Kayaking down the Zambezi, to those in the know, is one of the all-time great adventures. There you are, deftly navigating (hopefully) around crocs and hippos on a river deep in central Africa. On the opposite riverbank is Zimbabwe. If you’ve got the constitution for it, it is an exploration well worth the effort.
Of course, because this is a WOW! Travel Club journey, we added a few surprises and enhancements. In this case, we were coached by a modern-day Dr. Livingstone, in the form of one Paul Connolly, a world-renowned solo explorer who, among other feats of extreme machismo, kayaked for three weeks on an uncharted river in the Congo. Without money. Or compass. Or camera, map, GPS, or for that matter, any means of communicating with the outside world. Wow!
Paul welcomed us at the Royal Livingstone Lodge in Livingstone, Zambia, where we shared cocktails in the bar and listened in awe to his stories of life in southern Africa. Growing up in the remote bush of Rhodesia, getting his law degree, making partner and then giving it all up to follow his passion for nature and the wild. Being attacked by a leopard in his home. Witnessing the pathetic decline of Zimbabwe after Robert Mugabe gained power. Training (at age 40) for the Olympic Rowing team – with a .45 revolver to ward off hippo and crocodiles. This is one fearless man.
As he spoke about his amazing life, I’m certain all of us took a mental inventory of our own life experiences. Perhaps Paul’s experiences would motivate us to tap into our own inner explorer. Maybe we’d be challenged to live a more unconventional and daring life. Or perhaps hearing his stories would ignite that spark of gratitude – as traveling and meeting new people often does … reminding us how good we really have it.
Paul joined us the next day, providing an entertaining safety briefing which managed to quell at least some of our fears about the task at hand. Once in the water, he led our flotilla of kayaks as we played wanna-be explorers on the Zambezi, pointing out wildlife and birds to us while keeping a wary eye out for submerged hippos, the leading killers of tourists around these parts of Africa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Gz8BxJx0w
After an exhilarating and (thankfully) uneventful journey down river, we arrived at our destination – well short of Victoria Falls where the Zambezi plunges headlong into a 300 ft vertical chasm and creates the biggest curtain of falling water in the world.
Alighting from the water craft, with wobbly legs and aching muscles – another surprise! Greeting us with enormous smiles is a choir of children, serenading us with a medley of traditional African folk songs mixed with a few of our own traditional rhythms. A particularly tall member of our group was inspired to dance . . . to the great amusement of the children, as he boogied down with his long white wobbly legs! (His dance moves are featured in the video included with this travel post!)
The Ebenezer Child-Care Trust is a labor of love, started by Mrs. Ranji Chara. She came to Zambia from Sri Lanka with her husband – a doctor – in 1982 on a three-year contract. Like so many who visit Africa and find themselves inexpressibly drawn to this wild continent, the Charas never left. Troubled by the epidemic of street children (mostly AIDS orphans), Ranji started a program in 2001 to provide food for these children. Ranji’s good intentions blossomed into a bigger vision: “A Place to Call Home and Someone to Call Mother.” She tells us the Ebenezer project has expanded to include a primary school, a home for babies and a farm to produce food. That they now have four homes where abused and orphaned children live with house parents and grow up with the love and care of a family unit. We were deeply moved by her quiet sense of purpose.
On the dusty drive back to our luxury lodge, we reflect back on the day’s experiences and the extraordinary people we’ve met. An intrepid explorer, an indomitable humanitarian and two dozen happy, hopeful children. It’s in these moments that I marvel about the power of travel to unify, connect and enlighten. It is these extraordinary connections that confirm that my purpose on this planet is to take people on a journey – in every sense of the word. Our group has gained a deeper and richer understanding of the history, the people, the challenges – and the hope – for the future of the Dark Continent. And that makes me immensely happy.
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