The Road to Santiago CDS1: Saint Jean Pied de Port to Roncevalles

June 7, 2018June 12, 20181 Comment

Oh. My. God.

Everyone says the first day is the hardest. And it was. Well, I feel like it’s going to be for many reasons. It’s the first day with your pack, first day walking and getting use to everything. On top of that, it’s about a 25.4km walk and a variety of terrain. You are on dirt, concrete, grass, rocks, mud. You name it, we were on it. It has the most elevation gain. Now add to that, the lovely weather. It rained. It hailed. It was a long day. It took me about 6 1/2 hours to complete and it was rough.

Also, literally everything I own clothing wise is wet. My shoes aren’t! Which is so nice. All I could think of was how lucky I was that my waste down was dry. Because my clothes did not dry from yesterday’s adventures, I had to wear my fleece pants with my rain pants over it and boyyyyy did that work in my favor. They’re wet from sweat, but not rain. Which could have ruined my day and I believe did for many people.

So now I’m wet and cold at the albergue waiting for Debbie. She insisted I did not wait for her walking but I am here! I paid €3.50 to get my clothes laundered. But only cause I need them dry. All I have is my sleep shirt and spare pair of socks that aren’t wet.

The views were unreal. Also creepy. Walking through the French countryside and then at some point crossed over into Spain. Lots of goats, sheep, cows, and horses! So beautiful. Take a look.

Day mileage: 13.9
Total mileage: 13.9
Personal mileage: 14.73

The road to the road to Santiago

June 3, 2018June 12, 2018Leave a comment

What it be!

If you don’t know, this summer I am starting off by walking the El Camino de Santiago. It is a 497 mile pilgrimage that starts at the border of France and Spain and ultimately ends at the statue of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela.

Basically, I’m walking alot.

Today has been a travel day. I had to meet up with Debbie in the airport in Paris after a 10 hour flight. Flight left late, which was frustrating, but otherwise, everything went smoothly. I picked the front row of a section and it paid off in leg space. I had a comfy flight filled with watching Eat, Pray, Love, Goodbye Christopher Robin, and The Big Bang Theory. Also, lots of sleep. The French countryside is so beautiful.

Got to Paris, found Debbie, got my bag, everything was going well, which we all know can never happen. And don’t worry, it didn’t stay well. Turns out the Trains and rails systems around Paris are all on strike. Today. Right now. Apparently, everyone knew but us. Apparently there’s a whole schedule online telling is which days are strike days. Apparently, this has been going on since MARCH. Well, apparently, I missed the memo.

It was so unbelievably frustrating. We saw a sign in the airport, explaining today was a strike day and there may be changes to train schedules. The stop we needed to take the train to was not an option. The only train running went to one specific train station that was closer to the city, but (as we learned later) one that has the line connections we need. We looked into options from the airport, knowing a taxi would be real expensive. I contacted our Air bnb host and she recommended Uber as a cheaper option, which was €50 for an hour and half trip. Train was €20.60 and so we decided to take that train, check out Uber when we arrive, maybe find the line we need, something. So we take this train to du Nord station in Paris. Get there, spend more time then I care to admit trying to figure out where the heck to go. We learned quickly your train ticket not only allows entrance to the station, it’s what let’s you exit. The problem was figuring out which exit to leave from and what direction to go. It was incredibly frustrating. Trying to read the French, figure out how we could take a train to the line we needed, not even sure if it was running, plus all of the other people that this station has an influx of because of the strike, and we couldn’t connect to WiFi to get other answers. Frustrating.

After me not being able to find my ticket to exit, a kind stranger letting me use his pass, us realizing we went out the wrong exit to go outside, and having a worker point us in the right direction, we finally surfaced outside of du Nord station…somewhere in Paris. Debbie insisted on a photo.

We were over it and voted on taking a taxi. We walked out and around to what looked like a main Street, turned the corner and found ourselves at the front of the station, looking at a nice long line of available taxis.

We get the first taxi we can, show him the address, and go. I was fighting sleep at this point, but what I can remember thinking after viewing this part of Paris through this taxi was that there was a lot of trash around, graffiti, and a lot of (assumingly) transient people. The taxi ride was €64.00. We should have just Ubered in the first place. Oh well, at least we made it!

Our hosts name is Stephanie and she is lovely. Showed us around her place and to our room. We asked for food recommendations and walked just down the way to Chateaux Arthur de Juliette. It felt very European, as many people were sitting at the tables and chairs on the sidewalk having drinks, playing cards, or just chatting. We had a kind waiter who helped us with the French menu and ordered dinner… And beers 🍻

This beer is 1664. The waiter’s favorite. It was light, reminded me of Heineken.

We headed back, relaxed, discussed the future day, rearranged packs, and went to sleep. It was light out pretty late into the day. I remember at 9:30pm thinking it was still to bright to sleep. It was loud, at night. The streets are so narrow and buildings so high, everything echoed upwards. Motorcycles, friends laughing, you name it, we heard it.

Next day we woke up early, intending to go back to Chateaux Arthur de Juliette for some coffee. I had mentioned to Debbie that someone told me once that in France, you can only eat at restaurants certain times of the day. That for lunch they are only open for a small window, then close, and reopen for dinner, or something like that. In researching places to get coffee the following morning, nothing opened until 12:00. Some didn’t even open until noon, on Tuesday! The only place maps said was open at 8:00 was the same Chateaux place. So we get up, get ready, and go.

Well, it was open, but they weren’t serving anyone. No one was around. Literally, anywhere.

Debbie was hellbent on getting coffee. She did not want a headache for the day. We walked in, saw fresh delicious pastries on the counter in their delivery box, and not a single soul around. In Debbie’s frustration, I offered to walk around the park across the street. We had arrived RIGHT at 8:00. Perhaps we just needed to give them some time to get it together. I told her we were being those people. We decided to cross over and stumbled into this beautiful park. Scoped it out a little, admired all those people jogging and biking through it, talked and headed back to the cafe. This time a person was there, who told us to come after 9:00 which was not going to work for us.

Heading back we were discussing options when we saw a woman with a stroller walk into a baakery that had construction all around it. We could see the workers setting up pastries through the window. We raced in delighted to find an array of pastries and coffee. I got a double espresso and a croissant. I don’t really like pastries, but hey, why not. It was pretty good. Debbie enjoyed her chocolate croissant. We enjoyed our breakfast, headed back to the air bnb and ordered an Uber to the train station. We got there with plenty of time before our train and hung out.

Trains were a bit confusing because, well, French. We got on the wrong train at first, realized it quickly, was confused, found help, and got on the right train in the wrong cart. We didn’t find that last bit out until much later when we were in someone’s seats. But, once again, someone kindly helped us and we moved to our correct train cart, which was way better. The first cart we were in, we were seated backwards and my gosh, did that make me sick. I layed across two seats until we picked up more people, switched carts, and our new seats faced forward. Waaaaaayy better. We snacked and talked about our plans for the end of this trip. We still hadn’t decided what we were doing once we reached Santiago or how we were going to get back to Paris. Now we are flying to London so Debbie can see her friend for a few days before heading back. We arrived in Bayonne for what was suppose to be an hour layover for our final train to Saint Jean Pied de Port. But once again, strikes.

The train strikes…strike again… Ha. Ha. Ha. Stick with me here, it’s been a long two days.

We talk to a worker who told us there is only one bus going to Saint Jean because of the strikes at 6:12pm. Coooooool…glad it’s 2:00pm now. So, that was fun. Sitting at a train station. Again. Waiting. Again. It’s a small little town and has begun to rain. We’ve also heard thunder. Those storms are rolling in.

The station smells of cigarette smoke as it blows in from outside. It’s not fun.

We got on our bus and it was literally the worst ever. In summary, I threw up. A lot. If you want to know the details of this super awesome story, find me when I get back and I’ll share. We got to Saint Jean Pied de Port, got our first stamps, found a lovely place to stay with the sweetest French woman who speaks no English and was absolutely fabulous. Showing us around, using lots of gesturing, she took us outside to show us the bathrooms. During this we saw the view out the back of her house and Debbie began to cry. It truly was remarkable.

Day 10- South Luangwa, Zambia (Start of Safari!)

July 10, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

We woke up at 4:30-5:00 this morning. Breakfast was at 5:30am and our safari truck was leaving at 6:00. We were so excited! Bec came up to our door and jumped making a loud sound which scared the crap out of us. Mitch and Bec we’re staying in a different chalet because they only sleep three. That part was a bummer. But the chalet’s are super cool and spacious, so everyone was perfectly okay with the split.

Anyways, we go to breakfast, eat cereal and toast, and walk out to the car park where we will meet our guide. A Land Rover with tiered seating pulls up and we climb in with our guide, Simon. Two others are with us, Sara and Julian. It was freezing cold and we were all pretty much bundled up. Before we even got into the park, we saw an elephant! We get to the National Park entrance, provide our names and head in. Immediately over a bridge we see an elephant that is eating its breakfast! It was pretty far away, but still awesome!

The drive was four hours and SO FREAKING COOL! Our guide was AMAZING! Simon would do his best to show us everything and get as close as we could while being safe. He even spotted a leopard in a tree, which was cool. I wish the photo was clear enough for you all to see. We saw hippos, TONS of impala, birds, and heaps of elephants! The coolest part of this morning drive was when Simon stopped and pointed out in the distance two lions. They were not with the rest of the pride. Simon explained that these two lions were separating themselves for mating purposes. Apparently, when mating, lions separate themselves from the pride, and mate 3-4 times an hour, every hour, for 24 hours, for a week.

That was a fun fact.

We asked if we could get closer and he took us! It was unbelievable how freaking close to these lions we were. I could not believe it! Most of what we get about lions and wild animals is from movies and television shows, so naturally, in my head, this lion wants to eat me. Definitely not the case. We hung out with the two of them for a bit while they napped and eventually moved on.

After that we saw some Zebras and then took a break for tea. We drove and stopped under a tree, surrounded by tons of Impalas and had biscuits, tea, and coffee. Afterwards, we continued on the drive to see more Zebra and hippos. At 10 our morning drive ended and everyone was pretty stoked on the lions we saw.

We headed back to the hostel, Croc Valley, and relaxed for a bit in the hammocks. Everyone had lunch, read, napped, showered, and just took it easy. We ended up by the bar, having some beers and playing Phase 10 with Sarah and Julian. At 3:50 a waiter came and told us we had tea, biscuits, and coffee waiting for us AGAIN in the dining area. We had no idea and our night game ride was leaving at 4:00. Holly and I raced over, grabbed tea for ourselves and biscuits for everyone else, and booked it back to the car park to catch our next ride.

All of us got in the car and headed back to the park, still with Simon! When we got to the park to go in, the guards stopped us stating that the five of us did not pay our park entrance fees. We told them we gave our fees to Mophy, who was suppose to have paid them, so we did not have to stop. The guards already knew who Mophy was. They said they received word that Mophy would bring the park fees at 11:00, but he never did. The guards said they had been trying to call him all day and was not answering. OF COURSE. We were so annoyed but too excited about our drive. We paid the fees and headed in.

Immediately Simon pointed to tree and spotted the same leopard in the same tree, only this time he was eating a baboon! We watched that for a bit. It was intense, listening to the bones break and everything. We drove around for a bit, waiting for the animals to come out and do something. We came across an entire open field of giraffes! It was so beautiful. I cannot even begin to tell you. Giraffes are so timid, so it was hard to get close to any of them without them moving out of the way. It was here we paused for a break and had some juice and popcorn. Yup! I ate popcorn with giraffes! It was unbelievable. The sun was really beginning to set at this point and we jumped back in the cruiser and ended up really close to one particular giraffe! Simon explained that this one male giraffe (you can tell by how dark their spots are) was looking for a female. But this particular female was already is a group with another male. This male giraffe was following them, but avoiding getting too close, for fear of having to fight the other male. The other male was protective of the female and did not want her to get stolen away, so was guarding her and her baby a lot. Because this giraffe did not want to get too close to them, it ended up standing right next to the road we drove on to get to the rest of the park. It was amazing to be that close!

After the giraffes, that is when things started happening and getting intense. It was dark now and we came down a road only to hear and ultimately see, hyenas! There were tons of them in the road and on the side. When the guide used the spotlight to see, we saw that there was a dead hippo. Nothing killed the hippo, it just knew it was going to die and separated itself on its own accord to die. The hyenas found it first. We were watching this when all of the sudden out of nowhere, TWO female lions come out of the bush to scare the hyenas off. Everyone was ecstatic! We were SO close! We were watching the hyenas run off, the female lions fight to take over the hippo. Next thing we know, out in front of us, a hyena bolts across the road followed by this lioness right after him! Right in front of our car! It happened so fast. Everyone then watched the second female claim the hippo.

At this point, I was nervous. We just watched a lion run across the road in front of us, into the shrubs on the left, and EVERYONE in the car was turned to the right looking at the second lion guarding the hippo. I was convinced the first female lion was going to jump out and attack all of us while our backs were turned. She didn’t. But eventually she joined up with the other female and the two of them just laid in the road, in front of where the hippo was. Guarding it, and each other. It was amazing to watch. Again, could not believe how freaking close we were to these lions.

As if the lions and hyenas fighting over a hippo carcass wasn’t cool enough, we then came upon a hyena and a leopard fighting over a warthog carcass. First we saw the hyena, just ripping apart this poor warthog, having dinner. The hyena was very alert and when trying to figure out why, that is when we saw the leopard. Simon explained that was probably happened was the leopard was probably the one to kill the warthog, only to have it stolen by the hyena. Leopards do not travel in any sort of pack or group, so when it comes to fighting for food, they tend to flee rather than fight. This is because if the leopard gets hurt, it’s on its own and has no defenses. That is why it was so easy for the hyena to steal her kill. She wast going to give up though. We followed and watched both of them. We watched the leopard try to sneak back around, only to be chased off again. We watched her sneak back again, only to lay down nearby and watch the hyena eat. As the hyena was done, he took a big portion with him and walked away. When he got about 1,000 feet, the leopard got up and walked over to grab some more of the warthog carcass. Next thing you know, this hyena comes sprinting back towards the leopard and the leopard bolts, holding her share of the warthog. This time the leopard makes it, she gets her bit and gets up in a tree before the hyena can get to her. This made all of us happy. We wanted the leopard to win- it was her kill!

We were SO pumped after this drive. It was truly a once in a life time experience and so fantastic to see in real life! We got back to Croc Valley and had dinner. We ran into the receptionist who had to deal with us and the whole Mophy thing the previous night. We told her what happened and she told us that she talked to Herbert (the guy Mophy said he booked it with) and Herbert said Mophy never booked our stay. AND Mophy had not paid them. AND apparently owes this place a lot of money.

Awesome. We all slightly panicked a bit. Mophy had our money and this place we were staying at was all inclusive. We knew it was going to be expensive if we had to pay. The woman wanted us to talk to her manager to explain what happened. Holly sat down with this guy, who has got to be one of the kindest, most understanding humans in the world. Him and Holly talked for a while and he knew that none of this was our fault. That Mophy had done this to them many a time. He asked what time Mophy was coming to pick us up the next morning. We told him we had no idea (as we hadn’t heard from Mophy). The manager told us to just wake up, have breakfast, and do another morning game drive, on them. For free. He was going to let us have another game drive. All we had to do was pay the park entrance fee. He told Holly he was going to have the police be there in the morning for when Mophy arrived so everyone could talk. This was getting insane. But I cannot begin to explain how hospitable and amazing the employees at Croc Valley were. If you ever find yourself in Zambia, it truly is the place to stay. With a plan for the morning, we all headed to bed. As we walked to our rooms hippos were right outside of our room! Crossing the road between our chalet and Bec and Mitch’s. SO FREAKING COOL.

Day 8/9- Zambia

July 10, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

The past two days have been pretty much just driving. We are making our way to South Lulongwa to start a safari. Our safari will consist of three game drives through the national park. To get there though involved a lot of driving. We needed to go from Livingstone (which is where we were last night) to Lusaka (to overnight) then arrive to South Luangwa.

We left Livingstone and headed to Lusaka. Nothing all to exciting here. More sleep, more dirt roads, more goat, more cards. We actually arrived to Lusaka at a reasonable time, for once, and everyone was really excited about it. Holly knew Lusaka had shopping malls and a movie theatre and she REALLY wanted to go to the movies and see Wonder Woman. We decided we would get dinner and see a movie at the mall. Meg wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed behind. Before we left, Holly and I also paid to have some laundry done- woot woot! Clean clothes.

We go to the mall and eat dinner at this place called Mugg and Bean. We ordered so much food and it was SO good! Before we left, we saw in the dessert display case that there was cheesecake. Bec had been talking about cheesecake all week. How bad she was craving it and wanted some. It sounded great to everyone, so now we have all built up this desire to have some cheesecake. After seeing it in this display case, we all decided to get a piece and save it to eat while watching the movie. After we ate, we had some time to kill, so we walked around the mall a bit. Went into a Pick N’ Pay which was like a Walmart, the grocery store, and window shopped. Eventually it was time for the movie and we go to head in. Everyone is excited for the cheesecake and movie. The movie starts, there is practically no one else in the theatre, and we all take out our slices of cake. I am the first on to take a bite.

I almost gagged right there.

I spit it up immediately, as it was the worst tasting cheesecake I had ever eaten in my entire life. I spit it up, make a face, and Bec (sitting to my right) says “No, no, no, no, it can’t be true!” Holly and Bec both take bites. Both met by the same disgusted face. We start laughing out of disappointment. Mitch got chocolate cake, his tasted great, so I let him try mine. He also, made a face and spit it up.

It was AWFUL! It tasted like something was rotten or sour. Bec was so disappointed! It was so sad. Everyone was so sad. But the movie had started! We all put it away, so heartbroken, and watched the film.

Well, actually, I slept through most of it. Not on purpose, it’s a great movie! I just was SO tired I kept fighting to stay awake and lost. The nice part is that the ticket only costed $4. Four dollars! Four dollars to see a blockbuster hit. The movie ended, we headed back and went to bed.

We got up early the next day, ready to go, only to find that Mophy’s car wouldn’t start. Axon was frustrated. He finally started venting saying how disorganized Mophy is and how he was trying not to say anything in front of us, but finally had enough. We all felt so validated. After a long start of errands (breakfast/bank) we headed out.

Same thing, boring car ride, more sleep, more cards. We did play Phase 10- which I had never played before and loved! We stopped in Chapata to get dinner and finally made it to South Luangwa at like 10pm.

Guess who also wasn’t expecting us?

They accommodated, giving us a chalet, and it was SO cool!! It has a huge bathroom, kitchen, and three beds.

This place is in the middle of the Forrest and there are signs everywhere telling you to be careful. Driving in we saw Hippo! Just on the side of the road, 20 feet from the car, and an elephant! It was rad.

The woman checking us in told us that there are night guards to walk us to and from our rooms and to always be careful and walk with a torch. Animals come everywhere here.

And they did. Last night after we all got settled, we could hear loud shuffling and rumbling. Something was eating plants. We look out our door to see THREE elephants! Just outside, walking past. We followed them through the windows into the kitchen and watched them just outside. Eating leaves off of a tree. It was SO cool. Finally we went to bed, listening to the sounds of the animals. It’s an early day tomorrow for our first game drive!

Day 7- Zimbabwe back to Zambia

July 9, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

Happy 4th of July everyone! I woke up early this morning, again. Saw some guinea fowls walking around. I have not been sleeping much this trip and I don’t know why. I went to bed after midnight and woke up at a quarter to six. It’s been really cold here at night and I am just freezing. Last night I slept in my leggings, sweatpants, socks, long sleeve and my Patagonia fleece jacket and still could not get warm enough to be fully comfortable. My face was freezing and the blankets provided were thin. Sleeping next to a window doesn’t help either.

I decided to get up and start blogging. I took my stuff out to the kitchen area to find Joe, packing up and getting ready to head to the falls. I made myself a cup of coffee began typing and chatting with him. Everyone slowly woke up and trickled out, ordering breakfast, getting ready and packing up. We got our stuff together, got a cab and headed towards Shearwater, the company we booked rafting through and also bungee jumping.

Yup! Today we are bungee jumping off of the Victoria Falls bridge! Well, some of us. We had packed up all our stuff and brought it with us because after the jump, we are crossing back into Zambia and officially leaving Zimbabwe.

The shuttle provided by the company would only provide transport for those jumping, which meant not Bec and Mitch. The two of them decided to walk with their bags across the border to the bridge and meet us. Meg, Holly, and I jumped in the shuttle and were off. We crossed the bridge, got our exit stamp, and went up to registration. In our shuttle, and staying at our hostel were Mary and Zoey. Two best friends from NYC who also happened to have been in the other raft that ratted with us yesterday! It was fun to have more familiar faces. The five of us got registered, weighed and numbers written on our arms for the jump masters to read. We agreed that Mary would go first, I would go second. Holly, Meg, and Zoey just wanted to see someone else jump first and be okay before they went.

Well, turns out, it didn’t work out that way.

I jumped first.

That was unplanned, but so fun! I was definitely not as nervous or worried as some of the others, but I did not anticipate going first.

The guide setting me up and strapping me in was awesome. Explaining to me about my backup harness, how it is 100% safe and I will be fine. I really wasn’t worried, but it was nice to hear. They called my name to go first, I went under a gate onto the main platform where another gentleman wrapped blankets around my legs and began to secure them together for the jump. A guy was filming this the whole time. They strapped a GoPro to my arm, helped waddle me out to the edge of the platform (can’t walk much with legs bound together) told me to keep my arms stretched out strong and wide to avoid spinning and to make sure I jump our head first. So I did. They counted down and I jumped.

What a thrill. What an absolute thrill! Just free falling, then bouncing like a rag doll (which doesn’t hurt nearly as much as you would think) and coming straight back up to bounce again. It was a TOTAL blast.

And then I spun. And spun. And spun. And spun. I feel like I was doing a whole lot of spinning. Which, the motion sickness in me did NOT appreciate. I could feel all the blood rushing to my head. I mean it was a great time, but I could definitely feel it. A man was lowered on a separate line to come get me. He hooked me up to a line, sat me up and I was raised back up to the platform. There I walked along the bottom the bridge, to the end, climbed back up and walked back over in time to watch Holly jump!

I was so proud of her. This is something she was terrified to do, completely out of her comfort zone, and she did it. Which was really cool.

After Holly, we watched Meg jump. And then we all went to watch our videos and see our photos. Well all purchased them. I was definitely still feeling wheezy. Mophy, Axon, and Itay had met us back at the bridge before we even jumped. So all of us walked to Mophy’s car got in and Mophy told us we were going to a walking lion tour. This was news to us. We drove to the place. We were all iffy about the situation because we were unsure if they were actually a conservation and rescue site OR just another company capturing, sedating, and taking advantage of these wild animals. If it was the latter, we did not want to give them our money. It was unclear so I chose not to go. Holly and Mitch went and Bec, Meg, and I waited in the lobby reading and just hanging out.

After this, we headed to the national park for a walking rhino tour! We drove into the park and followed a dirt road. Along it we saw a lot of gazelle and monkeys. Across the lake I saw another elephant! We drove for a while, I still wasn’t feeling well from the jump. Eventually we stopped and got out.

After waiting a bit, park rangers with ak47’s appeared. They gave us a safety briefing explaining that the national park is here as a conservation to protect the animals. They were going to guide us single file to where the rhinos were currently at. Apparently there is a person whose sole job is to hide in trees and follow and move with the rhinos so they know where they are at all times. The guide made a big point to let us know that the rhinos are not tame and wild beasts and to listen to their instructions. Their guns are only there to shoot in the air to scare away animals if needed. They are not allowed to shoot them.

We walked down the path and there they were! Rhinos! Just grazing in the grass, doing their thing. There was even a baby one! It was adorable. We took photos of them, a group photo, and as fast as we were there, we were gone.

On our way out, we drove around hoping to see more animals. This park did not have any predators so we would not see any sort of leopards or lions. Someone had told us they had seen a giraffe and we were hoping to spot one. We ended up seeing a dazzle of zebras, one wildebeest, and some water buffalo. It was neat, but I know it will be better on the safari.

After we got back to the car, we headed to our hostel. Surprise surprise, this hostel like pretty much the rest of them, wasn’t expecting us. Mophy. Again. They made up a room for us, we put all our stuff down to get situated and headed out to the lobby/bar area. We tried to use their wifi, but it sucked. It was late and everyone was tired so we chose to order food for delivery. That was delivered, we played some Rummikub, and one of Bec’s friends she had met in Sri Lanka came to visit. She is Danish and currently living in Zambia. She saw Bec was here and came to the hostel. Itay was also at this hostel with us, so we had a nice little group.

Eventually, Itay built a fire in the fire pit and people started shifting that direction. Holly and I sat over there for a while with Itay, a young guy (also from Denmark) and others. By the end of the night, all of us were around this bonfire talking, swapping stories, sharing what we’ve seen. The guy from Denmark, Sebastian, had a crazy story about how he met some photographer on Lonely Planet who was looking for a companion through the rural parts of Namibia. They talked, he joined his journey, and saw amazing things. He had a great story about how their car broke down and they had to go to a local village to ask for help. People took photos of the two of them because they were white, a police officer was arguing with a man who refused to sell him a goat, and women were topless. It was a really cool experience that not many would ever get. It got late and everyone went to bed.

Day 6- Zimbabwe

July 6, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

This morning we were up early, we were being picked up at 7:10 to go white water rafting down the Zambezi river. The Zambezi river is one of the largest rivers in Africa and flows along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Our guide picked us up at 7:10 and we stopped to pick up two other people, a father and son named Charles and Robert. Charles was actually born and raised in Zimbabwe and decided to go to the States for school, only to have never left, which makes Robert from North Carolina.

It was a early start this morning and we were all moving a long. We drove out along this dirt road to the middle of nowhere. Half awake, half asleep, putting on sunscreen. On the bus they hand us an Indemnity from which I read that we were doing level 5 rapids. THAT freaked me out. I did not realize some of the rapids we were doing were level 5. To give you an idea, for those of you who don’t know, rapids are rated on a scale from 1-6 (generally just 1-5). A level 1 rapid is a cute little wave that might tug at the boat. A level 6 rapid is considered unmanageable and only the most expert and skilled rafters/kayakers should do these. A level 6 would be like rafting the bit AT Victoria Falls.

HECK NO.

So the description for our level 5 rapids on our indemnity for was “Extremely difficult, long and violent rapids, steep gradients, big drops, pressure areas”. This is what made me nervous. And most things like this, don’t make me nervous. This seemed a bit sketch. Most of my rafting experience was done at the 3-4 level. Holly had never even white water rated before! So this was all new, exciting, and scary for her!

Anyways, we sign these indemnity forms, get off the bus, and start getting our gear from the guides. We lock up all of our clothes and valuables and get a safety briefing. I am happy that the last time I ranted was relatively recently (just two months ago in Colorado) so that I was able to remember rules, techniques, and guidelines, only to have them reaffirmed by the Kazi (our rafting guide). During his briefing, Kazi is explaining about the various dangers of rafting and what possible scenarios we could find ourselves in today. During all of this, Kazi casually mentions that the Zambezi river is home to crocodiles.

Come again?

Also, a fun fact I did NOT realize until it was too late. Here I was, standing, geared up, ready to go, already slightly nervous and being told this river as crocodiles in it.

Awesome.

If I didn’t already feel nervous, I was feeling real great now. He did reassure us that they have never had any incidents involving the crocodiles and to not be worried. But like, crocodiles. You know?

To get to the rafts, we have to climb down the gorge. Kazi told us the record for getting down the fastest is 6 minutes and the slowest was 3 hours. Average, about 20 minutes. I could see why. It is basically dirt, rocks, and shale all the way down to the river, from where you just follow and climb on went rocks next to the river before arriving. We started the trek down, being careful to step on the right sort of rocks and keep our balance. A lot of the path they had manmade steps, but out of branches of wood and dirt. Not always the most reliable. We are climbing down all of this, by the way, in our gear, carrying our paddles. Bec, Robert, and I get to one part of this trek only to find we have to climb down this giant manmade wooden ladder, which was fun. This was where the trail met the river and we weren’t quite sure where the path went from here, as the guides were behind us. We waited for everyone to catch up and then we all continued down the river to the boats. Here we got our life vests and helmets double checked and we all climbed in. Because there were seven of us in the raft (plus the guide) six of us had to paddle while one was instructed to sit at the front and, uh, hold on. This was me at first. But I am jumping ahead.

We went through and practiced paddling strokes, how to get down, and how to jump out. He had us practice jumping out so we could practice pulling people in. Any of you that have been rafting before know that you can pretty much pull anyone back into a boat, no matter how big or small, so long as you dunk them first and use the buoyancy and momentum from the vest to help you get them up. We practiced this. Which was FREEZING COLD. Really, I would say the water is about 70 degrees. It was not unreasonably cold, but much colder than I wanted to be in, especially at 9:00 in the morning. Needless to say, after that, we were all awake.

We had to wait a bit, another rafting company was also giving a tour and their people were still getting in the boat. We were waiting for them so both boats could go down together. I think that was one of my favorite things about this experience. That even though these companies are competitors, it was very obvious that safety and our safety was first. When Holly asked why we were waiting for the opposition, Kazi said because it is safer to have more boats. Which is true. You fall out, you have more options to get to safety. Also, both rafting boats and men in Kayaks following to rescue whoever if needed. This just doubled the amount of people around in case something happened and I greatly appreciated that.

The other raft was ready to go and we headed down the river. Kazi explained to us that most of the rapids are 3-4’s but there will be 3 that are 5 or 5+. The first 5 was called The Mother, the second called Terminator 2, the third called The Oblivion. He was going to let us know as we arrived to THOSE rapids. Overall, this half of the Zambezi has 24 marked and named rapids. We were starting halfway down, only completing rapids 11-24. Keep in mind, some of these rapids, have multiple rapids in the one marked rapid. Before we got there, we did see one crocodile! The first rapid we came across was called Creamy White Buttocks. Haha! I love the names of rapids. Every time I have rafted, the names of rapids just crack me up.

Now remember, I am not paddling at this point, I am just a passenger. So for this first rapid, I was just instructed to turn around, face forward, and hold on to the rope. There is something quite terrifying about being at the front of a boat, going head first into a rapid. Just looking up and seeing a wall of water, coming at your face, as you are heading straight to it.

IT WAS SO COLD. SO COLD.

Because I was not exerting any type of energy paddling, I was just calmly sitting, getting nailed with cold water. I sat in this spot through rapid number 12, which is called The Three Ugly Sisters. These were rapids number 12A, 12B, and 12C. It was a blast. Slightly scary, having no control, but a blast. From there we were heading into the first 5, which was called the Mother and I was NOT interested in sitting shotgun for this rapid. However, Bec was all about it, ready to go, so we swapped out. We gained momentum, went straight into the rapid and came out successful on the other side. Bec’ screams and face were PRICELESS. It was fabulous. Everyone got soaked.

After this we went through “Surprise Surprise” and “The Washing Machine” and then it was into “The Terminator” followed by “The Terminator 2” with Bec still in the front, holding down the fort. This was also another successful rapid, but slightly terrifying and funny. From here we had a moment of calm for everyone to relax, recover and laugh. The next rapid we were coming up on was The Oblivion. Mitchell decided to switch out with Bec before these rapids. So here we are, 6 of us paddling, one guide, and big ole Mitch sitting in the front. Him tucking down and squatting just looked like he was sitting head level with the rest of us.

Kazi stopped and asked if we wanted to go around the rapid and do a safer path OR try and go through it. He said going through it there was 50/50 chance that we would make it or flip. Meg was the only sane person in this group. She was like NOPE. DO NOT WANT TO FLIP. Bec and Mitch of course were first to be like YEAH LETS GO THROUGH IT! Holly was on board and I was unsure.

We went through it.

We got obliterated.

Hard.

It was epic. We went in head first. On the right side, in front was Bec, followed by Meg, followed by me in the back. On the left side, in front was Robert, followed by Charles, followed by Holly. Guide in the back. Mitchell tucked in the front.

The boat flipped first from our side. I swear, time slowed down. In slow motion I just see Bec and Meg flying out in front of me to the left as the boat is in the air. I just see the two of them, in slow motion arms flying, body launching to the left, falling out and all I think is, “Guess we’re doing this” and just chose to dive in, head first. I just did not want to end up under the boat. Slow motion stopped and time sped up. Speeding down the river now. I came up, slightly under the boat, hitting the edge. I reached out, climbed out, and was the first to come up, after the guide. I watched him climb up on top of the upside down raft. I looked around the side, saw Bec and then Meg closest to me. Meg looked at me, looked shaken and said “Holly is under there!” Then I heard Holly yell from under the boat “HELP! I’M UNDER HERE!” And that scared the shit out of me. Seeing the panic in Meg’s face and hearing it in Holly’s voice, it scared me.

Time slowed down again. My Mom, more than anyone, knows that when things get really intense, I tend to get really calm. I don’t know why. But I just do and try to think smart and clearly. I reached under the boat, felt Holly, yelled “HERE IS MY HAND, TAKE IT” and Meg threw hers under as well. Holly grabbed both of us, we yelled at her to go down, she went under and we pulled her back up on the other side.

Time speeds up again. We look up, now Kazi and Mitchell (of all people) are on top of the upside down raft. We are still speeding down the river. Kazi is directing us from atop this raft, and all of us shuffle and get to the same side of the raft holding on. Kazi told Mitchell to grab the rope on the opposite side, with him, to pull the rope and lean back, then jump out. We were told to hang on, and go with the rope to the other side. The boat flips, Mitchell and Kazi are now in the water too, we pop upped on the other side. Next thing I know, Mitchell and Kazi are in the boat. Trying to pull people. Mitchell said Meg looked so scared, Kazi and Mitchell pulled her up first. Meg got back, they pulled in Bec. This left me and Holly floating on the right side of the boat, Robert and Charles on the far left of the boat.

Next thing you know, Kazi is yelling “HURRY! HURRY!!!!” Looking ahead and wanting to pull people in as fast as they can. He begins yelling hurry as Bec got pulled into the boat. I turn to look behind me, we are coming up on another rapid. This one was called “The Last Straw” he is yelling hurry, I see Bec fumble up into the boat, limping on her hurt leg, I turn to see us coming up on the rapid and we are about to go in. I yell, “Bec, help me!” thinking I can get in to help grab Holly. Bec tries to grab me and falls back as the raft goes into the rapid.

This part was weird. I could see Holly and I were about to go leg first into this rapid. I yell to Holly, “HANG ON!” And I see her legs and feel mine just get suctioned into this rapid and we go down, into the water again, but held on. I come up and am still hanging on, I see Bec still there and she dunks me and pulls me up. I fall onto Bec like a beached whale, wiggle my way on and see Holly get pulled up. I land and roll off into the guide’s metal pit/seated area and sit up.

Finally we are all back in the boat. Everyone was in, everyone was mostly okay. Next thing I know, something was clearly wrong with Robert and Charles. I guess what happened was when we went through that second rapid, The Last Straw, they both went into rocks with their legs and sort of got stuck. Mitchell said he tried to pull Charles up, but he got sort of stuck and only halfway. Their legs were scraped and Robert was REALLY shaken up. He was literally shaking. Cold, startled, and probably scared.

The water calms and we all start to relax and laugh. What felt like SO much time had probably only been like 5 minutes on this whole trip. It was INSANE. And we are SO happy we did it. It was good fun.

After this, every single rapid looked like a walk in the park. It was nothing. We finished the rest of the river, going through the last named rapid called “Take Out 1” and then rapids 20-24. They did not have names.

We got to the exit point and got out. Now we had to trek back up the gorge, in our gear, after this insane body work out and getting wrecked. It was rough. Robert, Bec, and Charles just booked it up. Mitchell and I stuck together at the same pace, taking breaks and drinking water behind them, comparing this crappy hike to the incline we did in Colorado. We get to the top happy to be done. But no joke, all of the guides and guys working were carrying up all the rafts, metal rafters, gear and everything we just used, walking up this hell of a hike like it was no big deal. We are all over here huffing and puffing, our cute little helmets being heavy, and here’s these guys, passing us up, carrying a giant raft and metal rack, no big deal.

Everyone eventually gets to the top and we all dry off. It was beautiful, on top of this cliff, looking over the Zambezi river. They made us a delicious lunch, which we all devoured and drank lots of beer. We were dead. Food was great. We enjoyed a Zambezi beer looking at the Zambezi. We ate, talked, recapped our epic journey, got on the bus and headed back.

Once we got back to the hostel, everyone napped, but me. I sat out here, typing trying to catch up on the blog. I wasn’t tired enough to sleep and it was truly a great view sitting by the pool. I had taken the best shower ever and just relaxed. Eventually everyone slowly began to wake up and make appearances. The photographer eventually brought us our photos and video, to the hostel for us to watch. We immediately plugged them into Bec’s lappy and watched this 10 minute video of the whole thing. We were DYING laughing. We watched our flip so many times, pausing it, looking at everyone’s faces, assessing what happened, laughing and recapping it all.

Finally, we were all hungry. Meg hasn’t been feeling well so she opted to stay behind and grab dinner, while the rest of us went into town to get Mitch and Bec cash and us dinner. We went to an ATM, only to find it was out of cash. Which we knew was a problem and a thing, here in Zimbabwe. Mitch decided he would pay by card and we would pay him all cash for dinner. Picking a dinner spot was the worst, we went to three different restaurants around the city before we decided on one. We picked Lola’s or Carnivores? I am not exactly sure what the name of the restaurant was. But, one of those two.

This place sold giraffe meat and ribs. Also, Zebra burgers and mophane worms. The giraffe and zebra made me sad. They said it was farmed meat…but.. I don’t know if I believe that. It was sad. But Bec and Mitchell tried the Zebra burger. At dinner we decided we had to try the worms, as they are a Zimbabwean snack. We did. They were… interesting. Tasted kind of like beef jerky, but softer? Not the worst thing I have ever eaten, that is for sure. We got our meals and ate, which Holly and I were not really all impressed by. Mitch and Bec liked the zebra burger. Afterwards, Mitch got up to use the bathroom and came back, dancing to some local live music that was being performed. Have you all seen that video of that kid with long arms doing that weird hip and arm swing dance? If you know what I’m talking about, that’s what Mitch was doing. We were laughing hard and when he stopped, next thing we know, all of the waiters and workers began cheering and applauding- they had seen him and were watching him dance! We cheered and clapped more and a worker came out and dragged Mitchell to the area in front of the performers to dance. Which they did! It was too funny and quite entertaining. We finished up our meal and headed back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, Joe and Shadae were there and we sat with them. Meg went to bed and the rest of us sat and talked about our days, what we did, memes, music and all kinds of things. We played cards again- this time playing Shithead for anyone who has ever played. It was fun and I won twice! We laughed, played cards, played mind games that Shaday was teaching us and eventually all called it a night and went to bed.

Bahamas Day 5

June 17, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

This morning we got up and headed out the door. We signed up for a tour to take us to the island’s National Park. On our drive to the park and caves, our driver gave us a lot of history on The Grand Bahamas and the local cities we have been exploring.

Until 1973, The Grand Bahamas were under British rule. The indigenous people, Lucayans, have been here as early as 300-400AD. Back in 1492 when Christopher Columbus sailed across the world, he landed on the islands- he also thinks he discovered the Bahamas. You can’t discover a place where people already live. Anyways. When he landed, he came across the native people of the island who traveled here from what is now Cuba.

The Islands were under British rule, with the abdicated Duke of Windsor being installed as governor. In 1955, an American by the name of Wallace Groves came to the island with a big interest in their pine trees. This particular Island of the Bahamas naturally has really tall skinny pine trees with the pines only at the tops of the trees. They only grow on three different areas across the various islands and keys because Freeport in particular has a huge natural supply of salt and fresh water. These trees can only survive with fresh water and have thrived here in Freeport. With lumber interests in mind, Wallace came to the Bahamas to cultivate these trees and sell them to buyers in South America. It was agreed then by the Bahamian government that Wallace could have land to cultivate these trees, so long as its purpose was to develop the island economically. Under Wallace’s grant, Freeport became the first free trade zone on the island of Grand Bahama. Alas, the name, Freeport.

In 1973, Grand Bahama elected to remove themselves from British rule. The agreement is that after 100 years of independence, they will officially be let go into independence and cut all lasting ties with the British. However, until then Queen Elizabeth is still technically recognized as their monarch. They will celebrate 44 years of independence on July 10. They also go dollar for dollar with the U.S. and are technically one of the richest countries in North America.

I guess I’m giving you all a major history lesson, again. But, I find it all very interesting and we learned a lot about the island today. Also, their population is less than half a million. I think ~475,000 is what he said.

As we drove around, our driver talked a lot about the Hurricanes and the damage it as causes the island. And boy is it a lot. Hurricane after Hurricane they have endured. He explained the different parts of the city that flood, almost 6 feet of water just due to elevation and areas that flood up to 4 feet.

We drove by one area and he pointed out and said that it was their hill. He said, “You all may call it a speed bump, but to us, we call it a hill” haha! It’s 41 feet above sea level. Big hill, y’all.

We arrived to the National Park only to see the skies looking stormy. Everything around us was wet, but it wasn’t raining. We go to explore their national park which is 40 acres. Baby park! Walk around trails and go into caves. Beneath the park there is actually a huge system of underwater caves that look really cool to explore!

The first cave we went into was called Ben’s cave. The cave was discovered when part of the ceiling collapsed to reveal a clear pool of water. It is fresh water that actually sits on top of a layer of salt water! Weird, right? There are underwater passages that spread from Ben’s cave for thousands of yards. This makes the Lucayan cavern system one of the longest surveyed in the world. There’s tons of bats that live down there.

After we walked to a second cave called Burial Mound Cave. The bodies of several Lucayan Indians were found at the entrance of this cave. The bones were perfectly preserved in fresh water under a mound of rocks, about 6 feet down. There’s also a new, rare class of crustaceans that live here too!

After the caves and walking around the park, we got back on the bus and headed toward Gold Rock Beach. We had about an hour here, but neither Sam or I felt like swimming and the clouds were looking mean. But the water was unbelievable! I couldn’t believe there was water bluer than what we had already been seeing. We found a bench, posted up and enjoyed the view.

The second we felt a rain drop, we jumped. We already played this game on this trip and we learned our lesson real quick. That one drop was about to turn into a bucket. We jumped up, gathered our few belongings and began to quickly make our way down the path back to the bus. We still got soaked. Because it did eventually pour. BUT, not as wet as we could have been had we moved slower. We laughed, as always. Made it to the bus and began to freeze our faces off. The first time we have really legitimately been cold on this trip. OH! And we totally brought rain jackets on this trip- we just chose NOT to bring them today because.. I don’t know. I honestly don’t know why. Half asleep? Didn’t check the weather? Didn’t occur to us? All of the above probably. So our useful handy dandy rain jackets sat nicely folded, warm and dry, in our room.

We go to the next stop which is another beach, but mostly restaurant. Banana Bay. It would have been beautiful if it was raining. I mean, it was still beautiful in the rain, but I could see the huge appeal for it in the sun. You can sit outside on a deck over the ocean. Over that clear blue water! We sat inside, obviously, where there was not nearly as much seating, understandably. We had their world famous banana bread, which was delicious, and dragged our cold wet selves back onto the bus to head home.

We get back and are tired. I lay on the bed, only to take an impromptu nap and Sam, being all productive and stuff, read some more and worked out. When she returned from her workout, she brought back reports of sunshine, warm weather, and motivation to get our butts and hammocks outside. So we did. We put our hammocks back up, read on the beach, and enjoyed the insanely beautiful sunset. Then we came to the lobby and I sat down and wrote this.