Raft-camping trips

FULL DAY / OVERNIGHT:

Day ONE: Full day of rafting as per the usual one-day low water rafting trip ending just above rapid no 23. You will overnight at our campsite situated on the banks of the river. You will be supplied with tents, bedrolls and sleeping bags from Adventure Zone. It is recommended to bring your own sleeping bags, if required. This evening you will enjoy a delicious dinner under the big African night sky warmed by a big bonfire. We will supply beers (Castle), red and white wine. Should you wish to have other alcoholic beverages they can be purchased by yourself prior to the start of the trip and will bring them into the camp nightly.

Day TWO: After enjoying a full English breakfast, you walk out of the gorge, which is a strenuous climb of the equivalent to climbing a 70-storey building, at the top a vehicle will be waiting to transfer you back to town. The drive back from the gorge is approximately 25kms. You will return to town by around 10h00

2.5 DAY TRIP:

(The camp sites may change due to movement of beaches/camp sites):

DAY ONE: Full day of rafting as usual one day low water rafting trip and camping below rapid 23, at our overnight camp.

DAY TWO: From hereafter the flat stretches between rapids becomes longer. Your first rapid is ‘Open Season’. You then continue through ‘The Narrows’ after which you will have lunch. After lunch you head on down the river through rapids ‘Chimamba’ and “Upper Mowemba”, then portage around the spectacular grade 6 rapid “Lower Mowemba” to our overnight campsite just below but with a short climb allowing an awesome view of the “Lower Mowemba” rapid.

DAY THREE: After enjoying a full English breakfast, you continue along to the Dam site where you are met by our porters to guide you to the vehicle at the top of the gorge. Once all the equipment is up, you board the vehicle and head for home. The drive back to town is 62km, with the first 12km being very slow, thereafter it is a secondary road all the way home and will take about 2 hours maximum

If you need to arrive back in town earlier, we can change the overnight stop to be at the Dam site at top of the gorge overlooking the “Ghost Rider” rapids. After breakfast, you would then board the vehicle and will go directly back to town.

3 DAY TRIPS:

(The camp sites may change due to movement of beaches/camp sites):

DAY ONE: Full day of rafting as usual one day low water rafting trip and camping below rapid 23, at our overnight camp.

DAY TWO: From hereafter the flat stretches between rapids becomes longer. Your first rapid is ‘Open Season’. You then continue rafting through ‘The Narrows’ after which you have lunch. After lunch you head on down the river through ‘Chimamba’ and “Upper Mowemba”, you then arrive at your second portage of the trip where we all carry our rafts around this spectacular “Lower Mowemba” waterfall which is clearly a grade 6 rapid. After the portage it is a very short paddle around the corner to the ‘Ampitheatre’ where we camp on the beaches in this awesome setting.

DAY THREE: After enjoying a full English breakfast, you continue rafting, this section is mainly very flat with one small rapid at the entry to the portage stopping point just above “the Dam site rapids”. We then portage “The Dam Site rapids” and get back into our rafts to continue on the flat water to our final rapid of the day being “Ghost Rider”. Here we stop and scout the rapid before running it, this rapid is truly the best rapid to finish your trip with as it is the largest set of waves on the Zambezi river. After rafting through this rapid, everyone stops on the right-hand side of the river where 2 alternatives are on offer (and needs to be pre-booked accordingly):

You can walk out of the Gorge, it is not a hard climb, but it is a relatively long walk, at the top of the gorge the truck will be waiting with beers and soft drinks to welcome you. Again, drinks are limited. Once all the equipment is up, we board the vehicle and head for home. The drive back to town is 62km, with the first 12km being very slow, thereafter it is a secondary road all the way home finishing off with the last 13km of tar and will take about 3 hours maximum.

You can fly by helicopter, out of the gorge over the Falls and back to Victoria Falls town. In this scenario, you relax while drinks and snacks are served whilst waiting for the helicopter to arrive. When it arrives, you are required to climb on immediately and will then go on to enjoy a flight over the gorges and finally over the Victoria Falls before landing at the Heli pad in Vic Falls.

You are then transferred back to The Adventure Zone offices to collect their valuables and any other items left behind, before going on to your hotels. Those choosing the Helicopter option will only receive their bags from the trip later that evening as they will come back by road on our vehicle.

5 DAY TRIPS:

(The trip varies from day 3 onwards depending on water levels but covers the same section of the river. The camp sites may change due to movement of beaches/camp sites):

DAY ONE: Full day of rafting as per the usual one-day low water rafting trip and camping at our overnight camp just below rapid 23.

DAY TWO: From hereafter the flat stretches between rapids becomes longer. Your first rapid is ‘Open Season’. We then continue through ‘The Narrows’ after which we stop for lunch. After lunch we head on down the river through ‘Chimamba’ and “Upper Mowemba” to our overnight campsite just beyond “Upper Mowemba”.

DAY THREE: After portaging “Lower Mowemba” we continue along to the Dam site where we do our third and final portage. After this we continue downstream to “Ghost Rider” then “Deep Throat” where we ghost the rafts through while having lunch. We raft through another section of narrows with short sharp drops, very exciting! We then conclude the day with “Asleep at the Wheel” which is the last major rapid of the trip. We camp downstream of “Asleep at the Wheel”.

DAY FOUR: After breakfast, continue downstream through Grade 2 and Grade 3 rapids up to Hippo’s camp where you will spend the night on the banks of the river.

DAY FIVE: After breakfast, we navigate ‘Fish Eagle’s Delight’ and onto our take-out point at Matetsi where we are transported back to town. The transfer is a 3-hour drive along the road from Milibizi to Hwange through to Victoria Falls.

RAFT – CAMPING TRIPS INCLUDE:

All meals, soft drinks, orange juice (cordial), water as well as small amount of beers and wines. However due to the longevity of the trip these are not bottomless supplies. Should clients have a preferred alcohol, they may supply these themselves, or if clients want more, we can easily arrange this for a small fee.

Guides and Safety Kayakers.

All rafting equipment.

All camping equipment.

Sleeping bags (if required, however we recommend clients bring their own).

First aid kit

Satellite phone (for safety)

What you should bring:

Sleeping bag (we do have these but people usually prefer to use their own), Shorts (quick drying type is best), T-shirts (quick drying type is best), swimming costume (or board shorts), shoes which you do not mind getting wet, head torch, towel and tracksuit for the evenings, cap/hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, insect repellent and toiletries. Any cameras brought along, are done so at their own risk.

MEALS:

Breakfast:

Full English breakfast including eggs, bacon, tomatoes, sausage, baked beans, toast, jam with tea and coffee.

Lunches:

These may change slightly but they will be similar to the below:

Chicken pieces, potato salad and green salad plus bread or rolls

Cold meat, rolls and salad. Bread or rolls

Mini Meatballs in sauce, pasta and green salad. Bread or rolls

Steak, potato salad and green salad. Bread or rolls

Cottage pie with coleslaw salad. Bread or rolls

Beef lasagne with green salad. Bread or rolls

Dinner:

These may vary but will be similar to the below options:

Rice, chicken curry and green salad with bread or rolls and dessert of ice cream

Spaghetti Bolognaise with cheese, green salad and dessert of pancakes & cinnamon sugar

Steak/Chops and chips with green salad or vegetables. Dessert of trifle

Fish (bream or hake fillet) with mashed potato and green salad plus tartar sauce. Dessert of fruit crepes with syrup

Braai over the fire including boerewors, steak or chicken (two meats), baked potatoes, green salad, garlic bread. Dessert of Fruit Salad

Beef kebabs, potato salad, coleslaw. Bread or Rolls. Dessert of Choc Bananas

FOOD AND DRINKS SUPPLIED

On overnights we supply dinner and a full English cooked breakfast.

On the overnight, 2.5, 3 day and 5-day trips we supply all meals. The camps are stocked with beers, wines (SA), soft drinks (these are limited amounts and can be increased at a cost available on request). Clients may bring their own spirits or drinks, if they wish, but will have to pay porters/handling fees for us to get them into camp.

DEPARTURE TIMES AND MEETING PLACES

Raft – Camping trips run from end August to Mid-December. Please note that these trips are water level dependant and only operate in the low water season.

All trips depart from The Adventure Zone offices in Victoria Falls returning on the last day of the trip days, so on day 3 of the 2.5 day, day 3 on the 3 day and on day 5 of the 5 day.

We now have set departure dates for our 2.5 day, 3day and 5 day trips.

Overnight camping trips can be done on any day as long as minimum numbers are met.

MINIMUM / MAXIMUM PAX

Overnight Min Pax 4 Max Pax 20

2.5/3-day trip Min Pax 4 Max Pax 20

5-day trip Min Pax 4 Max Pax 20

The Maximum number is due to the sleeping bag number, should larger groups want to do these trips, they will need only to bring their own sleeping bags and then we can cater for up to 50 people.

VIDEOS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

2.5-day, 3 day and 5-day trip videos can be organised on agreed pre-sales.

EXPERIENCE AND FITNESS

No previous rafting experience is required, and clients need not be proficient swimmers. At the beginning and at the end of the 2.5- & 3-day raft trip clients have to negotiate a steep path in and a long (1.6 to 2km) walk out of the Gorge. The walk out is 750 vertical feet up at a reasonable gradient, and a person of average fitness can manage this in about 30 to 45 minutes.

RAFTS AND EQUIPMENT

The company uses some of the finest equipment on the market to ensure that the trip is a safe and enjoyable one. Rafts are purchased from Ark in South Africa and are the tried and tested river rafts required for the Zambezi River. Extreme high flotation life jackets and safety helmets are issued to clients for the rafting trips. We supply all camping equipment, tents, sleeping bags, mattresses, dry bags, etc. on our overnight, 2.5-day, 3 day and 5-day trips.

Clients need to bring shorts, T-shirts, costume, shoes, towel and tracksuit for the evenings, cap, sunglasses, sunscreen, insect repellent and toiletries.

GUIDES AND SAFETY

Guides are fully trained professionals, and all hold valid advanced first aid certificates. Whilst every precaution is taken, it is essential that agents make clients aware that there is a risk of injury associated with the activity of rafting on the Zambezi. A comprehensive first aid kit and skid stretcher is carried on each trip. Each client is required to sign the Adventure Zone White Water Rafting indemnity form prior to departure. Each trip leader is in radio and Satellite phone contact with our base in Victoria Falls and direct with M.A.R.S. (Medical Air Rescue Service).

PUBLIC LIABILITY

Our activities are all covered by a US$ 2 000 000 Public Liability Insurance Policy with SATIB and this is underwritten by Lloyds of London.

RATES 2019

Full day and overnight: US$ 235 per person

2.5 days / 2 nights – low water US$ 550 per person

3 days / 2 nights – low water US$ 717 per person

5 days / 4 nights – low water US$ 974 per person