LAST WAVE OF THE ZAMBEZI
THE OVERHEAD STANDING WAVE THAT BREAKS, IN THE MIGHTY ZAMBEZI IS NO SECRET. DISCOVERED BY KAYKERS OVER 20 YAERS AGO, MORE THAN A FEW SURFERS HAVE MADE THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE KALAHARI TO EXPLORE ITS QUIRKY WAVES TIMELESS CURVES. BUT NOW THANKS TO A LARGELY ILL-CONSIDERED HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER SCHEME, AFRICA’S WEIRDEST WAVE MAY SOON BE NO MORE
My phone pings near the dregs of my second beer at Dropkick Murphy. New message from my connection Sean Edington, a river guide on the Zambezi. “It’s just started. You coming?” And there was a picture, bad angle, but you could see the lip and the curl of the wave and that was enough. The wave normally only lasts a week.
Time starts now.
Things to organise: budgets, surfers, vehicle, passports, cameras, video, reflective jackets, fire extinguisher, cash, food, shelter. Things to worry about: crocodiles, hippos, elephants, cattle, goats, trucks, potholes, roadblocks, bad drivers, the mighty river itself and the spirits that dwell within… At 3am on a Tuesday, boards strapped to the roof, we hit the road.
Koby Oberholzer can sleep anywhere. The prodigious
progeny of Frankie O, is crammed in the middle of the Toyota Fortuner, head thrown back, snoring between the old salts: Royden Bryson and videographer Luke Patterson. Greg, “The Sheriff” Ewing is riding shotgun upfront with me. We’ve climbed the escarpment by breakfast and hit Johannesburg in time to get snagged in the rush hour traffic at Gillooly’s. From there, it’s north to Bela-Bela towards Martin’s Drift border post and the Limpopo River. Cattle farms morph into game reserves and soon become mopani forest punctuated by baobabs.
