WRITING PROMPT RESPONSE

The Best Place I’ve Been — Rivers

The day I was named “the Whirlpool Lady”

The river was loud. We had to speak up to be able to communicate as we were paddling downriver. And then the first rapid came up. Melvin, our guide, shouted “left” or “right” and depending on which side of the boat you were sitting on, you had to paddle hard.

We bounced a bit up and down. One more time and off I flew. Overboard and into the water. I wasn’t scared. I love water. I can swim and I was wearing a lifejacket which later on was lifesaving.

The current dragged me a bit down through the end of the rapid. As the river got calm again I could swim to the boat and two strong hands were lifting me and another girl who also fell off, back into the safety of the boat.

But this was only the beginning. Melvin said this was a harmless rapid. He was one of two guides on this trip. The morning we got all picked up from our accommodation places in Livingstone and then drove on the back of the truck to the starting point of the tour.

Melvin introduced himself as an adrenaline seeker who loves to get in the water. He asked the group in a certain way who wanted to join him. He asked the question in a way that 6 hands raised up. The hands of those people who love going all in. The water, I guess. The group of this guide wanted to experience the extremes of white water rafting.

The second group of people was a bit more careful and maybe even scared. They got the other guide who made sure his group wouldn’t get wet. (Ok, I’m Over exaggerating now, but the two groups were really that different.)

We all got one paddle and then had to hike down into the canyon. Lots of stairs, ladders, and muddy trails were bringing us to the water. We got introduced to our lifesavers (this time I’m not talking about the lifevest).

A couple of local boys were with kayaks in the water. If we’d fall in, they would paddle to us, we should hold onto their kayak and they would bring us back to safety.

This alone sounded already adventurous. I was super excited and ready to go in. We jumped in the water. Melvin said we should be wet before falling in the first time. Plus we needed to train how to get back in the boat once fallen off.

Then the tour began. That first rapid was seemingly harmless but Meldin made sure someone fell off. The way he was steering the boat, he intended to flip us in every rapid. He knew we’d love that.

After I climbed back into the boat we continued the tour. Melvin pointed out some crocodiles sunbathing on the rocks at the base of the canyon. I knew there were crocodiles in the Zambezi River. I had seen them further upriver of the famous Victoria Falls. But I assumed they weren’t here. Not in between the rapids. Well, they weren’t. They were on land. But somehow they must go in at some calmer spots here.

But no time to think. The next rapid was coming up. We were paddling, ducking down in the boat, and holding on. One big bounce and two others of our crew got washed off. We pulled them back in and watched the second boat graciously float through this rapid. The other guide had a steering bench at the back of the boat with two big paddles. He controlled it all and kept the boat stable.

Melvin in comparison was sitting like us on one side of the boat and only had one normal paddle in his hands. Plus, he had no intentions of keeping us dry.

The next rapid was too boring due to the high water level, he said. Melvin told us to jump off the boat and swim downriver. As we got to the rapid we were all in the water holding onto the boat. It was really fun and we had all forgotten about those crocodiles already.

The next highlight was some cliff jumping. We docked in a small bay in the canyon, climbed off the boat, into the water, and out of the water onshore. There were three options for jumping in. From one meter, five or ten meters.

Of, course I had to prove a point. As the only girl, I was climbing up the rocks to the ten-meter drop. And yes, once I was up there I did what you shouldn’t do and looked down.

I got scared. But my ego was too big. I took a deep breath and the leap of faith. It felt like forever I was in the air. Until eventually hitting the water. What an adrenaline rush I must say.

Time to continue the trip. The biggest rapid was yet to come. And our biggest wipeout included.

Melvin prepared us. He shouted all the way instructions as we were approaching the big waves. But then we hit the rapid like a wall. I fell off and lost orientation.

I was underwater. Above water. Underwater. Turning. Above water. I was drinking water. Gasping for air and getting pulled down again. Eventually, I saw one of the kayak boys shouting at me. I wasn’t far from him and tried my best paddling towards him through the fast-flowing water.

Eventually, I could grab the front of his kayak and hold on for dear life. He paddled through the rapids and down to the boat which was hovering in a small bay.

Until now I didn’t know what happened. Apart from me falling off. But as I was back in the boat the others told me that the entire boat flipped. I was just the first one falling off. Everyone went in. Including Melvin. He climbed onto the boat and then pulled others back on.

And yeah. I was being pulled down twice from some strong vortex into the rapids. Thanks to the lifejacket I got pushed back up.

“The whirlpool lady” they named me.

We laughed, spat out some river water, shared our feelings and experiences, and continued paddling.

On the next rapid I fell off again. I can’t remember if I was the only one. It wasn’t as bad as the previous one but at one point I was stuck in a vortex again. It didn’t suck me down but turned me in a circle for a couple of rotations before I continued floating downriver.

Never before was I happier about wearing a lifejacket.

Another lame rapid was coming up and Meldin told us to get in the water. I just stayed but grabbed two newly-won friends as I was passing them. They screamed I shouldn’t hold onto them. They didn’t want to get into a whirlpool.

But it was too late. Within seconds of touching them, we were going for the whirlpool and turned faster and faster. We were holding onto each other in a circle and laughed. It was so much fun. For all of us.

I can't remember how long the entire trip took. But I remember arriving at some small beach and slowly climbing out of it. We were all pumped up and full of adrenaline still. But soon the tiredness fell in.

And while we were looking up to the edge of the canyon thinking we had to go all the way up there, Melvin was talking about a last surprise he had for us. We walked a few meters into the forest when all of a sudden a small cable railway appeared.

It was not worth the name of a gondola. There was no door, it looked very basic but we were all too tired to worry about dropping out of it. We were just happy we didn’t have to hike up the canyon.

I can tell you one thing.

I slept well that night. Like a rock.

And this memory of white water rafting is one of the activities I did in Livingstone next to swimming on top of the waterfall, going bungee jumping, and getting drenched in mist turning into a heavy rainfall.

All these memories around and in the Zambezi River are memories I will never forget. And while they were all adrenaline-evoking, the white water rafting topped it.

It was intense. Like really intense. But I loved it.

And yes, I would do it again!

This must have been the best place I’ve ever been on a river. I’ve traveled a lot and lived in a lot of different countries. I’ve seen a lot, I’ve experienced a lot and tried lots of different activities. It’s surely not easy to pick one moment from a lifetime of memories but I’m sharing what I can.

Thank you, Warren for creating this writing prompt in the latest travel pub of Globetrotters. “The Best Place I’ve Been” is a fun idea.

These are part one and two of my series:

And the article about my time at Victoria Falls:

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