost Dave (he says he took one for the team as if he didn’t go the whole boat was going over). This rapid was one of the longest and unable to get Dave back in after he fell out he had to float down the rapids out of the boat until we were out of the rapid, he said it wasn’t too bad until he remembered we had seen a crocodile a few rapids back. A few minutes later he was back in the boat safe and sound and we were on our way again to make it until the end without any others falling out. The whole time we were on the rapids Dave sat up front and paddled hard while Lisa sat in the back and clung for dear life scared to death of falling out.

At the end of the rapids we got out of the boat, turned in our life vests and helmets and had to walk back up the cliff face as the gondola they have was stuck (with people in it). After making it to the top we had some drinks, changed clothes and were back in the trucks heading to the hotel we left from. We got there around 4pm, had some food, bought the photos and were back at the hostel by 5:30pm glad to have survived the day! Overall it was a fun adventure and definitely an experience to white water raft down the Zambezi. Dave thinks he will go back during ‘low water’ season while Lisa thinks he can go and she will stay back at the hotel since you are guaranteed to fall out during the ‘low water’ season.

After getting back to the hostel we showered and then headed over to the hostel across the street to hang out with Kate and Lucy. We ended up spending the rest of our day there (by candlelight as the power was out) hanging out and laughing at the 16 year old Irish girls who all came back drunk after their booze cruise. It ended up being quite amusing watching them go through all the typical stages: there was the crying drunk, the puking drunk, the laughing drunk and the drunk chaperone. We ended our night watching them all jump in the freezing cold pool over and over and trying to climb out the side, all the while making sure there were no figures at the bottom of the pool. We definitely felt like the old folks of the group. It was a good end to an eventful day of white water rafting.