That night was our tour’s last night wholly together, so we had a big one! It was also Colin’s retirement and also his birthday so he had a huge one! It was bucketing down at one point and I had my back-pack with me and Abbey was keen to leave as well as worried about staying at her campsite. So we left, I escorted her to her place with the deal of her being able to crash at my room in the spare bed if her power was out. Her power wasn’t out so she went on in and I went on to my hotel. Before arriving I felt that I’d like to not yet go to sleep so I dumped my gear and returned to the backpackers where the party was still kicking and people bought me drinks upon returning!

Eventually I did actually go back to the hotel and sleep, but soon enough I was off again – this time on my way to a large section of gorge so I could take the plunge of the largest free fall along the Zambezi (at least near Vic Falls). At 70m it was larger than the bungy jump and the gorge swing on the Zambia side, and I was really looking forward to it! The idea was a 70m free fall straight down the side of the cliff, then a 95m pendulum swing out from there. Fantastic, sign me up!
Lucky was the guy who picked me up and we got out to the gorge and he took me through it a couple of times, telling me the different ways to jump off. After I asked again the options (backwards arm crossed, forward sky dive & forward pencil dive) he mentioned another way – do a handstand and then fall head first. Alright, we had a winner! And before I really had any psyche-up time I was up on my hands (my feet held up by another bloke) and Lucky was starting to whoop in my ear to get me off. There’s no turning back when someone’s gripping you like that so I counted myself down from 3 and plunged.
I don’t really know what I was expecting before I fell, but what I was expecting as I fell was imminent death, and boy did my scream give it away! Hearing it on the video footage is really quite funny – it’s not a normal “woooo-yeah” sort of scream, it really sounds like the person making it is going to die. Lucky says on camera while I’m swinging “Have to ask him what the problem was… perhaps it was too much beer last night”. Maybe it was, but rushing at an oncoming cliff base didn’t help! Anyway it was a mad rush and I’d love to do it again any time!

Flight DJ188
Brisbane --> Auckland