My first Impression of Zambia were not good. Firstly the border was a shambles. There was only one ferry across the Zambezi for all traffic between Botswana and Zambia and once on the other side there were trucks everywhere trying to get through customs with no visible que. There was rubbish and touts everywhere on the sides of the roads. As we got approached Livingstone I got little shivers as we got closer and closer to the cloud that hung over Victoria Falls. Which are, as you would expect, amazing There is a constant spray so don't think you'll stay dry or take a decent photo with a digital camera. I tried with a plastic bag with varying success. Photos did little to capture the experience anyway.
The sunset game cruise that night was often jokingly refered to as the 'booze cruise' by our drivers. I expected given the name to see some wildlife or maybe even a sunset. I saw neither. There was however plenty of booze, all you could drink actually and there were 'Gentlemans Game' like rules with harsh punishments (2 shots vodka, 2 shots bourbon, lemonade and rasberry skulled or you did it again.) It was the last night with our current group and it turned out to be an excellent evening to finish up on.
Like Swakopmund, Livingstone was designed to suck your wallet dry if you let it. I let it.
Before the white water rafting they made you sign a waiver, fair enough i thought as there was a fair amount of risk involved. Little did I know that most of this risk was in climbing down a cliff for half an hour just to get to the water. Once at the bottom we were piled into 8 man inflatable rafts and shown the ropes. In all there were 12 rapids up to grade 4 of which there were 2. Its not a coincidence that we also capsized twice. The first time I thought we had almost made it through, we went over one wave and back down the otherside but before you could say ' shit that was lucky' another wave formed in front of us and we tipped front over end. I swore I was going to die. I was dragged under for what seemed like minutes, later a video evidence would reveal it was less than five seconds.
The next day i spent finding various ways to get down and across.
Abseilling down a 55m cliff was good fun and i'm glad i got the chance to do it but it wasn't really worth the 20 minute walk back up the gorge.
The flying fox was basically just a run and jump of a cliff with no fall but excellent views up and down the valley. There was no walking back up the gorge so this was good to do when tired of climbing back after the gorge swing.
The gorge swing is worth the walk back up. I did it three times. The gorge swing involves been strapped to harness which is connected to a rope which is connected to a cable which is suspended across the gorge. You literally just step of the cliff then fall feet first about 70m before swinging across the gorge a dozen or so times anmd then been gradually lowered to the bottom.
One of my more fortunate mates went on a helicopter ride over the falls.
We had a few days to ourselves which i spent doing my laundry (the first time since swakopmund) and hanging around the campsite.
The sunset game cruise that night was often jokingly refered to as the 'booze cruise' by our drivers. I expected given the name to see some wildlife or maybe even a sunset. I saw neither. There was however plenty of booze, all you could drink actually and there were 'Gentlemans Game' like rules with harsh punishments (2 shots vodka, 2 shots bourbon, lemonade and rasberry skulled or you did it again.) It was the last night with our current group and it turned out to be an excellent evening to finish up on.
Like Swakopmund, Livingstone was designed to suck your wallet dry if you let it. I let it.
Before the white water rafting they made you sign a waiver, fair enough i thought as there was a fair amount of risk involved. Little did I know that most of this risk was in climbing down a cliff for half an hour just to get to the water. Once at the bottom we were piled into 8 man inflatable rafts and shown the ropes. In all there were 12 rapids up to grade 4 of which there were 2. Its not a coincidence that we also capsized twice. The first time I thought we had almost made it through, we went over one wave and back down the otherside but before you could say ' shit that was lucky' another wave formed in front of us and we tipped front over end. I swore I was going to die. I was dragged under for what seemed like minutes, later a video evidence would reveal it was less than five seconds.
The next day i spent finding various ways to get down and across.
Abseilling down a 55m cliff was good fun and i'm glad i got the chance to do it but it wasn't really worth the 20 minute walk back up the gorge.
The flying fox was basically just a run and jump of a cliff with no fall but excellent views up and down the valley. There was no walking back up the gorge so this was good to do when tired of climbing back after the gorge swing.
The gorge swing is worth the walk back up. I did it three times. The gorge swing involves been strapped to harness which is connected to a rope which is connected to a cable which is suspended across the gorge. You literally just step of the cliff then fall feet first about 70m before swinging across the gorge a dozen or so times anmd then been gradually lowered to the bottom.
One of my more fortunate mates went on a helicopter ride over the falls.
We had a few days to ourselves which i spent doing my laundry (the first time since swakopmund) and hanging around the campsite.
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