There are a number of activities on offer at Victoria Falls. These include ‘high-wire’ activities. These are: bungee jumping, bridge and gorge swings, zip line and flying fox.
The place is, of course ideal for these activities. It has the iconic Rhodes Bridge which links Zimbabwe with Zambia. There are also the series of gorges that zig zag away from the falls. These ae very deep with the Zambesi river flowing at extreme speeds below.
I booked myself in to do the zip line. I was told that it was half way between do the flying fox (very lame) and the gorge swing. The Swiss Nurse in our party booked herself into doing the gorge swing. The English bloke and the young Canadian girl booked to do the bridge swing.
I arrived at the Lookout Café at the appointed time to do the zip line.
Norwegian Girls Argue
The taking off points for the zip line and the swing are a short walk from the café.
When I arrived someone had just jumped into the gorge on the swing. Their friends were watching. They turned out to be a group of Norwegian girls. When the ‘swinger’ emerged at the top of the gorge there was lot of excitement and animated discussion in Norwegian.
The girl who had just done the swing was shaking like leaf. She told me that “that was just so scary, but so good”. She tried to stop her hands from shaking by holding them together. It was to no avail.
Next to swing were two of her friends. They were doing a tandem swing – tied together.
There was an awful lot of carry on before they finally jumped. Their screams could be heard above the sound of the water.
It takes some time before the ‘swingers’ are brought back to the top of the gorge.
Even before they were at the top of the gorge the voices of the girls could be heard. They were clearly having an argument.
As they were being unshackled, the argument continued. Their friends were standing next to me and were in hysterics. The ‘swingers’ walked to towards us and switched from speaking Norwegian into English: “we were supposed to jump at the same time….it was your fault the we didn’t… no it was your fault…can’t you count to three?…..”. It went on and on.
Apparently because they didn’t jump at the same time, they immediately started to spin and could not stop spinning. Not only did they have a 120 plus metre free fall drop followed by the swing, but they were also spinning like a top.
After they had calmed down, I asked them “why did you switch to speaking English. They told that they I assumed that I would be able to understand English and that it would have been rude to keep speaking Norwegian.
It was all very amusing
My Turn on the Zip Line
Next it was my turn to do the zip line. It is like a flying fox, but drops down into the gorge and up the other side.
I was told by one of the operators that I would be travelling at 80 kilometres per hour.
The photos and the video show what happens.
It is a bit of thrill, but not nearly as scary as the swing.
The video shows how quickly it is all over. It does however understate how low to the water the line goes.
You can see from the photos and the video that one of the operators came to collect me. Some people who have seen the photos assumed that something went wrong and I was being rescued. That was not the case. It is simply how the thing works.
Swiss Nurse Jumps
Next to do the swing was the Swiss Nurse from our party. As I have previously noted, she is a very assuming girl. Some of her comments before and after the swing were priceless.
There is a great shot of her on Flickr at the start of her free fall.
There is also a video of her reaction after the jump.
French Bloke is a Show-off
After the Swiss girl had jumped, it was the turn of a French bloke. He had booked to do the two swings, the bungee jump and the bridge and the zip line.
He was clearly a serial jumper, having done these sort of jumps around the world. He asked me to take a ‘slow motion video’ of him leaving the swing platform using his Apple Phone. To my amazement I actually did a good job of taking the video.
Flickr Link (Videos)
Flickr Link (Photos)
Wild Horizons Link
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