Nostalgia, it’s not what it used to be. Or is it? I return to the Zambezi after an eighteen year break to find out. There’s been a proposal to build a dam on Africa’s fourth longest river for a good few years, it will devastate the white water, backing up to rapid number ten or five, depending on how high it’s built. It might not happen, or it could be done in five years, the message is clear, if you want to cross off a bucket trip river, get there soon, before it’s too late.
The Zam is an iconic river for many, me included, I’ve been here before, after a long break, will it be the same river I remember? Rapids are numbered from the put in at Victoria falls, number 1 and onwards, many of the traditional day one rapids also have names, number 4, Morning Glory, number 7, Gulliver’s Travels and the ever present number 9, the one featured in so many video clips, Commercial Suicide. A portage for many but also regularly paddled by those with the skills.
When I was last here boat fashion was all about jamming yourself into the smallest boat possible, boat design has moved on and half slices are all the rage these days. I paddled a Space Cadet last time I was here and it flew in the big water, I choose a Fluid Spice off the list of hire boats, my thinking rightly or wrongly is the bigger the boat the more the river has to get hold of, I’m sticking with what I know, little boats cork around in the big water, I don’t need speed, I just need something with volume around me that’s not going to get swamped.
This year is a drought year, we arrive in what is traditionally the low water season, and the river is at a twenty year low. The river is harder than I recall at these levels. I have paddled number 7 on previous occasions, when it been running at a good class four. This year is a solid five, I choose to portage, others paddle it and it’s dishing it out for sure, people are getting pinballed, beaten and are swimming, trust me, you do not want to be swimming, even in low water the river is huge, the volume massive, the gradient increased, the moves harder, more committing and more consequential.
Rapid 7B doesn’t really exist at higher levels, a couple of waves, turning to easily avoided holes as the level drops. At these levels, river right is closed out, not an option. Center line, there isn’t one. That leaves river left, a must make move between two big holes. Kiss a hole with the left side of your boat heading left across and over an obvious tongue, above the face of the second hole on your right. Either one is gona hand your ass to you, hit the first, your going in the one behind it too. Get the line right and its cruisy. Swirly and funky water awaits behind hole two with water surging off the left bank, hold that draw stroke, searching for some flowing water to pull you downstream.
8 is huge, and the line is different at lower levels, hard right on entry, heading left, then down the middle. 9, portage, 10, the line is different again, there’s a theme developing here and it continues as we head down the river. 13 is an utter blast, to be fair 12 a, b and c all run into 13, all an utter chaos of white water, pretty straight forward but it’s like knowing the answer to a question, the question is easy if you know the answer. Rapids are easy, if you get the right line.
Our first day on the river is a warm up, 14 to 25. We have hired boats from the list on the spreadsheet Sven sent to us. Sven is, for us kayak scum the man who makes it all happen. He’s been out here for nearly 30 years and is THE font of all knowledge as to what to do, where to go and making it all happen. Its great to see him after so many years and apart from ageing a bit, he’s still the blond haired lad from Yorkshire with a Scandinavian nickname.
We break through a diagonal on 14 and that’s our introduction to the river, 15 head right, 16 get swirled, 17, hard left avoiding the shallow hole at the bottom. 18, Oblivion, yikes. Previously a wave train, now a big ass crashing wave/hole entry move, stay left to avoid into a messy eddy of surging boiling water, break out into the flow behind the first feature and ride the waves down. Its cruisy until 23. I don’t remember 23 from previous visits, it’s pretty long and big, much fun.
We’ve started seeing crocs too, everyone jokes about the crocs, and I have dismissed any reference to them in our pre trip conversations. I see more crocs on this one trip that I have in the previous years. They are there, for sure, and of a decent size, decent enough to be an issue. A British girl lost part of her leg just below 14 a few years ago, in the water floating downstream behind the raft, she is unlucky to meet a croc at what can only be described as an inopportune moment. A few crocs died of lead poisoning in the days that followed.
I have always considered the Zam to be big water boating with only a couple of rapids having consequences, at this level, almost every rapid has a consequence, it’s just gnarly, pretty much everywhere. I remember rapids and lines in rapids (apart from 23) but that memory is now undermined as many of the lines in the rapids change in lower water, 4 and 5 are the same, 6 is trashy and I get worked in the hole, with Brian on our first time down, we’re both getting cartwheeled and the hull of Brian’s boat brushes my cheek as we get our kicking, thankfully we get flushed out before his boat gets chance to deliver a knock out punch.
The rapid below is number 5, I can still hear Sven, back in 2003 telling us, “look into it, it’s a beautiful thing.” It was, and it still is. It’s massive and a whole world of fun, line yourself up and take your ticket, you really have no idea as to what is going to happen next. I’ve been through it upright barely getting an eyebrow wet and of course I’ve been utterly spanked in there, nothing wrong with a bit of spanking!
Everything is steeper, holes are no longer flushing, they’re holding and to be avoided at all cost. 12B is one of the great surf waves, anywhere. We drop down, hardish right, I look into the wave to my left, I’ve spent time in there surfing to my hearts content in previous years, this year, there ain’t no way on god’s green earth I’m going in there, steep, retentive and very, very trashy, we navigate downstream, 13 is a blast, a big wave train, a slight angle on the boat, climb the face of the wave, reaching over the crest for support and downstream momentum, steadying ourselves for the next and the next, by the bottom I am whooping in delight, this is the boating I remember. Big water rocks.
Later in the week we take two days to paddle down the river to Damsite. Day one we paddle 1 to 25, that’s a long day in the boat, we camp on the beach next to the river, the guides prepare drinks and food, we dine riverside, lit by headtorch as darkness envelopes the gorge. A couple of beers by the fire and it’s early to bed, the long day on the river combined with the heat and mental tiredness of tackling big water has drained us all. I wake up during the night, under my mozzy net looking up at the galactic star show above, truly stunning.
Day two, and we are on the water early, open season, closed season, heading downstream. The rapids are more spaced out, we paddle nose to tail and with the support raft on the longer flat sections, crocs could be an issue, we paddle as a healthy herd, just in case!
The narrows, not really rapids you hear about, but the whole river is channeled through them, the water is messy, surgy, boily and tricky.
We portage Lower Moemba, dropping the raft down on a line. It takes time hauling the raft across the rocks, they’re not the easiest of objects to manhandle.
A couple more rapids and the day is done at Damsite. A few metal bars poke out of the rocks, the only indications so far that tests of the rock strata have been undertaken. This could all disappear under water.
Our Porters await, everything has to be carried manpower style in and out of the gorge, an unenviable task.
The walk out at Damsite is horrendous, hotter than a snakes belly in a wagon rut, however, beer awaits in a cooler, we struggle on.
A booze cruise on the upper river afford the most glorious sunsets and the opportunity to see the wildlife.
Or moonrise if like us you catch a full moon cruise.
In amongst all the boating we take a daytrip to Chobe national park in Botswana.
A walking safari just outside Livingstone gives the opportunity to visit the local Rhino, we have Rhino’s in Leeds, but these are different.
Is the Zambezi everything I remember it to be, you bet, and this year with some added punch due to the levels. Africa is a special place, and could still be classed as the dark continent, the landscapes and cultures largely unknown to us European types. You should go there and unlock some of that darkness by discovering its mysteries.
Huge thanks to Sven for organising everything and Amoity and Julius for showing us the lines on the river.
Credits to Julius for the safpar pictures.