Victoria Falls has long been renowned for the adrenalin-fuelled activities on offer. You can leap from the bridge on one of the highest bungee jumps in the world. You can raft the white-water rapids, abseil and zip line through the sheer sided Bakota Gorge or jet boat the Zambezi. Now, however, a new craze is taking over, named simply “the fall”.
Pioneered on the Kawarau and Shotover rivers in New Zealand, it’s been brought to Zimbabwe by rafting specialists Wild White Water. “The idea came when I was on a roller-coaster ride at a park near Auckland,” WWW director Brad Haines explained. “I wondered whether I could combine the gut-wrenching excitement of the ride with the thrill of white water. It’s taken over three years to perfect, but it was worth the wait!”
So what is “the fall”? “It involved a high-tech piece of equipment called “the coffin”.“It’s a waterproof capsule, weighted at the bottom to float upright and with its own internal oxygen supply. The top is a high-impact Perspex dome. Inside it’s fitted with memory foam to fit itself exactly to the occupant’s body shape. We put you in and push you off.”
The ride starts just below the Falls when you are dropped into the water from a platform. The capsule is swept downstream, running three rapids before being recovered in a large river eddy where the current drops. The capsule is fitted with GPS so it can be tracked at all times in case it becomes snagged underwater or misses the recovery point.
“Its an awesome experience. You are underwater for about half the time, tossed and tumbled around and being so low in the water really gives you a feel for the speed and power of the water that surrounds you.”
The cost? Not cheap at US$395 per ride but a unique experience. And do they have any plans to ride the coffin over the Falls themselves?
“We’ve done the Christchurch Falls, but they are much smaller. There’s no reason not too, we just need the right conditions of enough water to give the depth but not too much to make it too turbulent. Watch this space, I’ll be the first to go.”
