last leaps in Zambia

After mirror dancing the night away on Saturday, I did not greet Sunday morning with much enthusiasm. But my grumpy morning disposition quickly transformed into awe and excitement during our last Zambian excursion: the falls gorge swing. The gorge swing is just that - a swing between a very large gorge - but instead of sitting on this swing and pushing yourself off the ground, you get harnessed to a rope and just let yourself tumble over a ledge. 

On the edge. 

Jimmy and I went first. After being strapped into two harnesses we were latched together at the waist, had our legs tied together and then told to waddle to the edge of the platform and "assume the position." Then the gorge guide counted to three and both Jimmy and I lifted up our toes, fell backwards and let gravity pull us into the gorge. 

"Assuming the position" before taking the leap into the gorge. 

It was quite a feeling. We were in free fall for about three seconds before the rope became taught and we began swinging back and forth. 

In free fall!

After swinging for a couple of minutes and taking in our breath-taking surroundings, we were lowered into the gorge, were helped out of our harnesses and climbed back up to the top of the gorge. Once we reached to top I got ready to go again - but this time with Katie!

Katie and I strapped up and ready to go.

You see, everyone in our group wanted to do the tandem gorge swing (where you swing with someone), but we had an odd number of people. I promptly devised a wonderful solution to this conundrum - I volunteered to go twice!

Katie and I moving towards the platform.

Gorge swinging was awesome. Both times. And I really enjoyed swinging with someone because after about one minute of swinging in the gorge the harness starts to pinch in certain places... So it's nice to have someone to commiserate with during the swing.

Katie and I free falling.

I have now done both bungee jumping and gorge swinging and I think I prefer the swing more. And I would highly recommend it to anyone in the Vic Falls area - or near any gorge for that matter.

After the gorge swing, we got a ride to the border and crossed into Zimbabwe where we began the next leg of our adventure (Zim-tales coming soon in the next blog)!