Our rafting Zambezi Video

Rafting on the Zambezi River below Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, in 1995

An unforgettable journey through one of the most spectacular white-water rivers in the world.

The original video was recorded on videotape during the trip in 1995 and transferred to digital MPEG format in 2005.
In 2026, the complete recording was recovered and carefully restored, preserving the character and atmosphere
of the original footage while improving image quality and motion.

The Story Behind This Video

Bringing this 1995 rafting film back to life turned out to be almost an adventure in itself.
What began as a search for the original recording became quite a journey: an ageing Apple SuperDrive that worked
only intermittently, a CD that became stuck inside it, a new ASUS drive, and several attempts to recover the
best available source. Eventually, the complete 977.7 MB MPEG file from 2005 was rediscovered —
including the lunch stop and the original ending that had been missing from an earlier copy.

The recovered PAL video was carefully de-interlaced from 25i to smooth 50p and upscaled to 1080 HD.
Unnecessary black footage after the original ending was removed, while further processing was deliberately kept
to a minimum.The aim was never to make a videotape from 1995 look artificially modern, but to preserve
its authentic characterwhile making it as enjoyable as possible to watch today.

The final restored version was uploaded to YouTube in 1080p HD and is presented here
through the embedded YouTube player, allowing the complete film to be viewed in high quality
without placing the large video file itself on this website.

After more than thirty years, the complete Zambezi rafting adventure is back — rapids, lunch, music, memories and all.

 A wonderful memory of an extraordinary adventure — Zambezi, Zimbabwe, 1995.