River Festival
Zambezi River Festival
It's back...
5 days packed full of awesome races, competitions, prizes and parties, on one of the greatest rivers in the world.
Book your time off work, sell your car/house/gran, lie*, cheat*, steal*, whatever it takes to make sure you get out there, you know it makes sense!
The 2018 Zambezi Festival is back. Bigger, better and more FUN!
*(probably not best to do these things)
Day One
We suggest arriving the day before. There will be last minute registration this morning between 6 and 7 before we take to the mighty Zambezi for a group paddle from rapids 1-25. It's a real hoot paddling with plenty of like minded folks and even if you are paddling "widow" come on down in a raft! We get to the take out around 2pm and back into town in time for the sunset cruise.
Day Two
Our second river day bring the Down River Race, an endurance event starting in the eddy at the boiling pot, rapid number one and ending at the top of the gorge at rapid number 10 with your boat, with number 9 being a mandatory portage for all competitors. For the whole competition you must use the same boat, so choose wisely; do you want to use an all out playboat with not much speed but is great for the rodeo or a longer boat with more downriver speed? Each round is equally weighted so choose a boat that’ll play to your strengths as a boater. After the downriver race you might want to spend the rest of the day chilled out and recovering for the next day, maybe head over to Livingstone Island to see the falls from the top in the Devils Pool, or just hang out at the backpackers with a beer and some good friends.
Day Three
Todays entertainment includes a head to head race at rapid number 5, ‘Stairway to Heaven’. Two at a time, paddlers will line up above the rapid and it’s a straight forward race down to the bottom, with the winner from each round going through to the next round until we have a King (and Queen!) of the day. After the head to head we’ll blast down to number 7 for an afternoon of fun slalom taking the best time along with points for making gates stuck in strategic (and sometimes tricky) spots throughout the rapid. Afterwards we'll have a braai and beers to top off a great day above Number 7.
Day Four
Today will see us holding a Fancy Dress raft race from the boiling pot (rapid 1) to Rapid 10. Teams of 6 charge downstream, portaging number 9, fastest to the bottom wins with of course extra marks for fancy dress!
After lunch we'll make our way down to Rapid 12B for the rodeo. We'll score the event according to the ICF rules, although old school and comedy moves will also of course be encouraged!
Day Five
The final day of the festival, boo! We've still got lots of fun in store though, starting of with the final race will take place - a simple downriver race for the top 12 competitors, but with a twist that will be revealed on the day! Once we've all scrambled out of the gorge we'll all head out to the glamourous location of our fine prizegiving event followed by a suitably sophisticated evening in town to wind up a great week.
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Days 9-12 - Optional Multiday trip.
We're running a special multiday trip after the festival for anyone who hasn't quite had enough of Nyami Nyami yet! This is a four day three night trip down to Moemba, have a look at our Four Day Playground for some more information on the trip. This will be a great way to round off the week exploring further downstream all that the Zambezi has to offer.
Interested in this amazing trip?
