Our last Saturday in Zambia and we were to spend it on the river the country was named after. It was only me, Dan and Áine as Jamie couldn’t afford it. We got up early and boarded another open sided bus and set off for the Safari Par Excellence compound who were running the rafting. On the bus was Linda from yesterday and 2 girls from Dublin who’d only just finished their Leaving Cert. We were shown into a partially open gazebo with a tiered seating full of rafting gear with kayaks suspended from the roof. First up was a gear/safety talk. The guy giving the talk was a legend, I remember from giving a very similar talk at the start of kayaking session trying to make them interesting is hard, but this guy was really really funny at one point he asked us “has anyone here got trouble chewing meet, or as they’re better known vegetarians”. We then all loaded onto buses and headed for the Batoka Gorge. The drive there was along the world’s bumpiest road (well until later that day), it felt like we should be paying for the adventure dirt track ride too. Once we arrived we all sat on the dodgiest looking steps since that shit band in the 90’s. Here we had another really funny talk from obviously the biggest character amongst the instructors. This talk was about what to do in the event of an emergency. We were then asked to form a group of 6/7 to share a raft. We made a group a 6 with the 3 of us, Linda the Australian and the 2 Dublin girls Emma and the girl with the forgotten name. Due to numbers we were then joined by a French guy and his girlfriend/daughter (let’s hope its daughter). Our instructor’s name was Choongo and we had to join him for a group photo on the edge of the gorge. The view of the river from there was spectacular. To get down there required a hike down the gorge along a path that can only be described as dangerous. Again it felt like we should be paying for an adventure hike. There was steps for large stretches of it that was like a bad ladder made of branches. In Ireland an insurance company would request a premium the size of Zambia’s economy to let a group down it, all you can say is T.I.A. It took about 30 minutes to get down but once we did there were 8 yellow inflatable rafts waiting for us. There were also tonnes of kayakers on the water for safety. We loaded into our boats and were told about paddling forward together, backwards and about when he shouts get down how we jump inside the boat and hold on for dear life. Me and Dan were placed at the front of our boat and told to paddle in time with each other. When paddling the boat we were sitting up on the edge in what felt like a very exposed position. We the set off and found the initial paddling quite difficult but the instructor was an expert at knowing what he need us to do to get the boat in the position he wanted. We were due to paddle rapids 10 through to 25 which ranged from grade 2 to 4 although I think these would correspond to grade 3 to 5 at home as some of the grade 2 rapids were way too big for what I’d know as grade 2. The first rapid was 10b (I don’t understand their numbering system at all it was weird) and we later found out it was called “The Gnashing Jaws of Death” all the other groups seemed to get through fine but then we came along and our boat went almost vertical I was paddling still in the boat even though I was completely submerged in water before I was knocked out of the boat by a wave. In all 5 of us fell out with Dan and 2 others staying in when the boat somehow went flat again. It was weird being in the water but luckily the rapid washed us pretty quickly and I caught hold of the boat and was pulled back aboard. We then negotiated the next couple of rapids really well with our guide choosing some fairly unusual but cool lines. The next incident happened on I think rapid 16 called Terminator 1 when we all saw a massive wave coming a ducked except Dan who tried in vain to keep paddling only for the wave to grab him from behind and pull him over board. He then went on what is called a long swim where he drifted well away from the boat while we passed through the next 2 rapids 16b & 16c , Terminator 2 & 3. These rapids were the most fun (if you were in the boat) with me just holding on at the front while waves smashed into me. Eventually we caught up with a very shaken Dan who described the experience as the scariest experience of his life unable to catch a breath. I pulled Dan back aboard and we paddled on down steam through rapid 17 with no problems. During the trip we had a good bit of banter with the instructors of other boats with one pulling Linda overboard on purpose. Before rapid 18 we heard the instructors discussing how they were going to flip sideways or front ways (they’re just joking right). They weren’t we watched as the boats ahead of us were turfed into the water by a mighty crashing wave. Oh Shit! We started paddling towards it with an impending sense of doom. As we approached our instructor shouted down and we all grabbed on for dear life. It was like time slowed down we could see the massive wave coming for us ready to devour the boat but somehow we still hoped to make it through. Suddenly we were dumped into the water and the boat came down on top of us. I’ve been it water in rapids at home so was somewhat use to it but it was terrifying. The water keep beating you down as you came up’ I managed to grab the boat and it crashed into me and knock me clear. I grabbed hold again and struggled to breath it was a horrible feeling the waves were huge. There were 9 people, including our instructor in the water, struggling to get above water to breathe. I was trying to hold on when I realise I’d hand my hand on a helmet below the water level I let go straight away. It took ages for the rapid to flush us through. It as torture but eventually I took a few breaths and after a short while the instructor righted our boat and pulled us aboard. This experience kind of tainted the rest of the paddle as everyone was afraid of a repeat. Dan moved back from his front position and I was joined at the front by the old French guy. He had absolutely no rhythm and never looked at me to ensure we were in time. I tried but struggled to keep with his weird timing, he seemed more interest in talking to his daughter further back in the boat. We made it through the rest of the rapids hassle free and after getting our picture taken we paddled to shore shortly after rapid 25 and we all reached dry land with a sigh of relief (I know I enjoy kayaking but this was a really freaky experience.). To get back up the cliff there was a recently installed cable car (oh thank god) but just our luck it had broken down 10 days ago (oh shit!). So instead it was an 1 hr gorge hike ahead of us. My t-shirt had got soaked so I had to take it off and just wore the BA to protect me from the sun. Once again the gorge hike was torture the sun was so warm and the cliff so high and us so tired from rafting. The views were once again spectacular. Eventually I reached the top of the gorge and was rewarded with a Castle beer. It was so refreshing and tasted so good. Eventually everyone made it to the top so we reboarded the buses and set off back to the company’s compound. The road was longer and bumpier than the way there (bumpier than a kid with chickenpox’s face), but was made far more enjoyable by the constant supply of beer. It was a fun interesting journey as we passed through villages like those in Kaoma. The kids were shouting something at us which we didn’t understand but one of the guides said they were asking for water bottles so they could have water for the walk to school. We raided our bags and threw them every bottle we had to see the kids running after the truck was cool but poignant. It made me miss Kaoma and they atmosphere and environment there. I definitely want to return there one day. We got back to the gazebo we’d been in earlier and were given a surprisingly nice chilli con carne. We sat and ate it on the steps and watched the very speedily put together video of our day. The video was unbelievably cool looking, it was funny watching the times we’d fallen in again and the day started to feel like great fun rather than scary as it had been at the time. The video was €35 to buy and €60 with a set of pictures. The pictures were expertly captured on a high definition camera, they were unreal and it seemed insane no to buy so we ended up buying a set each (it said they were copy protected , they weren’t). After a quick change it was time for our cruise so the 3 of us and Linda made the short walk to the boat where Jamie was waiting for us. After the day we were wrecked so we sat downstairs and ordered a drink (it was a free drink and food cruise the first item of which I more than made my money on). We sat there chatting almost ignoring the spectacular views of the Zambezi and the national park on either bank. The banks were full of animals but we missed lots of them due to talking. We were then joined by a couple from Dublin. The guy was an accountant and had spent 3 weeks in Cabwe north of Lusaka helping them with accounts and his girlfriend had just joined him for the last week in Livingston. They were really sound and we stayed chatting for the rest of the trip. The drinks were served upstairs outdoors and at one stage I went up to get a drink and noticed the spectacular sunset over the Zambezi. It really is a sight to behold. I took as many pics as my camera could hold. They also served us very tasty mini burgers. Around 7.30 the boat docked and we all got off saying goodbye to the Dublin couple (sure we’ll probably meet again in Dublin). We then boarded a minibus for home, once all the seats were filled more people got on and we realised the armrest converted into seats covering the isle, then more people got on somehow finding more fold down seat, finally as we were due to set off the Dublin couple hopped on and somehow found more fold down seats. There were about 30 people on a 14 seater bus. We arrived at our hostel and the Dublin couple and a girl from Perth hopped off to let us out. We said our goodbyes to Linda (saying we’d probably meet her in Melbourne once we qualify due to the shitness of jobs in Ireland). The Dublin couple and Perth girl decided to go drinking in our hostel and asked us to join them. We first headed for the room and changed an Áine was wrecked so she went to bed. Me Dan and Jamie headed back out to meet them in the Irish bar (sure where else te téa te tá). They had discovered despite all the Guinness souvenir rubbish around that the bar had no Guinness for sale (of course not Irish bars are just a facade for the leprechaun loving Americans). So as a dare they said I should ask for a Kilkenny. I did and I got it which was so bloody weird. After a few drinks (Dan stayed chatting to a guy at the bar) we decided the place was dead so they invited us back to their hostel Jollyboys. So we all hopped in a cab (Dan stayed behind) and off we went. Their hostel was far more buzzing with people and we had a few drinks and a good old chat (as you do) before tiredness set in a me and Jamie set off home around 11. We played a few games of pool (I won they all) and had a drink each. Suddenly e spotted Dan on the couch he’s apparently been there all evening drinking a local drink a called “Amerula” (spelling completely fucked up, oh well). Before bed we did a small bit of internetting at hit the hay. So that was another day only 4 left then back to Ireland.
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