Thursday 28th April.
1 week down, 15 to go...
We were up at 6am today to leave by 7am and head straight for the Ethiopian Embassy. Once in Harare, Farron drove to where the Embassy was meant to be but it wasnt there so Mark and Benny got in a taxi and used the drivers local knowledge to find it. They caught the same taxi back to the truck with the paperwork we all needed to fill in in order to apply for the visas. Once all the paperwork was filled in and our passports and passport photos were attached we each gave Mark US$20 for the visas and US$2 to cover the costs of the taxi to and from the embassy. Mark and Jan (pronounced Yaan) took all of the money, paperwork and passports back to hand them into the embassy and the rest of us went in search of somewhere to do food shopping for the next two cook groups and anything else we wanted for ourselves.
When we all met back at the truck we found out that the embassy has said that the passports may be ready by tomorrow, but if not it will be tuesday or wednesday before they are ready due to the weekend and public holiday next week. If that happens we might have to get them couriered to Victoria Falls... fingers crossed they are ready tomorrow!
We continued on to Boulder Creek Lodge where we will be spending the next two nights. It was in a pretty secluded location about 20kms from the town and there is no phone or internet. But it is a really pretty spot with a pond, a pool and a bar/restaurant, and we are the only people here so it is pretty cool!
There was the option of dorm rooms for the same price as camping so it was paid for with the local payment and a few people went with that option, Marcus and Fiona upgraded to a bungalow, and the rest of us set up our tents. It started raining and there was a pretty impressive thunder and lightning show and all of the power went out so the rest of the night was by head torches and candel light. Cook group made a yummy pumpkin and squash soup which suited the weather perfectly.I had a pretty late night because I stayed up drinking with Benny, James (Jimmy, aussie), Robin, Jan and James (baby james; BJ; charity bin). Finally to bed and looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow because we dont have to go anywhere!
Friday 29th April.
Lazin' on a friday afternoon.
Half of the group were heading into town for the annual arts festival, but we decided to stay back and do a bit of lazing about. There was a game park about a kilometer down the road that we were thinking of walking to with Tony and Sherry but it started raining after lunch and didnt stop all afternoon, so we ended up playing a few games of pool at the bar. We also decided to upgrade to a bungalow for the night which was a pricey US$40 although $12 of that was paid out of local payment kitty which was the cost of camping for the night. It was a nice room right on the pond, but after finding a massive cockroach looking bug in the bed we decided to use our sleeping bags anyway. Regardless, it was nice to spoil ourselves and have a night out of the tent.
I was on cook group with Lars and Wil but Wil had gone into town to see the festival and I told him not to bother coming home because of cook group because Alex was happy to help me cook. I was going to attempt to make apricot chicken, chicken being a bit of a luxury because it is really expensive. I say attempt because I couldnt find some of the ingredients and I only had US$30 to shop for a dinner for 25 people. The chicken we bought the day before was still cold in the esky (thank jebus for ice). I mixed in a heap of veggies and the two tins of apricots I had, the orange and mango juice I used as a substitute for apricot nectar, and a few tablespoons of Janets peach jam. Amazingly, it tasted really good! Everybody loved it and I was told that it was among the top 5 meals of the whole trip, western Africa included! Success is so sweet...
The power finally came back on so we were able to charge our ipod and laptops etc. then early bed. The guys that went into town came home well and truely tanked with thier faces painted as tigers, zebras and butterflies. They said it was an awesome festival and they had a really good time which made me a little jelouse but I was also glad to have done a bit of nothing and save some money in the process.
Saturday 30th April.
Hello Antelope Park.
Once we were all off the truck and enjoying a cold drink, one of the senior managers came over to greet us and it turns out he known our resident Kiwi Mark because he use to be a bartender at Mark's local in Wellington- what a small world.
Matt the manager took us on a tour of the property and showed us where all of the important building were, like the restaurant, the bar, the pool and the laundry building. Then he took us to a small conference room where he told us all about the conservation work the park is doing and thier breed and release program for lions. Then he told us about all of the activities we could do while at Antelope Park. There were so so so many to choose from, a few people opted to do a package deal which had a selection of activities. We chose the three that we most wanted to do. The two most expensive things were the night encounter and the lion walk. On the night encounter you are driven out into the park to try and see a lion chase and/or kill. Outside the park you have a 0.001% chance of seeing a kill, inside the park you have a 30% chance, but at US$95 each it was pretty expensive. The other most expensive thing was the lion walk, where you spend 1.5hours walking through the park with two lions. This option sounded much more interactive, and at US$75 it was a little more affordable too.
After the introduction we had time to grab a beer and set up our tents, then Matt the manager came back so we could put ourselves down for the activities we wanted to do. Those that were doing the night encounter had to be at the 'meet tent' at 6.30pm. Alex and I went and bought some internet time from reception but no one could get it to work. Reception said they were having issues and would get someone to fix it.... bugger....
We had a really nice vegetarian stir-fry for dinner and Alex went down to the river to try fishing. The guys that went on the night encounter came back slightly dissapointed, they didnt get to see any action, but they said it was cool being that close to lions anyway.
Sunday 1st May.
Elephants, lions and more, oh my!...
At 9.30 we had to be at the meet tent to go on our 1hr elephant ride. Our elephant was a female called Amai, and all four elephants were about 20 years old, not yet breeding age which is around 25 years. Unlike the elephant ride in Thailand where there was a little cabin on top of the elephant, these ones just had a padded mat and thats it. It was great because you were so much closer to the elephant, I could feel its tail bone moving under me and could touch its skin while riding, but at the same time we had to have an iron grip with our legs and anything else we could grab to avoid falling off. Needless to say we were all walking like cowboys for a while after.
At one point Amai stopped to chow into an acacia bush and in doing so wriggled her gigantic arse around and I almost went flying off! I tried to take Alex down with me too apparently. I ended up only having half a leg over her and gripping onto a peice of the padded mat like my life depended on it. It took all my strenght to pull myself back up again. A little while later the elephant handler asked my why I was getting so nervous when Amai made any sudden or drastic movements. What I really wanted to say was "because my life flashed before my eyes before when your elephant tried to kill me", but decided this might be a little bit dramatic so settled for a giggle and a 'dunno'.
Near death experience aside, we had a wonderful time. Perhaps the best bit was after the walk when we were back on solid ground, face to face with the elephants dropping corn down thier truncks and patting thier humongous faces.
After saying goodbye to Amai we walked back to the meet tent to go straight to our next activity- cub viewing. Alex, James and I were taken to the cub enclosure which was a grassy yard at the back of the buildings where the lion managers live. The two little cubs were 2 and 3 months old and were just beautiful. They were so sleepy from thier big day of eating and playing. All i wanted to do was pick them up and give them cuddles and kisses because they were just like live teddy bears. The trainer explained that as hard as it is the lions are trained not to bite and not to sit on people's laps. These are the only two behaviour modifications made and they are so that when they are not so cute ad cuddly and weigh 100kgs more they dont think its a fun game to chew your fingers and jump up on your lap. Makes sense! These two little cubs are part of the breed and release program but wont ever be eligable for release themselves because they have been hand reared by humans, and as such don't have the necessary avoidance instincts they would need to survive. Instead, they will be placed on a huge property where they form thier own pride, have competitive species around and plenty of food to hunt naturally and it will be thier cubs that will be eligable for release. We had such a wonderful time patting and playing with the cubs, it is hard to imagine that these cute as a button babies will grow into fearless muscly hunting animals. Although we did see a glimps of thier potential ferociousness when the bigger one got a little too playful with the handler and drew blood.
After the cub viewing we had a few hours to kill so decided to add another activity in- lion feeding. We were driven to a lion enclosures and the only seperating us from the big bad boys was a little wire fence. It was incredible. The boys next door were making a raket and pacing up and down the fence because they could smell the food. Then when everything was ready the handlers opened the gate at the top of a small hill and about seven lions, all around 8 years old, came bounding down the hill and lunged into the two piles of cow intestine, liver, hooves and other grousome stuff. To witness how powerful they are when its piles of innings you can only imagine what they are like when chasing and killing live prey. They are pure muscle. There was lots of grunting and growling and they dug in. Wow. And only about a meter from our faces. Wow!
Back at camp after that we grabbed a steak roll and then went and hired a canoe. The next two hours we spent cruising up the river and Alex trying to catch a fish. No fish, but when we were almost back to the camp the 4 resident elephants were strolling about and they crossed the river right in front of us. We paddled to the other side to try and get closer to them and enjoyed watching them for a while longer while they rubbed up against trees and ate grass. Getting back to camp we had about 30mins to relax before our afternoon walk with the lions, but then our friends the elephants came to say hello. They walked straight past our camp, it was so cool.
At 4.30 we went back to the meet tent. Fortunate, one of our guides for the walk, gave us all a safety breifing on the do's and dont's of walking with lions and we were each given a wooden stick about the size of a walking stick. This was to be used to point at the lion and say a firm 'no' if they were picking on you or trying to play with you, and they could also be used to put between you and the lion if you didnt want it to rub up against you.
We walked down to the enclosure with Fortunate, two other guides and a volunteer worker and released the lions. Thier names were Meeka and Mara, both female 16 and 16.5 months old. Meeka was a regular walker and when she came out she came straight up to say hello. She rubbed up against my legs like a giant house cat and almost knocked me over. Mara on the other hand had only been at Antelope Park for one month and was still not too keen on walking with big goups of people so she did it at her own pace and only came close to us when she wanted to. She mainly hung back walking through the grass and wandering about. It was so amazing to be able to walk with these animals. Meeka had a habit of taking 10 or 20 paces and then flopping on the floor for a little break. It gave us plenty of oppertunity to get photos with her. At one stage she climbed a tree, with such ease it was incredible. We were also lucky enough to see something quite rare, and not just once but twice.. The first time Meeka caught the smell of a herd of impala across the field, she instantly went into the grass and went into stalk mode, crawling along the ground with tail and ears down. It was incredible to see a lion being a lion and not because her trainer is telling her too, but because she is a lion and this is what she does! Another time, close to the end of the walk Meeka and Mara got onto a small herd of antelope. Mara dissapeared and Meeka went into hunt mode. We actually got to see her try and give chase!!!! Mindblowing! She was far too lazy to put any real effort in and too slow and young even if she was hungry (they were fed the day before and only eat every 5 days), but what a thing to see! We got way more action than the night encounter group did and they were with a group of hungry hunting lions. Brilliant, Amazing. Definatley a highlight for us both.
Back at camp and on a real adrendaline high after our walk with the lions we showed off our photos to those that didnt come and got a cold beer. The rest of the night we enjoyed the kebab and fried rice dinner and Alex caught a decent sized catfish from the river. We still couldnt get the internet to work so we took the vouchers back to reception and got a refund. Antelope Park was such a nice place to stay and with so many amazing things to do, I would absoloutley reccommend it to anyone.
Monday 2nd May.
Happy birthday to me!
We took our time packing up our tents and stuff and desperatley searching for th birthday card that mum and dad sent with me. We put it in a 'safe' place along with all of the copies of our passports, immunisations certificates and travel insurance details, but cant find it anywhere. Big time bummer, I was really looking forward to opening the card from mum and dad. At about 9.30 Alex came up to me and said that I need to put the coffee down and follow him immediatley... whats going on?????
He leads me back through the grounds and then points me out to a staff member who comes up to me and asks me to take my scarf off..... whats going on??????????????
Then I am quickly led into...... wait for it...... the CUB ENCLOSURE! Alex says happy birthday and leaves again. The next 20 minutes it was just me, the handler and the two beautiful cubs. Such an amazing present, I cant even express how happy it made me!!!!!
Something tells me this is going to be an amazing birthday!!!
We were on the road again at 10am to make our way towards Victoria Falls. Around lunch time we stopped in a town to get cook group shopping and lunch. Wil, Lars and I were on security group but Wil told me to have the day off so I could go shopping and not have to stay with the truck. When we got back to the truck Mark gave me a bottle of red wine, Benny gave me a huge packet of BACON (!!!!), Sherry, Janet and Carol gave me another bottle of red, Jerome gave me a lollypop and some codeine and Alex gave me the ugliest birthday card I have ever seen, but the most beautiful at the same time!
I found this all so unexpected from people I consider friends, but really havent known for that long. I felt so special! If I could just get on the net to send my family a message It would be perfect, but we are bush camping tonight, so it will have to wait till tomorrow night. Still, Today couldnt get much better!
We stopped for an afternoon pit stop at a local place in the middle of nowhere. There was about 4 locals chillin' out the front and there was music blasting from a speaker so, so, so loud I couldnt hear myself think. We all grabbed an afternoon drink, cold beer for most of us, and then back on the road again. At about 6pm we turned onto a dirt road that looked good for camping.... but got bogged! Thats right, our first of what may turn into may bogging experiences. It took about an hour and a few locals who seem to appear out of thin air to get the truck out, but we did it. It turns out that nice looking bush camp spot was a school, according to one of the local guys so I guess its lucky we got bogged so we didnt camp there. I dont know who would have gotten more of a surprise in the morning, us or the kids!
We drove maybe another 10minutes down the road until Farron saw a nice grassy patch that would be our home for the night. Cook group made baked potatoes with salad and mince meat as toppings and we cooked up half of my bacon for an extra topping. Leigh brought out a cinamon scroll with candles in it for me and everyone sang happy birthday again- never want this day to end! Some time after dinner while we were sitting around the fire 3 locals appeared and said that they were looking for thier cows, thier boys had been playing and the cows had gotten away from them and they thought they might be around this area. An hour or so later they came walking back from the wilderness minus cows, guess they didnt find them.
We were told to be careful if we leave the tents in the middle of the night because we were close to a national park and theres a good chance that big animals might be wandering around, as dangerous as that could be I was secretly hoping something like that would happen- imagine open the tent and be looking at a buffalo or elephant! Cool!
Tuesday 3rd of May.
Your gonna do what off that bridge??...
We went back to the campsite and sat at the bar for a bit... still not really able to talk, I think at this point Alex had said a total of 5 words all day.
At 1pm we all met up at the truck and started the 2km walk to meet our fate--- I mean to the Victoria Falls bridge. Along the way we saw a Pumba (warthog) and two huge elephants just chomping away a few meters of the footpath. Who needs to pay to get into a national park- just walk the streets of Zimbabwe! Getting to the falls we had to cross the bridge to the other side to sign the indemnity form, crossing from Zimbabwe into 'No Mans Land', which is about a foot wide, and into Zambia. All marked with faded white paint in the middle of the bridge centimeters from where we plan on jumping.
Have I mentioned that we were planning to jump off this bridge???!!! What on earth were we thinking????
We signed our lives away and made our way back to the jump spot on the bridge. By this time we were both repeating "I dont think I can do this, I dont think I can do this", which got more insistent and urgent with every person we saw jump off. Alex was also concerned about his back, and after he saw the jolt that Carrol got at the bottom, he decided not to bungy, and instead just do the gorge swing and the flying fox. My turn came up and I was hustled through the gate onto the platform over the Zambezi River and with Victoria Falls in the background. I was seriously thinking that I was going to pull out at this stage. I thought jumping out of a plane was fun, this was something completley different. The thundering water below probably didnt help. I was strapped in and tied up and the next thing I knew I was standing on the edge of the platform with my toes hanging off. The guy that was holding me from behind, and the very same guy that pushes you to make sure you get some air, told me to let go of the railing. One of my hands managed to let go, but the other was stuck in an iron grip, it took another moment to let go of that side too. Then he started counting down. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1...... BUNGY.
To be honest with you, the rest is a bit of a blur. I remember screaming. I remeber falling. I remember bouncing at the bottom, flying up so fast that I though I was going to hit the underside of the bridge. I remeber falling again. Then flying up again. I remeber flipping so that I was upright and then having to fall again. Then bouncing and bouncing and bouncing. Those in the group that had bungied before said that this one bounced heaps more than any other they had done. It seemed to go on for ever. Finally I found myself with my arms trembling violently, periodically opening my eyes hoping that the moving, bouncing and turning had stopped- but it hadnt.
Then from the distance I heard someone asking me if I was ok. It was the guy who would help me to the top. I gave him the thumbs up, which I suppose was really a thumbs down because I was hanging head first over a torrent of water, but he got the idea. He started to pull me towards him and he started to sing a Bob Marley song.
"Don't worry, about a thing. Cos every little thing, is gonna be alright".
As he helped me into a sitting position and we started being lifted back up to the bridge he put his hand on my shoulder, pointed to the magnificent scenery and kep on singing. It really was magical.
Back on the bridge I had to make my way across the lower level, up a ladder and all the way across the middle level to get back to ground to reach the Zimbabwe side of the bridge.
When I got to the jump point again it was almost Alex's turn to jump. He was hustled through the gate onto the platform, strapped up and shown how to jump. Unlike bungy, he had to hold onto the wire attached to his stomach area and frog jump feet first, face forward. The same guy that gave me a helping hand off the bridge was giving Alex very forceful pushes towards the edge. Twice when Alex got the edge, he managed to take little baby steps backwards. Apparently the guy was giving him very stern instructions the whole time. Then the countdown began. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1..... SWING.
And off he dropped.
Quite a site to see someone you are so close to jump off a perfectly good bridge! Freefalling to the bottom, the swing went into action adn flung him in the seated position across the gorge and then back and forth. Back on solid ground again Andrea was having trouble with the idea of jumping off a bridge, having pulled out at the last second once, so we decided to do the flying fox next before I did my gorge swing and see if it would help her by 'easing' into the idea of jumping off a bridge.
It took about 30mins for us all to be strapped into the correct gear for the flying fox and walk to the place where you do the flying fox, on the Zambia side of the bridge just past the bar- which we stopped at to have a quick beer. The flying fox was really nice. It was a total breeze after what we had just done, and it was a good oppertunity to actually take in some of the beautiful scenery. It was over really quick though, and soon enough I found myself back on the bridge getting strapped up to do the gorge swing.
And then I waited. And waited. And waited.
People kept on turning up to do bungy, which must be easier and quicker to rig up because they all went in front of me. And I waited. Soon it was getting close to 5pm, the sun was starting to set and I was well and truely out of adrendaline. With each passing minute I could feel my energy fading.
Just after 5pm I was told to quickly to my Swing because they wanted to go home. By this time I was on the bridge by myself as well, because everyone else was watching from the bar. I got to the edge of the jump platform, and pulled out.
I just didnt have it in me to gather enough emotional energy at that stage to jump of the bridge again. I was a bit dissapointed, especially because the Swing was the one I was really excited about doing, but it was just too long between jumps, and with them rushing me right at the end after waiting so long.... I just wasnt feeling it.
But ah well, I still bungied! If I had of done the swing while my adrendaline levels were still sufficiently high, it would have been great. Next time.
What am I saying?? There will be no next time! I am really happy that I did the bungy, and I can now tick that off my list of things to do, but i will be happy never to do it again! I'd sky-dive again in a heartbeat, but I think bungy will be a once in a lifetime thing for me! Alex really loved the gorge swing and is quite happy that he didn't do the bungy, and also has no plans to try and do it again. Andrea didnt end up doing either the swing or the bungy, and she was most upset with herself for letting herself get convinced to do it in the first place when she never really wanted to. Mark also didnt do the bungy, pulling out at the last minute feeling much the same as Andrea, but enjoyed his swing that he did tandem with a bungy staff member. Emma, Aileen, BJ, James, Benny, Carol, Robin all did the three things and had a great day.
Getting back to camp at about 6.45pm we had about 10 minutes to get ready for dinner. The vegitarians of the group were going to a restaurant in town, and us carnivours were going to a buffet game restaurant called Bomas. It was a great night. On the way to Bomas we saw Buffalo on the side of the road, and getting to the restaraunt we were all given a traditional robe to were and women had two blue dots painted on thier left cheek and men were given two blue lines. Throughout dinner there was traditional singing and dancing, and at one stage everyone was given a drum to drum along to the music with. Mark got his hair braided and a few of us had our fortunes read with the resident witch doctor. I ws told that I had the strength of a man, that I would be very successful but not yet because I'm not settled enough yet and that without any limitations I could have 4 kids, mainly boys. Alex was told that he would also be successful, but not yet and that without limitations he could have 4 kids, mainly boys. Someone came around to our table and painted our faces. The food was also great. We ate smoked crocodile, ostrich, buffalo, warthog, cudu stew, spingbok, guinea fowl, and a grub/worm thing. The cudu stew and warthog were the favourites. Getting back to camp we were all exhausted from our emotional day and big dinner we went straight to bed and I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Wednesday 4th May.
Wonderful Livingstone.
We arrived at Grubbies Grotto in Livingstone not long after as it is only about 12kms from the bridge and this is where we would be staying for 2 nights. Grubbies was small and basic, but nice enough. It had warm running water and a bar, but no internet. It was also an easy 10 minute walk into the town of Livingstone.
I am a really big fan of Zambia. Everyone here is really nice and it is by far the safest I have felt since Cape Town- if anything I feel safer in Zambia than I did in Cape Town. Livingstone was also a really nice town. We walked down to the local pub and grill with James, Benny, Mark and Jan for lunch and got back to Grubbies in time for the 3.30pm pick up for the Sunset Booze Cruise.
What a night!
It got pretty messy pretty quickly. We had a really nice bbq dinner while watching the sunset on the upper Zambezi river, with all you can drink beer, wine and spirits. We saw crocodile swiming next to the boat and we also saw two groups of hippos!
After sunset we kept on drinking and dancing at the bar where the boats live and then we were taken back to Grubbies where we..... wait for it.... kept on drinking.
I dont know what time we went to bed, but I might have to let the photos do the talking, because no one can remeber too much.
