The Africa Journals, Ch. 34, She Flies through the Air

The Africa Journals

Chapter 34

She flies through the air

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover—Mark Twain

All right!   I am stoked.  I’ve been looking forward to this since before the trip began.  It isn’t on the itinerary; it isn’t even an optional side trip for purchase.   I found this on the internet, all by myself.

When I ask Brian about it, he helps with the arrangements, though I think he’s a bit surprised.   Fortunately, it’s with a company that Vantage deals with for other things that are on our itinerary.  I talk Jen into going with me, and she brings her husband Ken.

And now, here we go.  We drive towards the entrance to Victoria Falls Park, but turn off immediately before the park and drive down a bumpy dirt road.  The van slows for a railroad crossing and the hawkers come out of the bushes.  On we go and soon stop at a nice lapa (pavilion) on the cliff above the First Gorge at Victoria Falls.

The Wild Horizons lapa.

Just as I step out into the open, a woman to my right launches herself head first into the gorge.  

Good thing she’s hooked up in a harness attached to a cable or the result would have changed my mind about what I was here to do.   She’s now suspended almost four hundred feet above the turmoil beneath her.

Can you see her?   She's dressed in white and is above the set of green posts on the right.

A guide straps me into a harness.   Ah, ha, ha, I’m not about to jump off the edge of that cliff.   No Flying Fox for me.   Nope, I’m heading to the zip line.

Jen

Ken

We walk down a path to a platform on the edge of the cliff.   Ken and Jen go first.   .

The zip line platform is on the left.

A Wild Horizons employee is lowered to retrieve them by hooking onto their rigging.   An electric motor pulls them back to the platform a lot slower than they went down.

This is a Wild Horizon's photo shot from the opposite bank of the gorges and that is the zip line.   Let me tell you, you're a lot closer to the water than it appears from this photo.  You can see the bridge in the First Gorge right at the horizon..

Then it’s my turn.

Climb down a step.

And another step....

Put your heels on that tiny strip of angle iron

Let the harness take the weight....

And off you go......

See me down there?

Follow the farthest extent of the water in the center of the photo.  I'm the little white spot in the foliage.

Of course I'd do it again!!!

The green sign under my arm reads:  Enter at your own risk.

What a screaming kick!

Playing with the resident goat.   It likes to push against your shoe.

This is a link to a video showing my ride, plus more adventures offered by Wild Horizons.    The whole thing is fantastic.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iMx_moIrS0&feature=em-upload_owner 


PS:   That was NOT me screaming on the video.