Zambia/ Victoria Falls

While in his life explorer and evangelist David Livingstone only succeeded in converting one African soul, in death he got a pretty swell town named after him. Livingstone, Zambia, is home to half of Victoria Falls, which we both agree is one of the most amazing things, one of the most incredible natural wonders one could ever hope to see. An average of 143 million gallons of water cascade over the Falls per minute!
We started off our Vic Falls experience with a bang, or rather, with a scream. That was the sound of Clare free-falling for 3.5 seconds over the edge of a gorge, then swinging over the gorge's golden tree tops on what they call the Zambezi Swing: the biggest adrenaline rush you can imagine, followed by exhaustion and Zen-like calm. Yet that was not enough for these two adventure-seekers.
The next day, we spend the morning and afternoon whitewater rafting on the Zambezi River about 10k down from the Falls. There, we faced death on rapid 16B, otherwise known as "The Terminator." Our boat capsized and we found ourselves fighting for breath in 10ft-high, class 4 rapids. Daniel, in an attempt to rescue Clare, nearly drowned her as he held on tight to her life vest straps. But we survived. The river itself was beautiful as it wound between steep cliff sides dotted by trees just developing their early autumn colors. (Although Zambia's almost coming up on spring, but never mind that.)
Flirting with danger once more, we finished off our trip to Livingstone with an early-morning helicopter ride over the Falls. Daniel, who'd never ridden in a helicopter before, lucked out and got to sit in the front seat. From the air, we finally got a sense of the enormity of it all; from our lookout point two days before we'd only seen an eighth of it. We even saw elephants form above on our way back to the landing pad.
Now, as we write this, we're taxiing back to the border, heading into the Botswana bush once more. (Daniel and Clare)

P.S. And as we write this, a sign on the dash of our taxi reads "Many people who plan to seek God at the 11th hour die at 10:30 hour." It's currently 11AM and there's a man with a semi-automatic machine gun standing outside our parked car. Apparently, he's running late.