ZAMBEZI 2006 - 2007
Over the New Year 2006 – 2007, I was on a trip to Zambia , kayaking the Zambezi, from the base of one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Victoria Falls !
Leaving on Christmas day from the French Alps from the skiing and arriving in 35°C , sunshine and nice warm water was a nice shock!
Starting on the lower rapids was good way to get back into kayaking after a couple of months off. Certainly one of the most impressive things was watching the porters carry two kayaks down the gorge, with hand made ladders that we had difficulty getting down!
Working up the river, we encountered bigger rapids, stronger currents, nice, big standing waves, and the formidable rapid N°9 (commercial suicide!), one of the most difficult rapids in the world, which we walked around!
On the third day, we kayaked from the boiling pot at the base of the falls, where you can really appreciate the height of the falls!
Even after a couple of days paddling we were already extremely tired and had a welcome day off, going on a walking Safari in the Zambian national park.
We got back into it with a three day trip from the bottom of rapid N°7, where we played all day on a stopper on N°8. Watching people pulling the top new moves was really inspiring! Unluckily John whilst trying to pull a move missed and tried to head butt the rock forming the stopper, he lost the fight and had to have 8 stitches in his forehead. We spent New Year's Eve in the rain hiding under a tarp, camping next to a pond where we had seen a croc earlier, and didn't even see the New Year in.
The next two days paddling were really nice, going down with the gear raft, some people had a go on the oars, camping a bit further down, and then finishing the third day around twelve at rapid N°23. After walking up we drove back through the villages and saw the people who carved jewellery. We gave ice, bottles and two footballs to the local kids who went crazy over them! Then went on to the crocodile farm!
We then had a day trip on an oar raft above the falls, where we saw lots of hippos and crocodiles. In the afternoon we went to the local market where you can find anything you want from clothes, arm chairs, to local carvings!
The next few days we were getting pretty tired and some people were getting a bit ill. I had my first swim whist trying to surf a massive, surging wave and my deck popped and I went down for around twenty seconds, it is then that you really appreciate the power of this massive river. It is it's depth that makes it so different from the rivers back home that are at maximum a couple of meters deep!
On the last day kayaking we kayaked the top section of the river that had become much harder because the river had come up with the daily rain! We did it with Nico, a French paddler, who now lives out there and knows the river better than any one, he owns a rafting company Bundu whose massive 4x4 trucks were taking us to and from the gorge every day and even they were having trouble with the muddy tracks! With his great knowledge of the river we found the best play holes and the best lines down the rapids that made it an excellent day!
The next day marked the end of the trip with the coach ride back to Lusaka ; to take the plane the day after, arriving at the airport as a group with ten kayaks we got some funny looks from the airport staff!
I'd like to give a great thanks to KARA for taking us there, to Nico and Bundu for helping us out with transport out there!
Thank you Deb Pinniger and Deb Cook for these amazing photos!
To see the photo gallerey with some more photos, at a better size to give you a better impression, click here!!
