Vic Falls

So I’m a bit behind on these blog updates. The last several weekends have been packed with trips and in between I’ve been doing my best to rest, recover, and get some schoolwork done (emphasis on the resting and recovering). I’ll do my best to recap my recent life events without rambling too much, which shouldn’t be too hard since enough time has passed that I only remember the really exciting or interesting stuff.

First off, Zambia! Being in Southern Africa, I couldn’t miss an opportunity to take a trip to Victoria Falls, listed as one of the Natural Wonders of the World (or World Heritage Sites or something equally impressive sounding) and, more importantly, one of the most spectacular things that I have ever seen. Well, at least I sort of saw it. Realistically when I visited the park on the Zambia side (which is opposite the falls, in contrast to the Zim side which is where the falls actually fall) the water in the river was high enough that for the majority of the time that we tried to view the Falls there was a cloud of mist that obscured them. Thankfully we managed to get the occasional glimpse of part of the Falls through the mist, but even then it was impossible to appreciate the full size of them, only the sheer volume of water that is in the Zambezi River.

Anyway, a quick overview of the trip: Getting to Livingston, Zambia from Gaborone is ridiculously easy. There’s a bus that departs nightly at 7PM from the bus station and heads straight up to Lusaka, Zambia. Livingston is on the way up there and so the bus makes a stop for people to jump on and off. It’s a bit of a tough bus ride but not something that was unbearable, especially when compared to some of the other trips that I’ve taken on buses around the area. There were 12 students all traveling on the same bus and when we did get to the Zambian border (about 7AM, when it opened) we all decided that rather than waiting for the bus to cross the border on a ferry and pick us up again, it would be quicker and more comfortable to hire taxis to take us into town. Everyone got into groups of 4 and we jumped into 3 taxis and set off on the final 45 minute leg of the trip. Originally, everyone had planned to stay at the same hostel in Livingston so that all 12 of us would be in the same spot. In my taxi we made a unanimous decision that hanging out with a giant group of 12 people didn’t sound like too much fun, so we called an audible and headed off for another hostel. This decision pretty much separated us from the rest of the group for the weekend, except for meeting up a little randomly sometimes.

The real attraction of Vic Falls, apart from how impressive and large the Falls are, is having the opportunity to bungee jump 111 meters from the bridge separating Zambia and Zimbabwe. Obviously if we spent 12 hours on a bus up to Livingston, there was no way we were going to miss this opportunity. The second day that we were there we all decided to go and do all the adrenaline activities, which include the bungee jump, a zipline across the canyon that the Zambezi River forms, and a gorge swing out over the river. I’ll be honest, I was terrified by the thought of doing any of those things, let alone all 3. This is where splitting into the smaller group really helped me out though because all 4 of us decided to jump, which meant that none of us could easily bail out on the plan. They did split our group into 2 when we signed up and I got paired with the other guy who was scared about jumping. It was comforting having someone else to freak out with, but not exactly reassuring when I was already pretty worried about diving head off a bridge. The zipline wasn’t so memorable, it was beautiful and was the only opportunity I had to look down at the river and the area without being in a state of sheer panic, but it was still just a zipline. It was also the first thing I got to do which meant that I got some of my panic out of the way when I realized that the carabineers that they use to attach you to the ropes did in fact support me. I promptly forgot this when I noticed that the only thing holding me to the bungee rope was a pair of carabineers clipped to a cord wrapped around some blankets, which in turn were wrapped around my ankles. After seeing this, I was not in a happy place. The operators don’t give you a whole lot of time to think about the ridiculous situation you’re in though and as soon as everything was tight (according to them, I personally couldn’t feel the cord at all due to the blankets. I think that they try to make it was as terrifying as possible for people like me who are the least bit skeptical about the strength of cords or the tightness of knots) they have you hop to the edge of the platform, tell you to look up, and then loudly count down from 5 and make you jump, or in my case fall forward because I was too scared to actually jump out. I have a pretty sweet picture of me actually jumping that a friend of mine took on his guess-and-shoot camera (the viewing screen was broken so there's no way to tell what you're actually taking a picture of...) but the photo upload thing isn't working out for me right now so I'll try to find a different way to get it up online.

The initial freefall lasts about 3 seconds but feels like much longer. At least I thought it felt like much longer, I was certainly able to fit in a lot of swear words after the initial scream. The first fall is only half the “fun” of bungee jumping though, the other part being lifted back up, a moment of weightlessness at the top, and the getting to fall again. I think that falling more than once is a bit overrated and I don’t think I ever really stopped screaming until I realized that I wasn’t actually going to fall head first into the river, which coincidently was when I was back on the platform.

After the bungee jump you’d think I’d be ready for anything, right? Nope. The last wonderful activity was the gorge swing. For this, they attach you to a rope stretched across the gorge and then tell you to run off the platform. That’s all. Ready, Set, Run forward until there’s nothing under your feet anymore. This is contrary to every message the world has ever given you, namely “don’t run off cliffs.” If you realize the entire situation is absolutely insane and try to stop or slow down at the edge, they push you off. I know this because I tried to slow down as I realized I was quickly running out of solid objects under my feet and got a nice shove forward so that I could enjoy the fall. The biggest difference for me between the bungee jump and the gorge swing was that with the bungee jump you’re intentionally diving headfirst and the fall gets slowed as the rope catches you and starts to stretch out, while with the gorge swing it feels like you’ve been pushed off the edge of a cliff feet first (probably because you have been pushed off a cliff) and then left to freefall all 110ish meters until you start to swing. You don’t get slowed down or anything. One second you’re dropping straight down, the next, swinging outwards. My feelings towards this can be evidenced by the fact that I never let go of the ropes I was attached to. My friend used the opportunity to spread his arms out wide and lay back. I think he’s got some issues with his head.