August 11 - 16 Livingstone, Victoria Falls, Zambia

Adrenaline and Jolly Boys

Our next flight took us from Jo’Burg to Livingston, Zambia – Victoria Falls. We anticipated an expensive week at the Falls, both accommodation and activities. Livingston is a hot spot for extreme tourist activities, some of which we wanted to check out. We booked into the Jollyboys Backpackers Lodge with low expectations (especially coming so soon after our Jo’Burg experience) and were very pleasantly surprised. Janet’s first check is usually the toilet. She came out grinning as they were spotless. A brother and sister team from Courtney B.C. along with their British friend Sue own the place and they have infused some Western style standards we much appreciated. There were numerous spots to chill out, a bar and small restaurant with great food, pool table, table tennis, CNN and they gave us a spacious dorm style room in the guest house all to ourselves. The activities available were endless although somewhat limited for us due to the age and size of the girls. We settled on rafting for Ron (I guess the Zambezi River is HUGE with class 5 rapids so not an option for the girls) and a day at the gorge doing zip line, gorge swing and repelling for all of us.

Our first day we explored Victoria Falls from the Zambia side. Zimbabwe charges expensive entry AND exit fees even if you are going just for the day and apparently there is a specific distaste for Canada as they charge even more for us! We spent 5 hours hiking around to the various view points up top and at the bottom of the falls. Incredible. Vic Falls is 1.7 km wide and about 100 m high (Niagara falls is about 1km wide and 60 m high) and is one of the Natual Wonders of the world. It is dry season here so the water is not as big as it is in May & June but no less spectacular. The hikes take you out on the edge of sheer cliffs on either side of the gorge, across a bridge and the final hike of the day took us down the gorge to “the boiling pot” where the rafting boats put in. Before heading home we walked down the road to the bridge over to Zimbabwe where they bungee jump. Cool. Anna wants to do it one day but the minimum age is 14 yrs. It did not feel crowded at all even though during one of their two "high seasons". Of course humor was also provided by the baboons. We were entertained our whole route by the boboons playing and steeling food.

We were trying to figure out a way to walk through the river and get to one of the pools at the top of the falls but there are various opinions about whether or not and how to do that. There are plenty of illegal guides combing the trails, one of which approached us. While we were talking he took off (in bare feet) at lightening speed over the rocks and back into the river, letting the fast water catch him and take him towards the falls (we were not very far from the top) only to catch a rock at the last minute and pull himself over towards safety where he could climb back to the other side. Sure enough, a park ranger came into view shortly after and stood on the bank making sure he didn't come back.

Day 2 brought us a few complications. Sadie had come down with a serious stomach bug which completely flattened her. Luckily we were in very comfortable living conditions with plenty of water and a few comforts. Ron went ahead with rafting and Anna was a complete trooper patiently helping me tend to Sadie and watch her sleep. We got a lot of reading and "screen time" in. I guess getting sick is inevitable and we've already had our fair share (ask us in person about bed bugs, yuck) which is either a way of getting us tuned up or, getting it out of the way early. Hopefully the later but we are prepared for either scenario.

What a great and exhausitng day rafting on the Zambezi River. I was lucky in that the water level was just deemed low enough open rapids 1-10 the day before we arrived in Livingstone. This meant leaving the family behind for the day and spending 5 1/2 adrenaline pumped hours on the river. I linked up with 3 young english guys - my new best friends in Livingstone - and an english girl. Our guide Tambo was hilarious and we were in a paddle raft. We were also short 1 person so when Tambo yelled for us to dig in he meant it. It was full on from the start. The raft was launched from an awkward rocky area and we all had to jump in the fast flowing river and swim to the raft to begin the trip.

I was surprised how big the water was - the holes were huge and we had 25 sets of rapids to run. We made it to rapid 5, Stairway to Heaven, before a wave nearly flipped us and sent myself, the guide and Flip, the english girl, out of the raft. I held onto the rope and Tambo grabbed my life jacket, making me swallow a pint of water. He apologised saying he did not want to get separated from the raft. I guess he did not trust we would rescue him, though there were kayakers in the water to do just that. They kept very busy throughout the day as there was a total of 10 rafts of which 5, including us, flipped right over and numerous people ended up swimming. I certainly realized why children were not allowed. It was very physical, particularily since our raft was not an oar raft, and it was scary.

We had a lot of laughs and there was a lot of fooling around in our raft, but the rapids were to be taken seriously. Tambo's anxiety increased notably when I and 2 others were thrown out of the raft in Terminator 1. He was yelling to the others to get us back in and paddle like hell as Terminator 2 was fast approaching. Just as I got back in and was trying to find a paddle we hit T2 and I watched as 2 others were flipped out. Tambo was yelling to paddle and get them back in the raft and I was laughing so hard with the others that we were practically useless.
About half the rafts left at 1/2 way and the rest of us carried on to finish and awesome day with a bar b que at the end and as much beer as we wanted.

With rafting under my belt it was off to Gorge Swing, zip line and rapelling the following day with Anna. Unfortunately, sadie was sick. As it turns out rapelling backward and forward down 175 feet, ziplining out over a 300 foot deep gorge and freefalling 150 feet before a rope swing catches you and swings you out into the gorge is no big deal for Anna. She did not hesitate at all and I know first hand it was scary. The gorge swing was much more terrifying than when i bungee jumped. To step off a cliff face and freefall with the ground coming up at you and waiting for a rope to become taught and swing you out into space was not a comforting feeling. Anna and I went tandem the first time and they had us go backwards - I screamed! The second time we went solo and went forwards, which seemed a little less terrifying. What a day!

I'm not too sure how to describe our last adventure at the Falls and do it justice. But if you Google "Devil's Pool, Victoria Falls" you may catch the Youtube video that got us pshyched about doing while researching at home. Swimming at Devil's Pool is usually only open by August 15th when the water flow is down enough to make it safe. It opened on August 14th allowing us to make our booking to go on the 15th. We splurged on booking the boat ride from The Royal Livingston Hotel out to Livingston Island which is a small piece of land on TOP and in the middle of the falls. From there we scrambled over the rocks with our guides forming a human chain (steps away from the edge) to where we had to swim accross the current on a very specific path in two sections to eventually reach a small grouping of rocks...even closer to the edge. Now you can perhaps imagine how we felt wondering what we were doing there with our girls. But the guides did not blink an eye and one was assigned to Anna as her own personal porter to get a accross (on his back a little further up stream). They were both very brave (I think Sadie is a stronger swimmer than both Ron & Janet), there was lots of water, the spray of the falls and an incredible sense of "holy _ _ _ _!" I don't think I've ever put so much blind faith into something believing that if it wasn't really "safe", they would not be providing the service. I think Anna's only real trauma was the guy she had to ride was a little odd looking with a huge distended belly and was wearing only his skimpy underwear. Once we got to the destination rocks we were at Devil's Pool where we could jump or slip into deep water and get gently pushed by the current to the natual rock wall separating us from the abyss of 100 m down. The water overflows out of the pool, like a natural eternity pool, making it feel important to hold on to each other...and the guide sitting there. Ron of course, asked if he could look over...they said no. Sadly the trip out there was a bit rushed, we're not sure why, perhaps because the water is still relatively high. But we did not hang about which was actually ok for Janet (thoroughly enjoying the experience but freaked out being there) and the girls were freezing. We arrived back to safety after another swim through the current and into a warm white towel. We then had high tea (bit of a misnomer as Janet & Ron had Gin & Tonic) back on the island with crumpets, tarts, pudding and white table cloths. We arrived back to the Livingston Hotel in time to sit on the grassy bank in teak loungers and watch the sun set. The tranquility was only slightly disturbed by aggressive monkies chasing us and mating. Kind of distracting. Devil's Pool was such an amazing way to end a fabulous week in Livingston. Oh, and the Royal Livingston Hotel is incredible. Like something out of a novel written about the high life in Africa, white walls, dark wood, huge ceiling fans, zebras grazing on the lawn, teak loungers, umbrellas, marble...unbelievable.

Sunday, August 16th brought us our first long haul on a bus - 14 hours to Tsumeb, Namibia. But the bus was a deluxe double decker with a/c and recling seats. We arrived at 3am (after a 2 hour mechanical delay somewhere between there and here) to a great room with 4 beds which we slept in "hard", thankful to be horizontal. I can't say enough how great the girls have been taking everying as it comes. Someone mentioned to me in email about toilets and yes, we have become experts (girls anyway) at dealing with whatever is available. We are working on our quad strenght for skiing doing our squats and yes, we've are already accustomed to a "hole in the ground". We have definitely learned to always carry tp with us. Three of us have already come down with travellers grunge but all luckily relatively short lived. August 14th marked the end of our first month. Time is already speeding up too fast and I would say it took us this whole month to get into a good rhythmn. We are just about to get the run down on the vehicle we will have for our 3 week overland camping drive. We are really looking forward to making our own way around, camping and seeing everything Namibia has to offer.