Expedition Victoria Falls to Lake Kariba
by Peter Csonka
After 4 days we are finally back in our lodge. It was a hard trip and everybody is feeling a little bit sick (tired , stomach problems…), but still - it was the best trip ever.
We saw a lot of game, drank water of Zambezi, slept at sand banks, and paddled hard all 3 days. It was sick. We planned this trip from home and thanks to Nico Chassing (owner of Bundu adventures ) we fortunately did it. Without Nico it would have been impossible, because he lead us throughout the whole trip, lent us 2 rafts and all the equipment we needed.
Packing for the multiday trip
The plan was to leave very early on Friday. On Wednesday, Nico took the vehicle that should wait for us at the end of the trip to Lake Kariba.
The shuttle truck
The roads are so bad that driving there took him about 10 hours and then he rode another 4 hours back on his motorbike, so he had a very hard day. The total distance was only around 300 km, but through the bush. The rest like Nina, Capko, Snorchel, Matej, Sasa (SVK team), Nini (NOR), Rachel (NZ) and myself went shopping. We had to buy all the food, alcohol and gear that was needed for the trip. For 10 people we piled up a lot of things and we only had two rafts to transport all the stuff, including our luggage.
Gearing up
On Friday we started – all a bit nervous – from the rapid No.1. We had 50 km ahead of us and just 4 hours to go. We had to pass through 25 rapids and I guess the most difficult ones. After rapid 25 we took a lunch break, the last pure mineral water. Nico continued with the rafts and we were ready to paddle the second section of the day, another 30 km on the river. There were few rapids we scouted, because we had big water levels so nobody was sure what was there. We were lucky as we didn’t have to carry the rafts on the banks. And that is not an easy task, because a raft filled with gear and food is very heavy and we had two of them.
Running some hard stuff by raft
Some rapids were awesome like All Season which is a huge hole in the middle and Narrows which was just a huge whirlpool, but so dangerous that if somebody swims there it can have severe consequences. Afterwards there were a few nice rapids, but not very hard , just some waves and holes. At 5 pm we started to build our camp at some nice sand bank - we set up the grill and started to prepare the food.
Camping on the sand
We woke up at 5 am, boiled the water, prepared the breakfast, packed the rafts and other things which were needed. The only problem was that the pump for rafts didn’t work so Nico blew them up with his mouth. It was crazy, because when I tried it it was painful! We didn’t have any drinking water so we took water from Zambezi, put in some chlorine and after 20 min we could be sure that it was ”clean”. However, it tasted and smelled like swimming pool water. On our second day we had to make even more km on the river than the day before, because we didn’t meet the plan from day one. There were a few big rapids and at all of them we decided to watch before we run them. Two rapids were unrunable. Lower Moemba was a waterfall so we had to carry the rafts over that one and avoided to put all the stuff out of the boats. Unfortunately at the rapid Dam side we had to put all the gear out and carry it over the rocks. It took us a lot of time. There were a few aborigines who helped us and we gave them some gifts like the fishing rope.
Portaging the equipment
Other rapids like Upper Moemba, Son of Ghostrider, and Ghostrider we did run and they were very intense with big waves, holes and whirlpools.
Small boats in big water
After all big rapids we went into the raft because the danger from hippos and crocks started to increase. We tied the kayaks onto the rafts and paddled with our paddles.
Paddling in the raft to avoid the Crocks
In the evening a big storm caught us in the middle of the river. It wasn’t a usual storm - this one was the “strongest storm” I ever experienced. The wind was very strong, then we were hit by rainfall and icy hail; we lost control of the raft and the wind was so hard that it almost turned the boat upside down. It pushed us into the rocks and our arms weren’t strong enough to fight the wind. We stopped at some place and didn’t care about the crocks. We were lucky nothing happened and after 15 tough minutes we were able to continue. At 6:30 we found some nice beach where we set up our camp. It seemed as if there weren’t any crocks or people who could rob us.
On day 3 we had the hardest part before us. Just flat water with lots of animals (crocks and hippos). Trust me, this was the hardest part. The sun was hot like never before and we couldn’t swim. We didn’t have good water and we paddled the whole day. After a few hours we were so tired and so relieved when Nico showed us a building in the distance. The lodge was nice, there was a pool, cold drinks we were so happy.
On day 4 we drove back to Livingstone where we live. The roads are really bad, in fact there are no roads. You drive through the middle of nowhere. We drove 5- 30km/h stuffed into one truck. Luckily the truck was a 4×4. Our return trip took about 11 hours. When we arrived at the camp we were so destroyed that we immediately fell asleep.
Finally going back
The trip was awesome and we still have some days here, so stay tuned for our next updates.
Pictures by Matej Fabianek
Tags: lake kariba · lower moemba · nico chassing · part 2 · Peter Csonka · victoria falls · zambezi
