Vic Falls, Free Falls and the Missing Millions

July 1st-5th


After a glorious night of drinking in the Joburg airport, we awoke with an enthusiasm that could have only come from sleeping on metal benches.

Alas, it was time to say our goodbyes. To Aisha, our battle-scarred Renault Koleos, who we eagerly gave back the day before; and to Dan and Dora, who needed to return to Canada to resume their normal lives.After our goodbyes, we said farewell to South Africa, jumping on an early flight to Livingstone, Zambia.

Livingstone itself is not a touristic draw, however, its proximity to the mighty Victoria Falls makes it the ideal place for a home base.

The Victoria Falls are nestled in between Zambia and Zimbabwe and flow into the Zambezi river. The rushing falls, dramatic cliffs and swirling mist make the falls a spectacular sight and also an ideal location for some death-defying activities.The first near impossible tasks we attempted were to withdraw money and survive Canada Day. Unfortunately, I failed at both.

Zambia uses a hyper-inflated currency called the Kwatcha. Buying lunch will cost you between 15-16 thousand Kwatchas. It is the first and probably only time in my life that I will have the opportunity to withdraw 1.5 million.

Now here is where the problem arose: having 1.5 million on you and it being Canada Day obviously leads to some unfortunate circumstances, or at least it does if you name is James Michael Schuster.

After much partying and imbibing, I checked my wallet the following morning and found that all my money was either missing or had been taken. It turned out that the night before I had passed out on a glorious mound of pillows for several hours and later stumbled back to my room for the rest of the night.

Potential theft aside, I am fortunate that my passport, credit card and all other valuables which were also in the same pocket were thankfully still intact.Because I had already paid for the hostel, food and some other items, I calculated I probably lost around 725,000 Kwatchas, or roughly 150$ Canadian.

I was obviously upset, so I decided to do what any other person would have done after losing nearly a million: I decided to jump off a bridge.No not in a life-ending manner, but in the form of the world's 3rd highest bungee-jump!

Although I had told myself that after jumping out of a gondola in the Swiss Alps 4 years prior I could cross bungee-jumping off my bucket list, but the prospect of a morale and adrenaline boost far outweighed the fear of possible death that comes with bungee-jumping.

Chris O. and I signed our names and the indemnity forms and within 30 minutes I was standing on the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe with an over-sized elastic band fastened around my ankles. As I hopped to the ledge, 111m over the Zambezi river, I probably said "Oh My God" around 50 times.
I was instructed to assume the Christ-the-Redeemer pose and take my leap of faith. I had found Jesus, because I had jumped off a bridge and 30 seconds later I was still alive. I was then lifted back onto the bridge by an African angel tethered to the bridge.

To be honest, I was happy to touch solid ground again, and decided to celebrate by jumping off a second time!

This time we did what was called a gorge-swing. There are some not-so-subtle differences between bungee-jumping and the swing.

While you jump off the same platform, the swing is even more terrifying for several reasons: the first being that with bungee jumping you decelerate as you descend, whereas with the swing you actually accelerate when the rope is taut at the bottom position. A second difference is that normally bungee-jumping is like a graceful dive off an excessively high diving board, whereas the swing you are actually free-falling for 4 seconds, looking up at the sky, reliving every nightmare you have ever had where you are falling to your death. The fear is far greater but so is the reward: the adrenaline high that comes with it!

Chris and I actually did it in tandem so we could share the moment together, console each other and could avoid justifying the fact that we were jumping off the bridge for a second time.

In the days that followed, we turned it down a notch and just went white-river rafting on the Zambezi river.

The scariest moment during our entire stay in Zambia was when I fell out of the raft on the first, yes I said first, rapid of the day and thought I would drown because I stayed underwater for an uncomfortably long time.

Luckily I left Zambia in one piece and I must retract a statement I made in a previous post: Namibia is not the extreme sports capital of southern Africa, Zambia is,there is no doubt in my mind!