After Chobe National Park in Botswana, we headed to the border to cross into Zimbabwe. Really early. Like 4:30am wake up call. We wanted to be the first ones at the border in order to lower the chance of having to bribe the officials to let us through. Apparently it’s pretty common. 

There were two lines when we showed up. I got in the first one, which turned out to be the right one, as the other one didn’t issue Kaza visas (valid for both Zimbabwe and Zambia for the low price of $50 USD- this saved me $75 so I was stoked), and put the wrong date stamp in people’s passports. Luckily, our guide was wise to this from before, and everyone in the other lineup went back for the real date. Apparently they often put the wrong date so when you try to leave the country they can point out the error and charge you. Welcome to Zimbabwe!

Once in Vic Falls, we pretty much had the next three days to do what we wanted. As we had eaten at about 5am, a few of us went out for a second breakfast, but were shocked at the prices. They were pretty much what I would pay at home to eat out. Unsurprisingly, that was our last meal out in Vic Falls. It’s definitely a town that has been built for the sole purpose of tourism.

Later that day we checked out the falls, spending a couple of hours in the park, and walking back as it is so close to the town. The falls were fantastic, although I have to say that Iguazu still beats Vic Falls in my book. But it is dry season.

The advantage of dry season, however, is that river rafting is at its peak. This includes grade 5 rapids, and the largest drop that is allowed for commercial rafting. A group of us signed up. The next day we were picked up at 7:30am and taken to the office, where we joined others, most of whom were quite a bit older, which was a bit surprising as we had been told it was quite extreme rafting, but then again, most of the people visiting Vic Falls were on the older side. This explains why everything was so expensive. 

At $130 USD a head, the guides were not about to turn down anyone. Including the older Chinese woman who did not speak any English, and as we discovered when using google translate, did not swim. But hey, This is Africa. And, to be fair, she was probably the only person on the trip who did not end up inadvertently in the river.

After a brief safety video and demonstration, we were off to start the 18 or so rapids. Of course, there were way more, as some of them had part a, b, c, etc. One of them went all the way to F. We were on the Zambezi, in the middle of a huge canyon, and it was gorgeous.

The first few rapids were super fun. I think it was rapid 4 that our team paddling was not so perfect, and Cam and I ended up falling out, but managed to hold on, and got pulled back in in the middle of the storm. The adrenaline had definitely kicked in at this point.

A couple of rapids later, the guide asked which route we wanted to take, giving us an 80% chance of falling out for the hardest route. Being the “young” boat, of course we took the hard route. It’s nickname was Startrek, as you are almost guaranteed to see stars. After, one of the other guides said it’s really 99% likely you will fall out. You can see the video here of our raft, flipping not once, but twice. Presumably, after the first was when we all ended up in the river, gasping for air and disoriented. It was pretty intense. Dana from our crew actually sprained her ankle, we found out later…

Needless to say, after that experience, when our guide asked us which route we wanted to take, we all looked at each other, and opted for the hardest one, a bit reluctantly. In truth, we were all a bit terrified. Dana was a trooper.

Finally, we hit rapid 18, where we fell out again. We were pretty happy to reach dry land, until we realized that we had a 45 minute hike straight up the canyon at 2:30pm and extreme heat. Luckily, there was ample water, beer and lunch waiting for us. 

We were obviously exhausted after the rafting, but managed to rally for our last night together, which we spent at the campsite making sausages (cheap food), playing drinking games and heading to the local pub. After 3 weeks of every waking hour together, it was strange to say goodbye. But I had other countries to see, and needed some rest!