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White Water Rafting Tour

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Must Visit City
Victoria Falls
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Victoria Falls White Water Rafting PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE RIVER The Zambezi River is classified as a high volume; pool-drop river i.e. there is little exposed rock either in the rapids or the pools below the rapids. . .
Country: Zimbabwe
City: Victoria Falls
Duration: 1 Day(s) - 0 Night(s)
Tour Category: River Rafting
Package Itinerary

Victoria Falls

White Water Rafting

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE RIVER

The Zambezi River is classified as a high volume; pool-drop river i.e. there is little exposed rock either in the rapids or the pools below the rapids. The distance between rapids varies from 100metres to 2 kms. The Gorge itself is approximately 400ft deep at the put-in point and 750ft at the take out point. The river drops about 400ft over the 24km covered in the one-day raft trip and the depth of the river can reach 200ft. The British Canoe Union has classified the river Grade 5 “extremely difficult, long and violent rapids, steep gradients, big drops and pressure areas”.

Nearly half of the rapids negotiated are Grade 5. (Grade 6 is unrunable – rapid number 9,“Commercial Suicide” is a Grade 6 rapid and we porter around this rapid).

WILDLIFE

Due to the steepness of the Gorge, wildlife is not abundant. On occasion klipspringer, rock hyrax,Vervet monkeys and baboon are spotted. However, the birdlife is far more spectacular. Black eagle, augur buzzard, black stork, pied and giant kingfisher and red winged starling are some of the birds normally seen during the trips and sightings of the very rare Taita Falcon are not uncommon. There are crocodile in the river, but they are small due to the unsuitability of the area for their habitation.

RAFT - CAMPING TRIPS AVAILABLE

FULL DAY / OVERNIGHT

Day 1: Full day of rafting as per the usual one day low water rafting trip ending just aboverapid no 23. Clients will overnight at our campsite situated on the banks of the river. Clients will be supplied with tents, bedrolls and sleeping bags from the operations company. It is possible to bring your own sleeping bags, if required. Clients will enjoy a delicious dinner under the big African night sky warmed by a big bonfire. We will supply beers (Castle), red and white wine as well as gin and tonic. Should clients wish to have other alcoholic beverages they can be purchased by clients prior to the start of the trip.

Day 2: After enjoying a full English breakfast, clients walk out of the gorge where a vehicle will be waiting to transfer them back to town. The drive back from the gorge is approximately 25kms. Clients should return to town by around 10h00.

TWO AND HALF DAY TRIP

(The camp sites may change due to movement of beaches/camp sites):

DAY 1:Full day of rafting as usual one day low water rafting trip and camping below rapid 23, at our overnight camp.

DAY 2 :From hereafter the flat stretches between rapids becomes longer. Your first rapid is ‘Open Season’. We then continue through ‘The Narrows’ after which we have lunch. After lunch we head on down the river through ‘Chimamba’ and “Upper Mowemba” to our overnight campsite just below “Upper Mowemba”.

DAY 3: After enjoying a full English breakfast, we portage “Lower Mowemba” and continue along to the Dam site where we are met by our porters to guide us to the vehicle at the top of the gorge. Once all the equipment is up, we board the vehicle and head for home. The drive back to town is 62km, with the first 12km being very slow, thereafter it is a secondary road all the way home and will take about 2 hours maximum ¨If clients need to arrive back in town earlier, we can change the overnight stop to be at the Dam site at top of the gorge overlooking the “Ghost Rider” rapids. After breakfast, clients board the vehicle and will go directly back to town.

FIVE DAY TRIP

(The trip varies from day 3 onwards depending on water levels, but covers the same section of the river. The camp sites may change due to movement of beaches/camp sites):

DAY 1:Full day of rafting as per the usual one day low water rafting trip and camping at our overnight camp just below rapid 23.

DAY 2: From hereafter the flat stretches between rapids becomes longer. Your first rapid is ‘Open Season’. We then continue through ‘The Narrows’ after which we stop for lunch. After lunch we head on down the river through ‘Chimamba’ and “Upper Mowemba” to our overnight campsite just beyond “Upper Mowemba”.

DAY 3: After portaging “Lower Mowemba” we continue along to the Dam site where we do our third and final portage. After this we continue downstream to “Ghost Rider” then “Deep Throat” where we ghost the rafts through while having lunch. We raft through another section of narrows with short sharp drops, very exciting! We then conclude the day with “Asleep at the Wheel” which is the last major rapid of the trip. We camp downstream of “Asleep at the Wheel”.

DAY 4:After breakfast, continue downstream through Grade 2 and Grade 3 rapids up to Hippo’s camp where you will spend the night on the banks of the river.

DAY 5:After breakfast, we navigate ‘Fish Eagle’s Delight’ and onto our take out point at Matetsi where we are transported back to town. The transfer is a 3 hour drive along the road from Milibizi to Hwange through to Victoria Falls.

RAFT – CAMPING TRIPS INCLUDE:

All meals, soft drinks, orange juice (cordial), water as well as small amount of beers, gin & tonics and wines. However due to the longevity of the trip these are not bottomless supplies.

Should clients have a preferred alcohol, they may supply these themselves.

  1. Guides and Safety Kayakers.
  2. All rafting equipment.
  3. All camping equipment.
  4. Sleeping bags (if required, however we recommend clients bring their own).
  5. First aid kit
  6. Satellite phone (for safety)

Clients should bring:

Sleeping bag (we do have these but people usually prefer to use their own), Shorts (quick drying type is best), T-shirts (quick drying type is best), swimming costume (or board shorts), shoes which you do not mind getting wet, head torch, towel and tracksuit for the evenings, cap,sunglasses, sunscreen, insect repellent and toiletries.

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