On my travels people regularly ask me where my
favorite place is.While it’s difficult to give one specific location the
Zambezi always crops up in there.

For any intermediate paddler and upwards, with a
confidant roll this is the next level for
fun/challenge. Whether you consider yourself a
playboater, a river runner or a hybrid of the two, the
stretch below Victoria falls has something for
everyone. Beautiful emerald colored water,
spectacular world class rapids and play spots, warm
water and cool beer, it’s hard to beat. Unforgettable
for many different reasons

It can be run at any time of the year but if you’re
going to take an international flight there you need
to aim for the ‘low’ water run which generally falls
sometime between July and January depending on the
rain fall of that year. Between January and July the
river is at it’s largest and while possibly the most
spectacular it is so huge that it is too far from the
river bed for the best river running and play boating
features to appear.

My favorite time of the year is the early low water
season anywhere between July and September.
At this time of year the river still has its huge feel
about it but many of the payboating features are
beginning to emerge, rapid 2 and 12b among others.
Also the pour over in 5, among many other lines, will
open up, ask locals for the best way to tackle it…
Above this the days are warm, the nights cool and the
area generally mosquito and therefore Malaria free
(something that never happens in Uganda!). These are
the days when you can run a variety of very huge lines
or cherry pick some of the waves beginning to form.
While huge, because of the strength of the flow the
holes tend to be more forgiving and flushy, although
this is a term or relativity.

The Zambezi is on a constant cycle of change either
rising or falling and as it continues to drop into
October the rapids will change and holes will emerge
and become stickier most specifically rapid 18, a
great place to park off and watch rafters get the snot
beaten out of them.Even though temperatures begin to get obnoxious
towards the end of October/beginning of November the
river is still always world class and it’s easy to
forget how hot it is outside while boating in a
t-shirt on the emerald and cooling waters.

Somewhere around the middle of November the Rainy
season usually starts and is generally associated with
a reduction in the temperature but an increase in the
humidity.From here on the river will reverse its cycle and rise
in jumps linked to storms until it peaks around
April/May.Generally the top section will close commercially
sometime in January (it becomes impossible for Rafters
to portage Number 9 Commercial Suicide) and soon after
this Rapid 11 will form (its more recently well
published) barrel feature.There is a fairly small window on this, somewhere
around two weeks with it being at its very best for a
smaller amount of time (stay in touch with
Hippo/Lovemore to keep a pulse on levels).
And soon after this the river begins to flush all
features out to form large, well lets be real here
f***ing enormous, wave trains which would almost be
lethal to swimmers, it’s an exhilarating but
unforgiving place to kayak and perhaps not rightly
what the river is famous for, the spectacular pool
drops and waves of low water.

AAN 4-07

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Alex Nicks