Trip Report
Trip Report compiled by Mike Rankin.
Not much can go wrong on the banks of
the Zambezi River. Well apart from arriving a couple
of days before your boat, or being surrounded by Ostrich's
(Austrians) who speak a very interesting type of English.
However, after a couple of days of getting acquainted
with a foreign boat (excellent hireage from Muzza) and
boaters, I was convinced to accompany three Ostrich's
on a four day trip (and it had nothing to do with getting
an excellent video which you can use to skite to your
friend with…!)
It was great to be on a trip where you
only had to organise your bedding… well thanks
Muzza for lending us some blankets!
The first day involved a trip from under
the falls to rapid 10. There was lots of surfing had
by all, a little wild life (croc's , 2 foot long monitor
lizards, you know, the usual) and a couple of interesting
moves. These included a new line from Flo on rapid number
nine, where you approach diagonally at the top, ride
it a little way and then bail off into a hole, do a few
practice rolls over the section of the rapid which is
known as the cheese grater and zoom past a head cracker
rock. However, Sven was not to be out done with a huge
wheelbarrow (falling or leaning upstream, however you
want to look at it) in a huge wave known as Star trek.
The first night at the bottom of rapid
10 went fast, with an excellent feed from our gourmet
chefs and an unsurprising lack of energy to talk. The
days were nice and hot, but as a few people found out,
the nights can get really cold and a blanket is not much
protection.
Day two involved some more cool surfing,
but alas 12b was a bit too high to be surfable. Throughout
the day we were accompanied by the magnificent fish eagles
and black which would often be found flying over head.
To keep up with his reputation, Flo demonstrated an unusual
ability to not only breathe through his bum, but to also
navigate down a rapid and avoid a very nasty hole at
the same time…!
At the end of the second day we camped
on a huge white sand beach, ate another amazing meal,
talked good old fashioned boy talk and found out that
sand is not as soft as you would think to sleep on.
Day three involved a bit more flat water
than the first couple of days, however you don't really
notice it when surrounded by amazing landscape and having
to watch out for croc's kept us four naïve foreigners
on our toes. There was a couple of cool rapids throughout
the day, but the highlight was at the end with Chimamba
Falls where Sven got sucked down for a little bit of
quiet time. And a blasé attitude on my part was
quickly accompanied with some compulsory ends in a stopper
that I was sure was not there a second before.
The Upper Moemba is a straight forward
rapid, nevertheless it demands a bit of respect. However,
Moemba Falls is not for the faint hearted. It includes
a right hand shoot, which is not really an option, and
a waterfall that runs along the shoot which gets progressively
higher. The line that we took involved booffing off a
big kicker in the middle. Due to the level of the river
we were able to see the line from our boat as opposed
to aiming for something on the far bank. Myself, Sven,
Hans and Flo did it with class and with only a little
bit of nerves before hand.
After the hike out of the gorge, we enjoyed
giraffe tongue on the BBQ (or this is what we were lead
to believe!) and a few beers.
On day four we were privileged enough
to have Sven drive us back with only a few nervous crunches
of the gears, a look over rapid 7 and a laze around the
pool back at Fawlty Towers. The following night we were
movie stars for an evening with our video being displayed
at one of the rafting company's bars.
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Thanks Muzza for the video,
which can make even the worst gumby look like a pro.
And once again thanks Muzza and Sven for an awesome trip,
food and company, I would recommend this trip to anyone.
Also thanks to the three Austrians who brought it
all together...
"Oh. I don't feel well" -Eric.
"Really, I don't have a fetish with male nipples" -Hans.
"Don't worry we're watching you" -Flo.
Cheers, Mike Rankin
Paddlers were Erik Formann, Hans Niederwimmer, Flo
Pfeiffer, and Mike Rankin.
Erik Formann
Hans Niederwimmer
Flo Pfeiffer
Mike Rankin
HIGHLIGHT ACTION VIDEOS
Watch their highlights on the Zambezi River! Moemba
Falls - Video 1
Click Here to watch
video (297 Kb)
Watch their highlights on the Zambezi River! Video
2
Click Here
to watch video (394 Kb)
Watch their highlights on the Zambezi River! Video
3
Click Here
to watch video (496 Kb)
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