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Africa
Africa
The Zambezi: Zimbabwe
The Smoke that Thunders |
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The mellow upper Zambezi River lets paddlers drift lazily along and delight in the exotic African wildlife, but once the river plummets over the edge of Victoria Falls, it's another story. The native Kalolo-Lozi call them"Mosi-oa-Tunya," ("The Smoke that Thunders") because of the constant roar and huge sheets of rising mist formed when the 5,600-foot-wide falls plunge into a narrow chasm. The monstrous power of the falls (which are twice as wide and twice as deep as Niagra Falls) turbo-charge the Middle Zambezi into an explosive maelstrom of whitewater. The river catapults out of the chasm and squeezes into a channel less than 200 feet wide and 400 feet long, emerging into the "Boiling Pot" and rushing onward into a zigzag gorge hundreds of feet deep and sixty miles long. The combination of water, gravity and rock ratchets the Zambezi into a Class V behemoth that boasts oceanic waves twenty-feet high. You won't find a hairier ride anywhere on earth.
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The White Nile: Uganda
The world's longest river, the fabled Nile, drains one-tenth of Africa and is fed by three main tributaries, the Blue Nile, the Atbara and the White Nile. The latter flows out of the sprawling Lake Victoria in Uganda, where it quickly picks up steam to create some of Africa's mightiest whitewater. Enormous standing waves offer the roller-coaster ride of a lifetime on the most fabled river on the planet, whose waters flow north more than 4,000 miles before emptying into the Mediterranean. Some fifteen miles of raging rapids alternate with stretches of calm water, allowing you to catch your breath and marvel at the hippos and crocodiles plying the water alongside your raft. When night falls, camp on an island midstream and celebrate making it through the"Novocaine" rapids before tackling the infamous "Hair of the Dog" rapids the next day.
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