Livingstone

26/8/19

So it turns out the tour group next to us weren’t the very punctual type. They had told us they would be leaving at 4:00, which in our minds meant they would be quietly-ish packing up from 3:00-4:00, leaving us a good 2 and a half hours of sleep. We hadn’t expected they would be up most of the night partying loudly, then getting up around 5:00 and loudly packing and having breakfast until well past 7:30… There goes that sleep-in!

Since we were all well awake by 6:30, we got up and headed off to breakfast. Francis had met me on the way tot he bus and said after reflection, we should just go to the main campsite restaurant and put it on Pete’s tab, since all the others had their breakfast included with their upgrade. No complaints from us, the full English breakfast was well worth it!

From here everyone went their own separate ways. A few people took off towards Zimbabwe for the day-trip to Victoria Falls, while a few others went to water rafting from the falls downwards, and several more decided to just take a day of chilling out by the pool. For our part, Vincent, TJ and I decided to do an Elephant interaction for the morning.

We met our driver at 8:00 and headed off to the Elephant cafe. There were options to include a breakfast, dinner or even afternoon high tea if we wanted, but we were just there to meet the elephants. Most of the elephants here are rescued orphans, either from poaching or following a drought, but have gotten so used to their handlers that they couldn’t be returned to the wild now. And when we arrived, there they were, a mother and her 5-year old “baby” eagerly awaiting our arrival. Because we were there to feed them their breakfast.

Feeding the giraffes had been amazing, and feeding the giant tortoises was such a magical moment. But for someone who has been in love with elephants for as long as I could remember, this experience was beyond anything I could have ever wanted. I started by feeding the baby, which essentially is holding a bag of food and letting her pick at it repeatedly with her trunk to shove in her mouth as quick as possible. 100kg of food a day takes time after all, you need to be efficient!

I then swapped with the boys and went on to feed the mother, much calmer but also a quick eater. For her, we could put the food directly in her trunk which she then blew into her mouth before requesting more. She was honestly eating faster than I could fill her trunk, so occasionally I would say “trunk up”, at which point she would lift up her trunk and open her mouth wide so you could put/throw the food directly in. And once the bag was empty, I could tip it upside down and she understood that was that. No pushing and shoving for more, just waiting for the next bag.

I can honestly say I was close to tears from happiness, and I expect all the photos are of nothing but my smile taking up my entire face. While they ate, we could pat them, and I was ecstatic. The skin is so hard I can’t imagine anything piercing it,and their trunk so strong. Yet the flappy ears are just smooth thin and flat. The whole thing left me so so happy I couldn’t believe it.

Once the elephants had eaten, they left to return to their herd and out came the cleanup team. The cleanup team are the baboons, who know to wait for the elephants to finish their food and leave, where they know there will be plenty of leftover food on the ground for them to pick up.

For our parts we were taken inside to wash our hands thoroughly – given they were covered in elephant snot – and then have a hot drink before returning to the campsite. The cafe overlooks the Zambezi river, a couple of crocodiles, and can be used for weddings. I have to say, offering elephants as an option for a wedding is definitely a possibility I had not thought of and would be very keen on!

We returned to the campsite by 10:00 and made our way straight to the bar area. Whoever said that was too early for a cocktail on the river? And there we sat in the sun looking at the river. At one point the boys spotted an elephant actually crossing the river as well. His head was bobbing up and down in the water, using his trunk as a snorkel just like in the movies. Perfect!

Eventually we grabbed some lunch with the girls who had also stayed behind, and overall were happy to have a nice chilled out afternoon of not doing much at all. After lunch, some of them decided to go for a swim in the pool but if I wasn’t in the mood for a swim before already, watching the frozen faces as they got in did not convince me in the slightest!

The rafters returned shortly afterwards, so we moved back towards the bar to watch their videos once again. A couple of cocktails later, Michael and Jo headed out to a sunset cruise while the rest of us stayed for. Few more drinks and then dinner. A very excited group of us for dinner, trying to calm our nerves before the big jump tomorrow.

27/8/19

Well the drunken idiots around midnight did nothing to help us sleep off our nervousness. But what can you do, it’s camping right? So we were all awake well in advance, heading out to breakfast, or rather to stare at a plate of food and avoid eating. Nerves and everything.

Jo left early to do a microlight flight quickly over the falls, while the rest of us sat there pep-talking each other into calming down. I wasn’t too nervous – purely from the fact that I just wasn’t thinking about it – but Lizzy and Michael looked absolutely petrified. In the end, 6 of us were jumping off the bridge, and most of us were slowly building the nerves leading up to our departure.

Just I time for the departure, Jo returned and thus all 12 of us – our 11 on the tour already plus a new tour member we had met the night before – headed out to take the shuttle to the falls. 6 of us jumping, the other 6 coming to cheer us on. The shuttle ride was loud and stressed out!

About 15 minutes later, we made it to the immigration at the falls. The bridge to jump off is the Victoria Falls Bridge, which joins Zambia and Zimbabwe. Although we weren’t exactly crossing into Zimbabwe, it did mean we needed our passports to get on the bridge, vouching that we were only jumping and returning to Zambia. Jess handed in her passport, was given a piece of paper with. Stamp and the number of people crossing, and then we were off.

Once at the foot of the bridge, we went up a couple of stairs to the cafe/bridge jump hub. Looking out over the side of the cafe, we had a full view of the bridge, the platform, and the abyss below. That’s when it finally sank in properly, and we started freaking out – all except Jess and Sarah who remained calm and composed throughout the whole experience.

We signed in, signed the disclaimer about how if we died, it wasn’t the company’s fault, hopped on the scale to measure our exact weight and then shoe size, all of which the guy wrote on our arms. And with that, we were good to go! We gave our bags to the others looking on, who headed down the bridge to the platform, while we went around the corner to get strapped in.

Our first run was the slide across the gorge from Zambia to Zimbabwe. 250m of zip line across the gorge. This was meant to be the easy start to the jumps, but already then I was uncomfortable. A couple of people went before us, then TJ and Michael, and then I was on. They attached a massive metallic plate to the zip line, hooked me on to it, then sent me flying out.

It would be a lie to say I didn’t scream a little at the start of that, purely from being thrown into the air, but soon enough I actually started to enjoy that. The zip line isn’t too fast, so you can really take in the full view of the gorge and river below – which are absolutely stunning. Towards the end, one of the crew came out onto the zip line as well to come meet me, and that’s the point I shut my eyes, convinced I was going to crash into him. But somehow it all went smooth, he dragged me onto the bridge, one leg thrown over the barrier at a time, and then they hooked me onto the metal rope with 2 clips, and sent me on my way.

Once off the lower level of the bridge, I had to cross back over the bridge to the bungee platform where all the guys were waiting for us. Damn that bridge is high! We had our harness removed, and then swapped to the mighty bungee harness – basically not a hell of a lot of harness to be honest!

Lizzy had already decided she would go first and was determined to carry through albeit shaking in her shoes and harness. A couple of people went off and they finally called out for Lizzy. She looked completely focused, terrified but ready to go. And despite the shaking, they counted her down and off she leapt from the platform to the chorus of crazy cheering from our group.

And then they called me up. I can’t express how absolutely mortified I felt as I crawled under the safety bar into the platform area to get prepped. They sat me down and started to wrap towels around each foot, before tying them up together as tight as possible – I’m talking one foot on my feet as he pulled at the harness to tighten it.

The entire time I was just heavy breathing and freaking the hell out. A photographer and video guy were pointing cameras at me, asking me how I felt, and I just told them I was completely terrified, with my face showing the same emotion. They then stood me up and started doing the verbal checks one after the other, then handed me a GoPro, turned it on and turned me to face the platform.

Holy crap I was panicking by this point. Behind me I could here all of my group cheering me on, screaming words of encouragement, but honestly I heard nothing. The crew told me to walk to the edge of the platform, and the river was so so SOOOOOOOOO far below. TERRIFIED! Then they tell me to get my toes over the edge, which meant my genius plan of not looking down was ruined and I thought I would die. Like, actually. Then then lifted my arms, so I looked like I was being crucified, they counted down 5-4-3-2-1- Bungee, and my brain went completely numb.

I think it took about half a second for my brain to register what was happening, at which point the screaming began. Somehow I actually jumped off the platform – not just fell off but actually pushed off – to get the safe distance, but it’s all a blur. I couldn’t even feel myself falling, nothing in my brain was functioning except the absolute constant need to scream until the horror stopped.

At one stage I felt the bounce and found myself standing upright in mid-air. Which I knew couldn’t be good because I wasn’t back on the platform yet. Which meant it was just going to fall all over again. So more screaming. I think at one point I said it was amazing. I definitely mentioned that it kept bouncing and that I was fairly sure I was going to pass out.

Once I was stable, it was almost pleasant being upside down staring at the river. Almost, not quite. Then a guy came down a rope to come pick me up, and the fear started all over again. Not only was he shaking my rope, but on top of that he was putting me back upright and I was sure I would drop this time. We were pulled back up to the very lowest part of the arch, where a guy grabbed my harness and told me to swing my legs over. Lunatic!

I was shaking to my very core. I could barely feel my arms, heart pounding in my chest, legs barely holding me up – though glad to be on hard ground again – as they unwrapped the harnesses and towels. He then pushed me towards a ladder to climb up to the next level of the bridge, and if possible that might have been even scarier than the jump. Fully shaking, none of my limbs working, it took about 20 seconds per step. The guy at the top told me they were waiting for me to finish the climb to send the next jumper, but heaven knows I did not care!

I was back on the lower level of the bridge, where I had landed after the zip line, and just walking across again. I think at some point I heard Sarah yelp as she jumped off, but I can’t say for sure because I was still petrified at what I had just done. Worse still: I knew there was more to come…

Once back at the jumping area, I was greeted by a wave of applause and hugs, and told I had won “Scream of the Day”. Well I did forewarn them all to be fair. Jess leapt off the platform full of confidence, almost before they had finished counting, while TJ was a little more restrained and pale. Michael was completely and totally freaked out – so much I even thought he might back out – but soon enough he was at the edge of the platform and jumped off more or less quietly.

Following this, we were stripped of our bungee harnesses and fitted with our gorge swing stuff. As I was getting dressed up, the guy asked me if I was jumping alone or with a friend, and suddenly I saw a whole new opportunity. Because to be perfectly honest, seeing the guys jump for the swing and thinking about doing the insane drop all over again was making me tremble all over again.

I turned to Sarah and tentatively asked if she’d be interested, and to my delight she was keen to tandem jump! So Jess bunny hopped off the platform, while we got shown exactly how to stand, how to hold each other – and absolutely do not let go! – and how to jump in sync. Because in tandem, there’s no opportunity to back out at the last second. When they say swing, it has to be a dual synchronisation or shit goes down.

We practiced our synchronised walk off the platform a few times and then proceeded back onto the horrible fearful platform. I couldn’t believe I was back there already, and was freaking out all over again while Sarah was totally chill once again. They harnessed us up and then hooked us onto the line attached to the line in the middle of the gorge.

I was completely and totally freaking again. The harness had a decent amount of pull this time since the ropes were already hanging in mid-air, and I was freaked out at missing the step or anything. I promised Sarah I would jump no matter what, for the sake of security, but dammit was I shaking. They then told us to go up to to the edge, toes over. Only this time I only had one hand holding on the rail, the other grabbing on to Sarah, and the ropes pulling at me. So so freaked out.

And before I knew it, he called out 3-2-1-Swing and we just stepped off the platform. I think somehow this free fall was even worse than the bungee, as the ropes had absolutely no tightness, and we were basically plummeting feet first to our doom. Without even realising it, I was frantically kicking/bicycling in mid-air – like that will help – and then after 4 seconds of fall the rope took effect and we swung up through the gorge.

I was gripping onto Sarah so hard I was convinced we would finish the trip to Cape Town in that exact position! But in the end I was so glad to have done this jump in tandem, because if I’m honest, although I would like to think I would have jumped alone, I’m not 100% sure I could have done it again alone.

We swung around for a little while enjoying the beautiful view, while discussing how insanely uncomfortable these harnesses were. The worst part was that in this case, no one was coming down to pick us up rather we were being pulled up slowly back to the bridge, feet dangling. Yep, still freaking out. So when we were hoisted onto the barrier and he told me to swing one leg after the other, the word “lunatic” once again came into my mind…

Michael jumped shortly after, but TJ decided he’d had enough adrenaline for one day, and Lizzy had only signed up to the bungee. We therefore laughed and cheered each other on before returning to the cafe area to view the video footage of each jump. Somehow watching it again still gave us the absolute creeps, and I still couldn’t believe I had actually jumped off despite seeing it on the big screen.

We purchased all the photos and videos – especially the GoPro footage which showed quite a lot of swearing and in my case, a lot of screaming – and then got ourselves some lunch directly at the cafe before returning to Zambia. We ran into another tour group from our company at the border and tried to hitch a ride in their truck, but unfortunately they were using a van to get back, so we had to split up into 3 taxis instead.

We hung around the bar area for a few hours just to recount all of our excitement over the jumps again and start to share some of our personal photos and videos. Eventually at 18:00 we went off to our respective pre-tour meetings. Little did we know the group guide we had spoken to at the border was the mysterious “Justin” that was taking over our group in a few days.

He talked us through the basics of the tour, how it all works and everything. The 8 of us continuing on were fairly owed through this to be honest, since we already know all of this after a month and a half of travel, and it looked like the other few people joining from their own week-long tour from Pretoria were just as enthused. But for the sake of the fresh meat starting here in 2 days, we listened up quietly.

It’s not Pete and Francis though, and this stayed painful for us throughout the talk. Justin seems like a nice guy, as does the driver Ali, but we were struck with the very real sadness at losing our guides. And after the talk, when we did meet up with our own guys again, we expressed our sorrow which they seem to share. But nothing to be done now. We will be swapping tents, swapping seats on the bus and reducing the number of lockers – full bus coming up… But at least we are keeping out truck in the end – to the great annoyance of Francis who loves his baby – and the 8 of us having just lived through such a crazy experience today are ready to tackle the last leg of the journey together.

28/8/19

Another fun night of not sleeping a lot, between drunken idiots coming back for round 2, the 5:00 wake-up of the tour group next to us, and the constant feeling of falling all night long. When we got up, Pete and Francis were busy making breakfast for the 4 of us, before the rest of our group arrived for our final farewell photos with the truck.

We then all hopped into 2 taxis and made our way to the departure point of the Livingstone island. We got on a little jet boat and headed out to the island. The ride was fairly smooth, especially considering the amount of rapids and rocks along the way. The more we rode however, the closer we got to the massive spray which indicated the exact point at which the water would suddenly cascade over the cliff to form the amazing Victoria Falls.

On the island, we started with a quick toilet stop, which I can say was the most beautiful toilet stop of all tour. They called it the “loo with a view” and it essentially was a portable toilet, with nice scented soaps and everything, but no door so you had a look directly on the beautiful Zambezi river while you peed. Very relaxing.

We dropped off our bags in a locker here and then proceeded to do a quick visit of the island. During the wet season, most of this area is completely covered in water, most of which adding to the full effect of the falls. But at this time of the year, it’s perfect to walk along the very edge of cliffs and look all the way down to the tiny river which yesterday we jumped to get closer to.

After a couple of photo stops, we came in view of our destination: the Devil’s Pool. This is essentially a naturally created pool at the very ledge of the waterfall where the water flows over, but during the dry season there is just enough rocky ledge to swim in without flying over and plummeting to your death. Supposedly anyway.

We stripped down to our swimmers and walked down the rocks to the river edge. Because to get to the pool, first we had to swim across one of the currents. They had attached 2 ropes from one side to the other of the current as a safety measure should the current take you away towards the ledge, and got us to slide into the water.

Absolutely freezing water! The current felt so strong pulling us toward the ledge and I found that I really had to actually put effort into my swimming to fight against it. We then climbed up onto the rocks, directly overlooking the massive falls, and that’s when the terror finally clicked. Because it was nothing but slippery rocks with water flowing over them that separated us from the massive fall. This time with no ropes attached to keep us from dying!

We slid into the pool one after the other and swam to the ledge to take a seat. Somehow all 11 of us were able to get a seat, with nothing but about 30cm separating us from the edge. I was petrified. On the one hand, I think the physical act of jumping off a bridge was scarier than this, but I felt in no way secure paddling around this little pool.

After a few group photos, it was time for the individual shots. So we all swam to one side of the pool while one after the other, we went out to the ledge. One of the guides was in the pool, holding us by the leg and edging us up. Literally, edging us over the edge. My head and arms were literally over the edge of the waterfall and I could see the bottom. And holy hell I almost peed myself with fear!

Another round of massive group encouragement, and we made our way back out of the pool – thanks to a floaty another guide sent to each of us to pull us through the current back to shore. We then swum back across the current to the other side with our clothes, and finally walked back to our packs and tents. We were served some breakfast, though our attention was focused entirely on the photos of each of us braving death in yet another dumb way.

The boat ride back to the main shore was pleasant and offered a couple of animal sightings. Most notably, we spotted an elephant on a tiny little island getting ready to fight off another elephant to stop him from getting on. I’m almost disappointed we missed out on seeing them actually fight together just to see how that is.

Once back at the camp, it was time for the fateful moment of tent swapping. Although we would be keeping our truck, Tana, in the end, the tents would need to be swapped and so we Vincent, Michael and I had to move our stuff into the tents erected next to our truck. TJ on the other hand had to move into a tent next to his new truck, and so our little family was separated.

We got some laundry done and then headed back to the bar area once again. We met a few of the new people on our tour here, and as usual, grabbed a few cocktails. Brenton, Kerianne and Jo went off to do a gorge swing for the afternoon. That’s essentially the same as the bridge swing, but in a different area of the gorge and about 30 metres higher than the bridge one. Jo jumped alone but the others went down in tandem, only here they were made to jump backwards in this case – absolutely no way I ever could have done that. A nice way to celebrate Brenton’s birthday basically.

The afternoon was nice a chilled out, spent partly with the questionnaires to be filled out regarding the tip and the tour guides. Needless to say our responses were heavily focused on a certain visa problem which was still irritating us… But never mind thinking about that. Tonight we are getting all dressed up, and the whole group is taking Pete and Francis out for a “last supper”, and then a bit of clubbing. Because tomorrow morning, it’s the end of everything and we have to split up for good.