09 December 07

Well, there was some wrong information in that last post, so I thought I'd give it a quick update. Adam had so much fun on the rafting trip of the Zambezi that he convinced me to skip the canoe trip and raft instead. So yesterday we went back - Adam to raft the river a second time and me as a nervous newbie. As I am writing this today, you can tell we survived! It was quite exciting, and at times scary, but we made it. On Adam's first trip, he only capsized once, and yesterday we capsized twice, and one other time Adam was swept out of the boat with one other guy while the rest of us remained in. The first rapid we lost it on was number 7, and it was a total wipe out. Everyone (there were 6 of us in one boat, with a guide - two were Peace Corps friends and two were friends from our long, long bus ride!) was totally thrown out - no one even hanging onto the raft and we got tossed around somewhat violently, but thanks to good life vests and an excellent group of 'clean up crew' guys in kayaks, we were all returned to the boat at the end of the rapid. The next flip was right before lunch on rapid number 10 and most of us remained hanging onto the safety rope of the raft and just floated along with the raft through the remainder of the rapid. Oddly enough, we flipped only on a class 3 and a class 4 rapid, and on none of the 5s! (Rapids are rated 1-6, 5 being the biggest one that you can raft commercially, 6 is deemed unraftable and there was one of those that we had to get out and walk around and good thing too - that rapid was scary looking!) The scenery in the gorge is beautiful - steep rock cliffs rise right at the river's edge, and there are rock fig trees and baobabs among others growing on ledges and some just straight out of the rocks above. Our guides were quick to point out the crocodiles basking on the rocks - no kidding! - which added another thing to worry about for the day, but thankfully they were all small ones, and they tend not to like the fast-moving sections. The afternoon was smooth sailing and we didn't swim at all, except in one place that you can just jump out of the boat on purpose and coast down a small rapid. We are a bit bruised and battered, but the better for it. I'm really glad I went and conquered my fear, and we bought little charms of the river god, Nyaminyami, as reminders.

Today we're off on the bus to Lusaka to take care of some visa business, and then onto Malawi. We'll write again soon,
Andrea