We were on the Zambezi River (Africa’s 4th longest) for most of the day. First we headed out on Jet Extreme with the owner, Bottles. He set up shop on the Zambezi in the late 1990’s after traveling overland through Africa. We passed through a spread out village – all the homes were made of earthen walls and thatched roofs. Electricity appeared to be non existent – just homes in the bush among the corn fields. Small children ran after our vehicle as we bumped on through.
After breaking out of the bush we came to a deep gorge with the Zambezi River far below. Much to our surprise we found a cable car perched on the edge of the cliff. Down we went – Egg, Bottles’ dog was fed several ice cubes for the journey down.
Bottles is an experienced driver – racing us all over the fast moving Zambezi River – mere inches away at times from jagged rocks on the edge of the river. One minute we were facing up river, the next second we were facing down river with our stomachs left somewhere in between. Between 5 and 7 g’s are experienced on these lightning quick turns.
With rapids named “shower” followed by “bathtub” you quickly get the idea that this isn’t a “dry” trip – we were utterly soaked when we pulled out of the river.
We followed this up by a river cruise- a particular cruise our guesthouse had named the “booze” cruise. The day before we watched half the guesthouse empty out into a large bus to experience the fun that alcohol, river, age and groups can bring. Alas we were on the exact same cruise but with an elderly church group from America – and none of them ordered any alcohol.
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