Day 51

Today I am scheduled to go white water rafting at 0745. After meeting at the bar in the Kingdom, the group is driven to the gorge to pick up equipment and start our descent. There are two options for making the trip – you can either paddle yourself and follow instructions from a guide, or have the guide row so all you have to do is hang on tight. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I go for the paddle boat option. The rest of the crew (of seven) consists of a group of Dutch men, who didn’t speak English very well, and two women travel agents (Lindel and Sue) from a group of ten on an educational trip from South Africa. We navigated the first ten or so rapids without incident, and not a single person overboard, quite an achievement compared to the other paddle boats. Rapid 15, or the ‘washing machine’ is where our luck changes. An enormous wave forms ahead of the raft. I can see the wall of water getting higher and higher as our boat races towards it, and I know the angle is too sharp. We were going over, and there wasn’t much anyone could do about it. Our raft launches itself into the wave but with no luck – we are pointing almost vertically by the time the wave breaks, sending us all into the Zambezi and burying the raft under a tonne of water.