Into the abyss (almost)

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For the few who could haul themselves out of bed, breakfast was taken on Livingstone Island perched on the top of the Victoria Falls. Henderson, Gates, Merry R and Langmead ventured out into the river unpeturbed by the guide's insistence that swimming out to a plunge pool on the very edge of the Falls was for 'strong swimmers' only. The four had to put in a pretty serious shift of swimming against the current to reach the rock from which they jumped into the plunge pool. Health and Safety clearly hasn't reached Zambia yet as peering over the edge on the Falls with nothing to hold you back other than an underwater ledge was pretty punchy. On the return swim Henderson set the guides into panic by picking a bold across-current line and looking for all the world like he might disappear over the edge of the Falls! Fortunately all reached terra firma to tuck into New Year Eggs Benedict.

The rest of the day was spent in various stages of recovery, mainly by the pool where the only activity required was chasing away the blue testicled monkeys who repeatedly tried to steal things.

Ed Henderson and Tom Merry on fines were not going to let the previous night's excess deter them from handing out some interesting fines under the title 'Crime and Punishment'. They thought they would be considerate and, instead of handing out neat shots, they kindly produced such delicious drinks as gin and lung tonic (the main ingredient of the cough mixture being creosote) and gin and cream soda (the latter with a sell by date in the mid nineties).