Arrived in Victoria Falls on the afternoon of the 14th and quickly set about booking some activities. It is wet here and not from the falls, the lightening is flashing and the rain is falling. Laura and I experienced our first mini flood in the tent. Thankfully most of the water stayed under our roll mats, but we did get the edges of our sleeping bags wet and had a slightly uncomfortable night trying to balance us and blankets on our mats that are all of 50cm wide for the night to keep as dry as possible.

We had dinner at Boma on the night we arrived, which is a rather posh game buffet restaurant. I got to try:

- Crocodile - delicious (tasted like chicken)

- guinea fowl - delicious, but the stew had too many splintered bones in it (tasted like duck)

- Warthog - amazingly tender and my new favourite

- Eland - a bit too tough for my liking

- Kudu - very nice if you got a good bit, too tough if you didn't

- Some local worm - which was so disgusting you got a certificate to say you had eaten it.

First full day in Victoria Falls saw me plunge off the bridge that joins Namibia and Zimbabwe in a 111m bungee jump. Did a bungee a few years ago when I was 21 in NZ off a bridge but it was only 50m. Decided that I should do another to remember the feeling as I remembered that I quite enjoyed myself. About 6 from our group did the bungee and the rest took photos and video and generally looked petrified on our behalf. When it was my turn I honestly didn't think I could do it. As my feet were getting secured you have 2 towels wrapped around each leg before being secured together and then to the rope. The guy put a pink towel on and went to put a beige one over; a quick lesson on the fact that pink was my lucky colour and we had a re-wrap where pink was the outside colour towel - started feeling a little less nervous. This is the bungee jump where not so long ago an Australian jumped and the rope snapped; she lived. But they have now moved to the precaution of also having you wear a harness and having an extra safety line attached around your waist.

As I stood at the edge of the platform you had to raise your arms in preparation for the jump. My left arm went out at a 90` angle, my right arm decided that it wished to remain holding on to the rail. My thoughts at this point - you are not going to do this, this is complete madness, you can't do this, you might die! Sounds dramatic, but then you were not standing on a platform about to jump headfirst into a gorge for 111metres! I reminded myself that I had done this before and that the key was to look straight ahead and not down. I jumped; kept my eyes open, and absolutely loved it!!! What an amazing thrill! So glad I did it again.

The following day (16th Jan) we booked for a half day of adrenalin. To be honest I think the bungee adrenalin was still pumping, but I was still excited. I started the day with a flying fox over a gorge. You put a full body harness on back to front - not overly comfortable - and then ran along a platform and flew through the air suspended by your back for about 80m over a gorge. Fun feeling, but not much of high. We then moved to the zip line which was a drop into the gorge where you would reach speeds of 80 - 150km per hour (depends how fat you are), again, it was fun and a bit different, but really just a little boring. Then the activity I had really been waiting for - the gorge swing. As I came back with the guide from the zip line (they come down the line to get you back) we ran through the hardest ways to jump on the gorge swing. In order of difficulty, which 5 being the hardest they were:

1 - just jump out feet first

2 - star fish

3 - sky diver

4 - handstand

5 - death drop

I decided that since I had 2 jumps it would be numbers 4 and 5 for me. In the morning it had been raining so they initially said no to the handstand as the platform was wet and slippery, but when I asked the guy looked and said, ok, seems to have dried out. I was all harnessed up - a full body harness with an additional waist harness on over the top - safety first after all. The gorge swing anchored you at your waist. You fall 70m and then swing in the gorge about 4 - 5 times before being raised back up to the starting platform.

A practice handstand was required and I suddenly had a vision of me bopping my head, legs and feet on the platform. Not possible the knowledgeable guides told me. So I found myself about 130m in the air on the edge of a small platform assuming the push-up position with my hands on the edge as my legs were lifted into the handstand position. I knew as soon as they held onto my legs I was in the position of no return. I pushed out a little, they threw my legs forward and I dove face first into the gorge for 70m or about 3 seconds I am told - what a rush… but I knew I wanted more. Somehow on the way down my body twisted about so that I was in the sitting position that is the natural position for the gorge swing. A few others had their turn and I was up again. Having been survived the handstand launch 2 others from my group decided that they would also give it a go and loved it too.

Second gorge swing and the operator reminded me that I said I would do the death drop. Again, no one that day had done it so far. I had struck a deal with the official videographer and paid him a sneaky USD10 to put my memory card in his camera and record all the fun. Best tenner spent on the trip to date as I now have the funniest and scariest video that you will see of my time in Africa to date. So the death drop is where you stand on the edge of the platform backwards and like you are playing the game of trust you simply allow yourself to fall backwards into the gorge. My whole being screamed - WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Just like it did at the bungee, but I knew I would be disappointed if I didn't do it. So I got myself to turn around and dropped off the edge. The feeling can't be described, it was amazing and terrifying all at the same time. At some point again at the bottom the rope kicked in and I was in the sitting swing position and swinging in the gorge. By this point everyone had used up their 2 turns and there was definitely some jealous members of our group who wished that they had tried. I was buzzing! When Facebook thinks to play nice, hopefully I will get the video online.