The GoPro is the adventurer’s best friend. Unlike the DSLR, it doesn’t mind if you knock it about or drop it in a river. Provided the river is not too murky, because finding your GoPro might be an issue. Having seen many travellers drop these hardy snappers into dense mangrove territory in different parts of Africa, I can assure you, they are never retrieved. And when it comes to the Zambezi, well, snorkelling is not advised.

Still, in a swimming pool or under the thick shower of the Victoria Falls, the GoPro is your friend. There are also all kinds of nifty gizmos to use to attach the camera to your chest or head, to a boat or a drone, freeing you to use your DSLR or to do what you actually came for – to have an adventure.

We have yet to lose our GoPro, although it was touch and go once while canoeing over a rapid, on our way to a picnic. And we have taken her everywhere. To Angel’s Pool, to Devil’s Pool. Sunrise birding and sunset tiger fishing. To watch the parrot fish run and to walk through the baobabs on the island. We’ve tied it to our bikes and set it on continuous shoot or to take video and photographs simultaneously as we cycled through the village and to the clinic.

Part of the joy of this little device is the same as that of analogue photography. The mystery of the final photo. The waiting. And then the surprise (and, yes, sometimes, let down) when viewing the endless shots and wild videos back at the lodge. It’s the same lure of the point-and-shoot. It’s the spontaneity, the abandon and the naturalness of the adventurous spirit itself.

Best we share a few of our shots from our time playing on the great Zambezi now – before our luck runs out. Until then, adventure on!*

*(Of course, it doesn’t need to be a GoPro. Any nifty HD action camera will do. You’re still a hero to us.)