How about white water rafting on the mighty zambezi !

Rafting was definitely not on my mind when i went back to livingstone over the weekendI was looking forward for a relaxng full day canoe trip and a chance to get some closeup pictures of crocs and hippos But i ended up with the white water rafting group on the zambezi.There was no one else to accompany me on the canoe and the safari company owner says that single canoe safaris are too risky and instead offered me to put me on a full day rafting group .I did'nt have the faintest idea or clue on how tough it was gonna be .

Rafting on zambezi downstream pushes you to extreme physical stress and is scary and unpredicatable Zambezi rapids are classifed at level 5 by the british ... rafting association In simple english , this means "very high rapids and extremely dangerous ..."We are talking 20-foot-high waves, and of course the bonus of hungry crocodiles with an eye out for fresh flesh .The rafting kicks off at boiling point ,the foot of the 350 foot high victoria falls on the zambian side ,you go under the international bridge and then into the batoka gorge.

There are a total of 23 drops covering a total distance of 19 km from the zambian side and taking you to zimbabweEach drop is given a funny name like "judgement day" or "washing machine","oblivion","the three sisters","the muncher","the morning glory","the mother" etc...Then there were two back to back drops, aptly named " terminator -1" and "terminator-2"Just when you start counting ,the leader of the raft tells you that some of them are actually sub divided into a,b,c like 13 a ,13b ,13c.Effectively you end up doing around 30 plus drops in one day . ,( now, that is unfair ! )The toughest one was what they called " The Commerical Suicide"At one of the rapids ,the guide/leader of your raft gives you a choice of three paths to take 25-75,50-50 and 75-25 ,indicating the chances of raft turning over upside downWe took a vote and chose the 50-50 one and still ended up turning over after the fall !Our raft did a total of two upside downs and of course from time to time ,some of us fell off the boat and we had to swim back to the safety of the boat.The climb back from the gorge ,at the end of a tiring day,back to the top of the hills tests your patience and stamina

And the safari company i went with (safpar) has a very good safety record ,6 years running and no incidents Of course you have the standard life jacket and helmut The best and experienced guides and raft leaders and safety kayaks. The only major incident that they had were some broken nails and bonesLuckily, we did'nt spot any big crocodiles ,just a few baby crocs here and there (of course, big crocs can't be far off )I guess in the end ,it's more about conquering your own fears !

Btw,Here are the top 10 rafting trips on this planet

1. Futaleufu River White Water Rafting, Chile.

2. Cherry Creek/Upper Tuolumne White Water Rafting, California, U.S.A.

3. Zambezi River White Water Rafting, Zimbabwe.

4. Great Bend of the Yangtze River White Water Rafting, China.

5. Río Upano White Water Rafting, Ecuador.

6. Magpie River White Water Rafting, Quebec, Canada.

7. Karnali River White Water Rafting, Nepal.

8. Gauley River White Water Rafting, West Virginia, U.S.A.

9. Middle Fork of the Salmon White Water Rafting, Idaho, U.S.A.

10. Victoria Nile White Water Rafting, Uganda.