Livingstone is the closest Zambian city to Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls is an UNESCO Site and one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. It is shared by Zambia and Zimbabwe with the border running through the middle of the 1.7 km length of the falls. The falls on the Zambian side were not much to look at as Zambia has diverted 40% of its water from the Zambezi River to hydro electricity and this is the dry season so there is less volume.
In complete contrast, the portion of the Falls on the Zimbabwe side are spectacular.
Jackie visited the Falls 32 years ago while on a trip visiting her Aunt Trish and Uncle Roger who were both working in Lusaka, Zambia. Here is a picture of her at the same spot that she had a photo taken on the previous trip.
What Zambia lacks in volume on it's side of the Falls, it makes up for in Adventure Activities. One of the activities is to visit the "Devils Pool" which is an Infinity Pool. That is, a pool of water that flows off the edge of a cliff. The Devil's Pool is on the edge of the Falls and offers breathtaking views down the 100m drop of the Falls.
We didn't have time to partake in this, but did see a group enjoying their dip and view of the drop.
We did have time for a helicopter flight in a six seater helicopter. Ivan it was an Eurocopter EHS103).
We both had seats in the front.
Jackie scored with the window seat this time.
The trip started with us dropping into a gorge of Zambezi River to just 12m or 40 feet above rapids 20-25 which we planned to raft the next day.
Speeding through the gorge and banking around the serpent corners with tall rock walls extending above us felt like being in a flying scene from Top Gun. It was absolutely exhilarating!!! We saw the falls from both the Zimbabwe and Zambian sides and although they were interesting from the air, we both would have preferred repeated laps through the gorge.
From our view of the falls from the air, neither of us thought that the rafting the rapids was going to be very exciting. We were wrong.
We ran 25 sets of rapids including 3 sets of class 5 rapids. We flipped our raft on two different sections of class 5 rapids. Both times We were hanging on to the raft one minute and the minute sucking in mouthfuls of the Zambezi River as we waited to pop back up to the surface. Lifejackets and helmets were compulsory. We watched a video of the trip which gave us a visual of what happened each time we capsized. On the second capsize, our raft guide was the first one thrown out of the raft. Then as the raft began to flip over, one person after another let go and was tossed in to the river.. Jackie was the last one left hanging onto the raft and came off just before it landed upside down on the river. Then there was the crocodile siting. Most of the group was back in the raft when the guide pointed to a crocodile about 5m from the raft.
Jackie, who was still in the water, sprinted to the raft and frantically called out to Steve and the others on the raft to "get me out, get me out"!! The group, had a good laugh after the guide said that the smaller crocodiles were vegetarian. Still......crocodiles were one of the hazards mentioned in the waiver!! There was one class 6 section named "Commercial Suicide" that we walked around. We watched one of our guides ride the class 6 rapids and make it. The second raft went down empty and flipped part way down. Zambia a place for adrenaline junkies and those willing to part with plenty of cash for their adrenaline fix.
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