Zambia - Victoria Falls, High Tea & White Water Rafting the Zambezi

Driving to Zambia

The drive from Malawi to our destination of Livingstone, Zambia took 2 days.  On night 2 of the long drive, we camped at Eureka Camping Farm.  After spending some free time wandering the open farm land in search of zebra, giraffe, monkeys and impala, I only ended up coming across impala – boring!  I would have come across more animals if I wandered further into the farm land, but I kept hearing “buzzzz” from the insects/bugs flying around…and that sound freaked me out!

I spent that evening playing cards under the bright star filled sky.  While playing cards, a group of zebra came within 25 feet of us and were gnawing on the grass for a good 20 minutes or so.  What a cool experience! 

Victoria Falls

The following day we went to Victoria Falls. When we arrived at the Falls, we learned that a tourist had died there earlier that morning.  We were not provided with any details of how it happened etc., but our minds were filled with questions.

We started walking along the marked path and most of us felt slightly disappointed as it was the dry season and the Falls weren’t like the photos we had all seen in the past.  While taking photos of one of the areas of the Falls where there was a steady flow of water gushing, we noticed a bunch of people crowded in that area.  As we continued to look on, it appeared as though there were guys jumping between cracks in the Fall’s surface…but within moments we realized they were the rescue crew as we saw them lift a lifeless and limp young white body up about 20 meters from below the surface.  I then watched them drop his lifeless body on the surface and I stared at his left arm as it dangled off the edge of the cliffs.  I felt sick to my stomach and was not prepared to witness that.  Immediately I began to think about how his family was going to deal with the news once they are notified, I wondered whether he had friends/family there watching his body be rescued from the depths of the Falls and how this would impact them, I wondered how it had happened…unending thoughts and an image that will be engrained in my memory for a long time.

 Definitely the dry season...I will have to return!

The bridge where people bungee at Victoria Falls into the Batoka Gorge

After we left the Falls, we drove to our campsite, the Waterfront, which is located on the Zambezi River in Livingstone, Zambia (and only about a 15 minute drive from the Falls). It was so nice to finally be settled into one spot for 4 nights.

Livingstone

Livingstone is the adventure capital of Zambia. There were tons of activities to do: elephant walks, lion encounter, gorge swing, bungee jumping, white water rafting, helicopter rides over the Falls, abseiling, river boarding and more!  The only activity I had my heart set on was White Water Rafting down the Zambezi River.  It’s one of the best locations in the world to raft and is known for its many awesome class 4 and 5 rapids.  I’ve rafted 2x before in Squamish and loved it – I couldn’t wait to do it again!

6 of us from our group booked our rafting trip for our last day in Livingstone, so for the first 3 days at the Waterfront, I basically chillaxed by the pool, went into town and enjoyed afternoon High Tea at the posh 5 Star Royal Livingstone Hotel.

High Tea

High Tea was a bargain at only $20 USD.  When we arrived at the Hotel, we were all so impressed by the surroundings and the details of the Hotel and High Tea room.  The view overlooks the water that feeds into Victoria Falls and you could see the mist that is generated from Victoria Falls as well as a few hippos in the water.

Here are a few pics from High Tea:

White Water Rafting

Oh what a memorable day White Water Rafting was – for many reasons. We started off with breakfast at our campsite and then were picked up by the guys at Raft Extreme at 8:30am.

We drove about 20 minutes to Victoria Falls where we got out of the vehicle and walked down the gorge to the Zambezi River. There, we had our safety talk and before you knew it, we were ready to get on that raft and attack the 25 rapids!

Neil and Ruben sat in the two front spots, Kay and Adriane sat in the middle and Kat and I held the back positions and our guide, James, was seated at the very back. We successfully attacked rapids 1 to 7.  During one of the spots where we were just paddling along in the calm parts, James dumped me into the water!  Oh man, everyone had a good hard laugh and I had a nice swim catching up to the raft.

On Rapid 8, the two guys at the front decided to river board it.  Us girls were given the option of whether we wanted to flip the raft or not and we were split, so James decided that we would approach the rapid at the centre, with a 50/50 chance of flipping. Well, we flipped big time and during that flip, I injured myself. Something happened underwater where my face made some major contact with Kat’s knee. Immediately, I felt my front tooth get kicked back and as soon as my head got out of the water, my tongue was manoeuvring around my mouth trying to assess the damage to the tooth, gums and surrounding structures.   I prayed hard that the tooth and my mouth would be okay and my only request was that I wanted a dentist ASAP.  I didn’t even notice that the rest of my face took a beating as well.

The guys on the kayaks came to rescue us and the only thing I could say was “MY TOOTH!!!”.  When I finally got out of the water, it was apparent that my nose was also bleeding and it continued to bleed for at least another 6 hours. I didn’t realize any other impact to my face until time passed during the day and my face began to swell up. I had tooth marks on both upper and lower lips, my nose was swelling and wouldn’t stop bleeding.  My tooth was knocked back and I moved it forward, but I could feel that it wasn’t right. It was sitting about 3-4 mm lower than the other tooth and the gum was exposed. I felt sick just thinking about it but I didn’t have very many options. There was no ice available and I couldn’t get any medical help until we were done rafting.  We had only completed rapid 8 of 25.  So, I had the choice of whether to sit on the safety raft or continue rafting with my crew. I put on a positive face, held my tooth in place with one hand and held my nose with the other to help stop the bleeding and chose to continue rafting with my crew. I sat at the back with James and thankfully didn’t have to paddle – otherwise I would have taken the safety boat.  Thanks guys for paddling – you did great!  The rest of the rapids were awesome.  I held on for dear life during the class 4 and 5 rapids to make sure that I wouldn’t fall off. There was one rapid where Ruben, Neil, Kay and Kat all fell out of the boat but Adriane and I held on for dear life. Adriane was freaked out too because on Rapid #8 she ended up under the boat – scary!

When we finally finished the entire run, we took the cable car up the gorge.  There, I finally had a chance to see what happened to my tooth.  I took a photo and was shocked to say the least. I didn’t realize that the entire left side of my face had swollen up and that my lips were double the size.  I also saw the gap between where my tooth should have been and where my gum was and felt weak.  I deleted the photo right away in disgust and put ice from the beer cooler on my face.  

After everyone had finished eating their post-rafting meal, Raft Extreme dropped everyone off and I was then driven straight to the private medical clinic/hospital for assessment.  Mike, the video recorder from Zimbabwe came with me. Thankfully I received immediate service when I arrived at the hospital, but unfortunately the doctor couldn’t do much for me.  He did a quick assessment of my face and determined that nothing appeared broken, but agreed with me that I needed to see a dentist as soon as possible.

When I got back to Waterfront, I got the reactions of my new look from the rest of the group. I also e-mailed my dentist at home to get his opinion on what I should do and what the likely treatment options were as I only trust him and my orthodontist with my teeth.  The next morning, my face looked even worse in that I had a HUGE black eye, but the good news was that my super awesome dentist wrote back and I now knew what my potential outlook was and what I needed to do to get the situation rectified.  Thanks Ryan – best dentist EVER!

Anyway, what a day! I had an amazing time on the rapids despite the injuries and would definitely raft again!

Oh...would you like to see a photo of my face after the incident? Well, here's a photo of my 2 days after the incident.  I thought I should take the photo for medical insurance purposes to prove that I did indeed receive a blow to the face as that affects the accidental dental benefit I receive.  Here's a pic taken from the hospital room in Kasane, Botswana where I was finally able to see a dentist:

Surprisingly, this is a remarkable improvement compared to the day of the incident and the following day.

Next post is Botswana!