Not everyone from Team Elephant signed up for a full day of white water rafting today, but those of us who did needed to be ready by 6:45 am. I had been told the day before by a previous group that everything you brought got wet, and thus only wore my shorts and sports bra. I was cold for well into the day until the sun really started shining. We all met with other people going rafting and then drove in big trucks to the Zambezi River, where we would be rafting. The guides told us we would have rafts with 7-8 people in each, so we had to get a group together. The people from the earlier trip also told us there was a certain rafting guide to get, so SarahCatherine, Colleen, Tammi, Mike, Ketil, Aaron, Elroy, and I all grouped together and snagged the guide, Costar. Then we all grabbed helmets, life jackets, and paddles, and made our way down multiple stairways of steep steps to the bottom of the gorge, and walked along the rocks of the shore until we got to the place where we would take off on our adventure.
Down on the rocks the rafts were getting blown up in front of us. Costar called our group down, the first to get situated in a raft, and then pushed us off from the shore. We waited in a large area for everyone else to get into their rafts, and he told us all about what we would be doing and all the rules. Basically, we were to listen to all of his commands. There was ‘forward’, ‘backward’, ‘hard forward’, ‘hard backward’, ‘left forward/right forward’ (where one side paddled forward and the other side paddled backward), ‘stop’, and ‘get down’ (where you stopped paddling and crouched in the raft, holding onto the safety ropes on the outside). He explained what to do if we fell out of the raft and then basically told us to have fun. Then, as we waited for all the other rafts to get ready, he pushed us all into the water. It was freezing, and it felt weird to swim in water with my sneakers on. By around 9 am, we started our white water rafting excursion down the Zambezi River, separating Zimbabwe and Zambia.
For four hours we rafted. We went through rapids from grades 2-5. The highest grade rapid is 6, but when we got to the one part where there was a grade 6 everyone had to get out of their rafts and walk on the rocks by the edge while the guides rafted through the rapid. There were 18 rapids total, each titled with a ridiculous name, and our raft didn’t flip once, while many of the other rafts flipped multiple times. And, only one person fell out of our raft the entire time. Every time we got through a rapid unscathed Costar had us do a cheer. We held our paddles up in a tepee and he yelled “One, two, three…” and then we all yelled “Happy Days” together, then slapped our paddles on the water.
The whole rafting day was fantastic. I felt like I was cheating death every time we made it through the rapids. I was scared for my life, but I was having the time of my life. Multiple times we had to pull other people into our raft who had fallen out of theirs, and help other rafts get resituated after tipping over. About halfway through we took a long break on the river, just floating in a big open area, letting the sun scorch our bodies. Towards the end of the trip, Costar let our raft jump out and just float down the river. We floated through some rapids and I could feel the water pulling me toward the side of the river. Costar then yelled at us to swim the other way. It was so exhilarating. We were the first raft to reach the end of trip, saying our cheer one last time and then climbing onto the rocks of the shore. There were people there taking care of our raft and telling us to climb up the mountain for lunch. Little did we know they literally meant we had to climb all the way up the side of the gorge.
(Happy Days)
It was prime sun time, about 1 pm. I was dehydrated. I was carrying my helmet, paddle, and life jacket. I was climbing up a makeshift path practically on the side of a cliff. It took about 30 minutes to climb to the top. There waiting for us was shade, water and drinks, and a lunch of burgers and potatoes and such. I drained a bottle of water and helped myself to a loaded plate of food. We all sat in the shade, exhausted from the day. I helped myself to a local beer, Zambezi, and we headed back to the lodge in the huge trucks.
For those of us who signed up for the sunset cruise on the Zambezi River that night, we had about two hours until we had to meet. SarahCatherine, Colleen, Ketil, Jeff, Aaron and I decided to head over to the market during that time. We had been told about this market before the trip even started, and came prepared. Basically, things cost money but you could trade with the people and barter with them. As soon as we got closer to the market people came up to us and asked us to come to their lots at the market, telling us they would give us deals and such. It was hectic to say the least.
(Trade Market)
The market was full of goods, all of the trinkets at each station were mostly the same, but the venders kept coming up to us and nagging us to buy this and that. This first day at the market I ended up trading some socks and giving money for a few things. The problem was that they did want to trade things, but always wanted a bit of money on top of the items so that they could then go spend it. I only spent money at the first vendor, and then refused to spend any more. 4 pm rolled around and we were still at the market. I was making a trade with a man named Brian, while the rest were urging me to finish up because we had to go. I really wanted a few things that I can’t name, but he wanted money and I wasn’t willing to give it up. In the end, I gave him my name and the lodge we were staying at. He was going to come by after I got back from the cruise to pick up my sleeping bag and tennis shoes that I had agreed to trade. It probably wasn’t a fair trade for what I got at all, but he trusted me enough to give me his trinkets I had traded for before I had given him my things.
(Brian and the things I traded)
We just barely made it back to the lodge in time to drop off our goods in our rooms and then jump on the bus. For two hours me and a few others from Team Elephant, along with people from other parties, rode along the Zambezi River, watching the sunset.
(Zambezi River)
(Zimbabwe Sunset)
While we sat and relaxed on the boat, a waitress came and we ordered a few drinks. When the waitress handed SarahCatherine her Sprite, I couldn’t help but notice how old the bottle looked. It was reused from 1994. It was no wonder the Sprite was flat, but it was so cool that they reused these old bottles.
(1994 Sprite)
By a bit past 6 pm, after the sun had just set below the river, we made our way back to land, and then drove back to the lodge for dinner. Elroy had made steak burgers and corn on the cob and we watched the white water rafting video that had been taken earlier that day. We all hung around the bar and dining area for a while, danced a bit to the music, and later went into town to a backpacker lodge and bar called Shoestrings. From there we went to a casino, I did not gamble, and then headed back to the lodge a little after 1 am.
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