5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - Bungeeeeeeeeee!

Today saw me cap a great few days in Livingstone, Zambia with my first ever bungee jump! I'd spent the last few days avoiding it by doing plenty of other exciting activities here in Livingstone (more of which to follow), but today i finally did it. Not only that but I also did a gorge swing and a zip line too!



After my delayed departure from Dar es Salaam last week, I made it to Zambia on Sunday when I flew in to the capital Lusaka, after a short 15 minute stop over in Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (another country ticked off the list!). Following a night in Lusaka, I caught the bus and arrived in Livingstone on Monday afternoon.

Livingstone benefits from being the closest Zambian town to Victoria Falls (one of the seven wonders of the world they say, although I'm sure I've been to at least 15 places that claim this honour!). The falls form part of the mighty Zambezi River, and also mark the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. I checked in to the wonderful Jollyboys hostel in town and looked forward to an exciting few days.

After a relaxing few days on Zanzibar and my extended stay in Dar es Salaam I was more than ready for an adrenaline rush, which fortunately Livingstone is one of the best places in the world to come to for! So I got straight to it and booked a white water rafting trip for the following day....

An early start the next morning saw me join a group of five Danish guys who were also staying at my hostel and we headed off to the river with our guides for the day. A safety talk explained all the various ways we could fall in to the water and how we'd be rescued depending just how far from the boat we'd managed to fall - a lot to remember at 8am in the morning! We then jumped in to our large inflatable raft and headed off to the first of the 25 rapids that we would be tackling.

The rapids! (the bridge over the Zambezi River is where I was later to bungee jump from)

A video of the rafting is now up on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f2YmM-8ExU which gives a good idea of my experience of charging through the rapids. Each had a different category between 1 and 5 so some were more extreme than others, but this stretch of the Zambezi is supposed to have some of the best rafting in the world so we had an incredible ride down the river.

At one point the boat flipped over in one of the rapids throwing us in to the river and the boat upside down, while we also spent what felt like an eternity surfing one of the rapids! The video shows you both the flip and the surfing.

That evening we then went on a sunset cruise down the Zambezi river where we just about managed to tear ourselves away from the free bar to spot crocodiles, hippos and an elephant along the river - a great end to a fantastic day.

On the sunset cruise

An elephant comes to say hello

African sunset

After a quiet Wednesday (partly to recover from the after effects of the free bar), I spent yesterday getting a closer look of the falls themselves, heading to some viewpoints in the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park and taking a guided walk over to Livingstone Island. The highlight of this walk was without doubt the swim in Devil's Pool, a natural swimming pool at the very top of the falls. The photos below show just how close to the edge it is!

Jumping in to Devils Pool

Sitting on the edge of Devil's Pool

The culmination of this involved the guide holding you by the ankles and allowing to lean out over the falls and look down the 75m drop of the falls. This was nothing short of terrifying and I didn't lean particularly far over the edge, but an incredible experience all the same.

Living on the edge

And so to today and my bridge jumping exploits! I signed up for a 'Big Air' package which combined a bungee jump with a gorge swing and a zip wire ride across the gorge. Rather than build up to it gently by starting with the more sedate zip wire we were straight in to the bungee jump - for me at least the scariest of the three.

Again, the photos probably show you the experience better than I could really describe, but it was a nervy period of getting set up and edging my way to the platform edge, followed by an incredible adrenaline rush as I plummeted off the bridge!

This was then followed by the almost as terrifying gorge swing, which involved jumping feet first off the bridge which was much less disorientating and allowed me to take in the incredible natural surroundings of the gorge that the bridge crosses.

And so that's my adrenaline packed few days in Zambia in a nutshell - an amazing few days in beautiful surroundings. I'm glad I'm able to tell the tale!

Fingers crossed!

Don't look down - doh, too late!

Taking a deep breath

Aaaaaaaagh!

Daniel dangles

Getting nervous before the gorge swing

Down again - this time on the gorge swing

Now I head off to Zimbabwe to start a three week overland trip with a tour company through Botswana and Namibia, which takes me all the way down to Cape Town in South Africa. It's likely to involve lots of driving, but also plenty more opportunities for adventure!