Tim , and 7 other likeminded fund raisers , ended the day safely on the banks of the Zambezi where we were to spend the night . In total , and excluding the two rafts used to transport all the equipment required for the week , there were two additional boats made up to thrill seekers and adventure travellers .
The temperature in the Batoka Gorge could reach 40 ° C during the day , and the sun was ferocious . Thankfully the spray from the rapids kept the temperatures down but at night it was sufficiently warm simply to sleep under the stars in a sleeping bag . The facilities for personal hygiene comprised a wash in the river and a single port-a-loo for use by the other 30 people in the camp .
At night we gathered around a rapidly constructed fire but after all the travelling , the long flights , and the physical exertion ( which many were not used to ) it wasn ’ t long before the only sounds that could be heard were snoring and the buzzing of the odd irritating mosquito .
Day 2 was to provide one of the most frightening adrenaline rushes of my life ! One of the most famous rapids ( Grade 5 ) in the world is on the mighty Zambezi and that is the rapid known as Oblivion . Before running each rapid , our boats would gather above it to ride through the rapid one by one and then await the arrival of the other boats . To successfully run a rapid , the aim is to be moving faster than the water itself .
The first raft went through – successfully . As our turn came , with our skipper , Tim , barking commands and shouting words of encouragement , we entered Oblivion , quite literally ! Indeed , it is not known as Oblivion for nothing . We successfully navigated the first wave , the second we did as well but then the third wave , like a mountain of foaming white water , hit us . Being the sort of guy that I am , I had always volunteered to be at the front of the boat . You see the wall of water first and it is one of the more physically demanding positions on the boat but at least you can see what is coming towards you .
In what felt like a microsecond between the wall of water hitting the boat , I ( along with 6 others ) was catapulted into the depths of the Zambezi . At some points , the Zambezi is over 100ft deep and one of the most frightening aspects of being thrown into a rapid is getting sucked into one of the many whirlpools . We were reassuringly told by Tim that at one of the rapids (“ the Narrows ”) the water was so deep and the water so strong that if you did get sucked under , you would probably come out a week later .
This thought went through my mind as I was tossed around like a piece of flotsam and sucked down deeper into the depths of the Zambezi . I had no sense of direction at all and no concept of how deep I was in the water . It was like being in a washing machine with no escape route .
For what felt like an eternity ( but in reality was no more than 10 seconds ) I was held under the water at which point , and with no sense of the surface coming any closer , I started to swim . All rafters are obliged to wear as many buoyancy aids as their bodies can bear including not only life jackets but leg buoyancy aids . I have no doubt that these were
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