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 12- Back to Malawi

July 19, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

This morning we got up and Meg, Holly and I went to go run some errands. We had breakfast at the hostel, they had hard boiled eggs! I was so excited. I haven’t been able to get hard boiled eggs here at all. This was exciting for me. We got a tuk-tuk and headed to buy bus tickets for later that day. We are getting a 12:00 bus to Mzuzu and we needed to buy our tickets. It was literally one woman sitting at a green plastic table in a parking stall of a parking lot. So bizarre. We bought our tickets, got in the tuk tuk and headed back to the Chitenje market to pick up our clothes we had made at the beginning! We went to the tailor, looked at them, and took them to Peace Corps to try them on. Holly had to get some medicine from her doctor as well, she had been feeling even more sore and worse than me. She grabbed her medicine and we all tried on all of the Chitenje for each other to figure out what we still needed to be fixed. I definitely need all my pants to be taken in in the leg, and one dress in at the waist. One of my other dresses was perfect! We love them so much. We got that all sorted out and decided that Holly was going to go back to the hostel (she really was not feeling well) and Meg and I were gonna drop the clothes back off at the tailor to get fixed while we were gone.

We dropped off Holly and got to the market. Meg and I went in, dropped it off, I bought another 2 meters to use for a cork board at school, and Holly called asking where we were. We jumped back in the tuk tuk, got two more tuk tuks and went back to Crown, the hostel. Meg and I got there, grabbed our bags, as everyone was also checking out, and we got in the tuk tuks and headed to the bus. We got the bus and there were so many people! Bec and Holly ran to the store to grab snacks (as our lunch) and the rest of us loaded the bus up and got seats. Every seat was packed and they were tiny seats. We all were sitting pretty separate from each other. I was in an aisle seat, next to some old man.

This was the longest bus ride, ever. Sitting cramped with this stiff neck/back was the absolute worst. We left at noon and did not arrive to Mzuzu until 5:30. We finally got to Mzuzu and got a taxi to Joys, the hostel we were staying at. Holly was not having life at this point and started bartering with the taxi drivers who wanted us to pay way too much, and eventually she just gave up and we got in one and went. Joys was cute and they had so many dogs! All the cute dogs to play with. We put our stuff down and walked to Umunthu, another hostel to have dinner. Everyone says it is the best dinner. And oh my god, it was. Another Peace Corps volunteer was there, uh….. Brimble I think his name was. His last name. With one of his friends, Ben, who is originally from Seattle but has currently been a journalist the last four years in Israel. We all grabbed beers, ordered food, and started playing Phase 10.

Oh my gosh. When we asked Brimble and Ben if they wanted to play Phase 10, Ben responded very strongly and was like “I hate phase 10! I tried to avoid it at all costs” and everyone was clearly thinking like…”Whoa dude…just a game” Brimble then asked about the game, finally realizing it was a card game. Turns out, Brimble and Ben thought we said FACE TIME. We all started busting up. Asking Brimble, what did he think we were going to do, FaceTime each other and turn our backs and talk??? Like what?? We were dying. Ben said he definitely heard FaceTime too- and of course we inquired as to why someone could have such strong feelings about hating FaceTime. We died. Then we taught them Phase 10 and played during food and drinks. Holly and I had the best dinner. We split a three cheese peppaew, salad, and fries. It tasted like the best thing we have eaten this entire trip. It was amazing.

We played late into the night, finally all of us walking back to Joys and Brimble and Ben heading to wherever they were staying. We got back, I blogged for a bit, and then everyone crashed.

Day 11- Zambia

July 19, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

This morning we got up as planned for our morning drive. We went and had breakfast, which was even more delicious. During breakfast, a server came to us and told us our safari driver was in the back. We were confused. Then we realized it must have been Mophy. Holly. Immediately asked our server, who was lovely, to get his manager because he wants to talk to him. We finish breakfast, head out front, only to find the manager out there with a man we don’t recognize. Apparently, Mophy had hired a driver to come pick us up. The manager of Croc Valley was not having it. He told the driver to call Mophy, which he did, and the driver gave the manager the phone. He told Mophy that we were not getting into the car with his driver, but getting into their car and that we would be back and 10 and that Mophy can meet us then. They hung up.

Apparently Mophy has done this many times before, dropped people off late at night and then picked them up very early and not paid. The manager told us he got us a private car and we got in. Our drivers name was Akim and he too, was just as fabulous as Simon. We headed out, with Bec and Mitch singing some Lion King tunes to keep us awake. The Lion Sleeps Tonight to be exact. It was too early for any of us to be awake, so we found this very entertaining.

Guess what we saw first? Elephants! More beautiful elephants. Only one of them was missing a tusk. Akim believes this is probably a result of just fighting to break food off and eat it, the tusk got worn down and broke. We saw loads more of impalas. It was amazing to watch Akim and his tracking skills. Things I know but did not think about. He was watching where vultures were circling in the sky, watching the way impalas were moving and jumping, and following prints on the ground. We were driving and all of the sudden Akim jeers to the right and speeds up. He says that there must be a leopard on the other side of the flatland. When we asked how he could tell (as the impala were standing still-it appeared) and he said that though the impala were not moving, the impalas that who were essentially the scouts (so only a few of them) were jumping up and down. This is how the impala alert the others that there is a predator near. We raced over and low and behold- we found a leopard! It was so incredibly fun. We followed her around. He told us that this particular leopard was a daughter of Alice- one of the parks oldest leopards, who had passed away. We followed her around for a bit, seeing if we could watch where she goes. We drove around for a bit, saw more of the variety of birds the park is home to, and drove by some of the whitest of white people on a safari. I too a photo of them because it made me laugh. THEN came across the most RANCID stench of all time.

The hippo carcass!

The very one we saw the night before. We could smell it this morning and it was AWFUL. We pull up to so many cars and finally get a look. There are about 10 lions around and eating this hippo carcass. It was insane! Two male lions and probably about 6-8 female lions. Eating, laying around sleeping, just in and around this hippo. It was gross and amazing all at the same time. We stayed there for a while, watching all of this go down. I had my binoculars out so we could all get an even closer view.

We left the lions to see another elephant, more impalas, and lots of zebras and hippos. We had a blast with Akim. We asked him loads of questions about his job, his time in Zambia, and animals. He was insanely knowledgeable about the wildlife present in the park. He told us his family was part of the tribes that were indigenous to the lands that now cover the national park. Back in the 30’s I think he said, there was a bad case of leprosy throughout the area so people began to leave. Eventually, they cleared everyone out and decided to declare the area a national park to preserve the animal life. He has spent his whole life around the animals and has been a guide for the park since the 90’s. He loves his job. We stopped to have tea and biscuits again, this time with just a view of the river and some elephant bones, which is where he shared all of this.

We left the park and on our way back turning onto the road to our hostel, a truck with POLICE written on it turned in front of us. We knew this had to do with Mophy. We arrived back to see the manager and Mophy sitting at a table. We see the police walk up and now there are alike 6 people from the police department, Mophy, and the manager. We walked up hesitant, to say the least. The manager told us to wait and he would be with us. Meg went to the bathroom, Holly and Bec went to go put things down, Mitch and I decided to play pool on the tiniest pool table of all time. Of all time, because it looks like instead of making a standard size pool table, they made one suitable for kids, but are using it for adults. We had to hunch over far, which was not fun with my stiff neck I have had for two days now. Poor Mitch was leaning all the way over. I lost, hard. The billiard balls were awful and the table was off balance! Lol! When Holly and Bec walked away, we all saw across the pool where they were headed, Axon! They stopped to talk to him for a while. Mitch and I also ran back to the rooms only to find giraffes near our site in the distance!

The manager called us over and asked us to say what we needed to Mophy. Holly went off. She gave this great first speech that I wanted applaud afterwards. She basically just told Mophy about how he was screwing us over, taking our money, taking advantage of this place, these people, us, etc. Mophy at first tried to talk and started with “No, no, you see” and Holly was like “Don’t tell me no! You can’t tell me I don’t feel how I feel” and went off again. Mophy was quiet. The manager and all the police deceives sitting around were quiet and just looking around, away, anywhere but at Mophy and Holly. Ultimately, Holly told him she did not feel comfortable driving in a car with him and did not want to see him anymore. She explained we wound find our own transport back to Malawi. Bec went off on him asking about our park entrance fees that he stole and did not actually pay for. It was intense. Overall, Holly told Mophy to go away, literally, and that she did not want to see him ever again.

From there we began trying to figure out our own transport and cost. Ultimately, we actually ended up asking Axon if HE would drive us all the way to Lilongwe, but not with Mophy. We agreed on a price, that was cheaper than a car, and got in. Axon drove us all the way. The only time we were nervous was getting back into Malawi. Apparently sometimes the health inspector checks for the Yellow Fever vaccine, which I did not have. When I looked online it said “If you are coming from a country that has yellow fever, you will need proof of a vaccine. This excludes residents from the United States” so I did not think I would need it. That would have been accurate, if I was entering Malawi from the U.S. this time. I was entering it from Zambia, which means technically, I would have needed that vaccine. Whoops. But it was fine, there was no health inspector there that day, and we moved along. More car rides! It was not actually as far. Maybe four hours total.

We got to Lilongwe, checked into our hostel, and decided to get some Chinese food. Holly realized that one of her Peace Corps friends was staying in the same hostel (actually a few doors down). We all called Bonaface again, squeezed into the car and went to the restaurant. Next to this restaurant was a karaoke spot where you can pay to rent a room. If you have ever done karaoke in Koreatown, it’s kind of like that. We rented this room AND had our food brought to it. It was a total flipping blast. We sang all kinds of random music. The worker even told us that he has one song he likes to sing and sang it for us. He sang “London Bridge is Falling Down” which cracked me up. It was honestly the LAST song I ever expected this guy to sing. I wasn’t even sure I knew all the words to this song and was impressed that he did. We ate, sang, and laughed. Cleaned up and walked back to the hostel. We even saw a prostitute. To bed we all went.

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 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.

Day 5- Zimbabwe

July 4, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

Today, we woke up in Zimbabwe. We finally got to sleep in for a bit this morning. I got up, worked on some of the blog, then got ready. Holly was up, got a massage from a person here at the hostel. Once everyone was up, had breakfast, took some malarone and we were off. Today was our first day without Mophy and Axon and I think that some space is good for everyone! We wanted to see Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side this time, since apparently everyone says it is better. What it is is that during the low season, there is little to no water coming off of the falls on the Zambia side. Even in the low season, the Zimbabwe side has water. Everyone says the Zimbabwe side is wetter, I think they are right.

We decided to walk this morning to the falls because it was right near the Zambia border we walked past yesterday. It was probably 1 mile- 1 1/2 mile walk from here to there. We stopped once we got into town to pay for white water rafting and bungee jumping the next two days! Mitchell is unsure if he is going to bungee jump as his weight is right below the maximum weight allowance and that sort of freaks him out. He made a reservation and then is going to talk to the master jumpers tomorrow to see what they think.

Anyways- we walked to the falls, paid for entry, and went in. Meg and I realized in line that we should have kept our ponchos from yesterday that we bought at the curio shops instead of just giving them back. We could have used them today. We walk in- Meg asks a man where poncho sales are. The man tells her to pick up one poncho that is right near us and says he will go run and get another one. The total cost for the ponchos is $6. We give him our money and he runs across to the curio shops outside and brings us back another poncho that is practically child size. The first poncho he gave us was ginormous. So here we were, with a tiny and giant poncho, ready to get soaked.

The Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls definitely has their shit together more than the Zambia side, that is for sure. It was cleaner, more organized, and overall a semi- self guided tour. There are stops along the way, each various look out points. Most people says it takes about an hour and a half to go all the way and back. We headed out again to look at the views and were just as amazed as the day before. I will say though, the footpaths on the Zimbabwe side are much farther away from the falls than the ones on the Zambia side. Also, because there is more water, it was WAY more mistier on this side which made the views hard to see sometimes. We got WAY more wet than yesterday, which I was not sure was even really possible. It was still beautiful and great fun going down the path and looking at the sites. At the end, you can climb near the edge. Well, I am not actually sure if you are suppose to or not, but everyone does and no one manages it. But there is a wet mossy sign that says “do not go further beyond this point” that we all just walked right past to get photos. It was fun being at the end because we were looking at the Zambia side, where we had just been standing the day before. Also, there were BEAUTIFUL rainbows! Double ones in fact and we got some great photos! Mitchell stepped in mud, got his shoe stuck, and just gave up and took them off completely. Ran around barefoot on the top of Victoria Falls! Here’s today’s views:

When we were done we stopped at the cafe to dry off (soooooo wet) and have a coffee! Finally some good real coffee. It was delicious.

After the falls we headed back home quickly, by cab, to get ready for dinner. We heard of this place called The Watering Hole at the Safari Lodge. There’s a giant watering hole you can see from the deck and watch animals as they go grab a drink. Meg suggested we go at sunset to see that view as well. We all cleaned up a little more than usual for this trip and headed out!

We got to the lodge and it was pretty great! Clearly people who stay there pay a lot of money to stay. But we went down to the bar and found a great seat on the deck. Great view. And the sun setting in our faces the entire time, haha! But it was fun. We saw some more warthogs, impalas, guinea fowls, and other birds. We got drinks, ate delicious food, and played more cards. We weren’t sure we were going to see much- until an elephant appeared! I made the mistake of being the first one to see it and shout it out, but I wanted everyone I was with to see it! Quickly everyone in the bar was up and around looking at this lone elephant. Poor guy probably got kicked out or left his herd. I also felt for the waiters of this restaurant. Like, I’m sure it has to be real annoying having a constant flow of white people fawning over elephants and animals, and I’m sure they ask them what each is. Anyways- it was so beautiful though! This elephant just came to this space and drank water, walked around, and the sun was setting. It was pretty cool.

We stopped at the market for more water and got some ice cream! We came back, Meg went to bed, and the rest of us sat out in the kitchen area playing cards and talking. We played with three other people who were here. Joe, Dia, and Shaday. Joe is from Manchester just finished doing some anti-poaching work up in Malawi, Dia is from upstate New York and is also a peace corps volunteer in Botswana, and Shaday is from Australia who lives in London and is here volunteering and traveling. We had a great time playing cards, talking about what we do, talking politics (always a fun one coming from the U.S.) and just laughed and played. Finally we went to bed, having to be up early tomorrow for rafting!

Day 3- Zambia

July 2, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

Today we were up again at 6:00am ready to hit the road to Livingstone, Zambia. We got in the car only to find an additional passenger waiting for us. Everyone was confused. Joining us on our journey today was Itay, a 26 year old man from Israel. We had no idea he was joining us, so that was a fun surprise. Our party of five turned into a party of six.

Driving across three countries is a haul. Today consisted of a three hour Indiana Jones ride up some dirt roads to get to Zambezi and Kafue. After driving along a pretty sketchy path off of the main road covered in dead trees, we appeared at this beautiful lake. Here we were stopping for breakfast. The thing is, this whole portion of the trip has been sort of shady at this point. Holly had made arrangements for us to have a Safari first then go to Victoria Falls but just before I arrived, Mophie asked if he could switch the order of events. We now think it was because Itay was looking for a ride to Victoria Falls and Mophie just wanted to make more money. Which is fine, except he did not tell us this part. So when we arrived to Kafue at this beautiful lake, to stop for breakfast, Itay stopped to do a canoeing trip. Mophie had said it was a two hour trip. All of the signs posted at this lake said it was a three hour trip.

It was a three hour trip.

So now, we had a surprise three hour break. Which, while the site we were at was absolutely beautiful, we were not so happy about. We had not planned to have a huge break and detour in our day, we were not told we would have this, and we still had a long drive to get to Livingstone. No one was happy about this at all.

Mitch got lucky in that with the canoeing trip, you must book it for parties of two. Or at least pay for two. Itay paid for two and then had no one to go so he asked if anyone in our group would like to go and Mitchell jumped at the offer. At the time, he definitely did not realize he was signing up for a three hour canoeing trip around this tiny island. All he thought it was (like us) was a canoeing trip where he would see some hippos. So while Mitchell and Itay went on this little trip, the rest of us sat around killing time talking, reading, and working out why we think everything happened this way. For some of this, Mophie sat with us to talk. Holly began asking Mophie about the history of slave trade in Africa. Her point was that we are taught what we are taught by white straight American men who have only one perspective on what happened in history. Mophie began to explain in detail (in his limited scope of English) about slave trade across Africa and the influence the UK and the U.S. had on the trafficking. He explained how there were people in the North who would raid cities and capture anyone they could. They were locked up in boxes where the white men would come and select who they wanted out of these boxes to take. They would pay chiefs or whoever was in charge and bring the slaves to the U.S. Mophie says that is why so many Black people in the United States are big, strong and athletically inclined. Because slave traders would pick the biggest and strongest out of the collected to bring back. Then, after slavery was abolished, the U.S. actually brought slaves BACK to Africa and in Mophie’s words “dumped them all back into one place” which is was is now Sierra Leone. He says that before slave trade, Sierra Leone did not even exist in Africa but because there was such an influx of people back into Africa, Sierra Leone became that space and newly founded country to be occupied. He went on further to explain how sad this was (obviously for many reasons) but because people were pulled from all various parts and countries in Africa for slave trade and obviously had families, but when those people were brought back and left to live in Sierra Leone, they could actually come from a different culture and place in Africa but not know it. They have been displaced by white people. It was really sad to talk about. Mophie even wondered how we did not know about this and was surprised to find we are not taught that in school. OH! He also talked about people who were accused of being witches. If someone was captured and accused of being a witch, they were not allowed to be sold to white slave traders. They were kept as slaves, but here at a home.This entire conversation was absolutely educational, disheartening, and interesting.

While waiting, we even saw a lizard! And by lizard, I mean a GIANT lizard. I don’t know why they call it a lizard, I am pretty sure it is bigger than the size of a small cat. I was mind blown to see this lizard just in the wild, roaming around the property. I could not get a picture because when i went to get my camera, I startled it and it ran off.

All in all, Mitchell came back starving (he had to skip breakfast to kayak) and looking like a tomato. He got SO burned! I felt so bad for the guy. I gave him the other half of my sandwich to eat. Oh right, our food. We ordered coffee and breakfast sandwiches. All of our sandwiches came and there were TWO whole sandwiches on the plate! Served as one! It was so much food! FINALLY we got to head back out on the road again.

Today consisted of a lot more site seeing, cards, and laughing. We saw lots of small outer villages where homes were huts, people walking, and fire burning. I want to talk about two of these things. First, people walking. People walk everywhere here, which is is amazing. However, when they are carrying anything, it is almost always carried on their head. Not only carried on their head, but balanced on their head. And it is absolutely amazing what we have seen people balance on their heads while walking. Absolutely amazing. HUGE things that do not even seem possible to balance or baskets that look like the weight is not even distributed. Children, carrying buckets of water. It’s entirely all too impressive. Second, the fires. There is no trash system here in Zambia or Malawi so instead they burn their trash. There often along the road on this trip so far, have been lots of fires. People just collect, pile, and burn their trash which has been interesting to see. We also saw Baboons! We have seen some crazy amounts of baboons now. Also, we saw a goat hung by its hind legs in a tree being skinned. And, possibly a dead body. If he was not dead, he was very close to be. He was laying in the bed of a truck in front of us. The bed was down and we could see him. A leg looked destroyed but it was hard to see, it was dark. Mophie got our attention, telling us to look and see and when we did, that’s what it was.

We had some real deep conversations that branched off from “Would you rather” questions and just generally questions. We asked Itay to play cards with us and taught him how to play Asshole as well. He enjoyed it and was a good sport. We all played that for while. Eventually we switched over to that game where it’s like “I’m going to a picnic and I am bringing….” and you have some category in your head that everyone else is trying to figure out. Some people then say “I’m going to bring ________” and the person in charge tells them that yes, they are allowed to bring it, OR no they are not. This keeps going until someone can figure out the category. Some categories were: Things that are green, words ending in ING, words with two consonants, and cult leaders. After this game, we switched to Contact (shout out to Gabby!) it is a word guessing game Gabby taught me and I taught all of them. We must have played this game for SO long. Eventually everyone was falling asleep in the car. We stopped in a small town called Monze to get some food for dinner and we were back in the car.

We finally arrived to Livingstone and to our hostel that was called Fawlty Towers. It was a really nice place. They had Wifi only in the lobby and lots of couches and comfy areas to sit. We all put our stuff in the room and headed down to the lobby to check in with the world and relax after a long day. Also, we said goodbye to our friend Itay, as he was staying somewhere else in Livingstone.

Sitting in the lobby of this hostel, this giant fat cat walked by. We have seen A LOT of cats here so far. This cat was clearly loved and well fed. But oh my gosh, he started by claiming on the table near me and then on the couch near me, and the ON to me where he was tapping and padding his feet and kneading his claws into my stomach for like twenty minutes! I don’t know why this cat was so keen on me, even after I stopped petting him! He would NOT get off of me and his nails were hurting me. I seriously just wanted him to get off or lay down and stop clawing me. But he did not, so I eventually had to lift him off of me so I could get up. He cried and meowed at me for this.

After this, I ran upstairs to get disinfectant to wipe off the small scratches from the cat. I really was not worried about them being infected or causing a problem, but figured it would be better to be safe than sorry. Upon opening Meg’s backpack to get wipes, I discovered that the lid to the peanut butter had popped off somewhere along the way in all of this moving process and was now all over her backpack, the bread, and the wipes! That was a fun disaster to deal with. I cleaned off the wipes semi-wiped off the bread, and carried the backpack to Meg, to explain and see what she wanted to do. So, that was fun.

After all of that, we went to bed. Mitchell once again was placed in a room not near us, forced to sleep with strangers. Tomorrow we will for sure see Victoria Falls and cross into Zimbabwe. In the four days that I have been here, I will have been in three different countries. Thats fun to think about!

Day 2- Zambia

July 2, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

We were up early this morning. Our car was leaving at 8:00am to begin our long trek to Zambia and ultimately Victoria Falls. We woke up and had breakfast that was provided by the hotel we were staying at. They had an entire buffet of papaya, other fruits, cereal, toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, mini pancakes and someone making omelettes. It was pretty good. I grabbed some flapjacks (I KNOW RIGHT?!!) for anyone that knows me, you know that I absolutely hate pancakes. BUT these were smaller and fatter, so they were doable. One of Holly’s requests for me to bring was maple syrup so we busted that out and had it with our breakfast. It was a nice morning to start and then we were off. Today and tomorrow are big travel days.

We had to drive two hours to the Malawi/Zambia border first. We are traveling by mini bus. It is this VW sized bus that has about four rows in it. We have paid for our own private transport since it ended up only being $15 more than getting our own taxs and shuttles and at least with this, we can pull over any time we want. So the five of us climbed on in and headed to the border. Once we got there, we got out, and entered customs to let them know we were leaving Malawi. After filling out forms, we got back into the car and the driver Boniface drove us maybe another thousand feet across no mans land to Zambia Immigration and the actual border of Zambia. We walked into immigration, filled out more forms and paid for our visa to enter Zambia. On our way out, we noticed that the Zambia immigration office was offering free condoms for anyone who wanted them. Just a box, sitting on a bench, casually inside the immigration office.

We walked back to the car, which is literally at this wooden barrier that is the dividing line between the two countries, took all of our bags out and walked 20ft across the border where Mophy (the guy Holly booked this all through) was waiting with another driver and another car. We piled everything into that car and began what was an 8 hour journey across Zambia to Lusaka. Car rides. They are fun. SO long. But we made it work. This ride was filled with a lot of watching the drive and the view, playing lots of cards, and talking.

There is a game played here in East Africa called Bawo (pronounced bow, to take a bow on stage). I would say that is is similar to Mancala but double rows. Meg had a board made and on this car ride taught us how to play. It is eight rows and four columns with two seeds in each pit. You use the seeds and move them accordingly to attack and steal your opponent’s seeds. The object of the game is to take all of your opponents seeds or make it so they can no longer attack. It was a really fun game! Mitch and Meg played first and then Meg taught me. I beat her! But only because she helped me.

We were rather impressed upon entering Zambia. It is very obvious that Zambia has a stronger economical climate based upon a majority of the roads being paved. This also included a lot more stoplights, larger shopping centers, and guard rails on the sides of the highways. The roads here, even though paved, like home, still have lots of pot holes, but unlike home, can still be exceptionally bumpy. Not only that, but they may even switch back to a dirt road, which is a similar experience to riding Indiana Jones, if it is not a city based road.

As we drove, it was lunch time and we did not want to stop. We busted out the snack bag which included, bread, peanut butter, and bananas and decided we would all have a peanut butter and banana sandwich for lunch. Well, we definitely did not bring any sort of cutlery for this, so Holly and Bec got creative. They used the lid of the peanut butter to spread ridiculous amounts of peanut butter on bread while Bec handed everyone a banana and we all just sort of smashed up the banana and broke it off with our fingers. For as messy as it looked in the process and as messy as you could predict it to be, it did not turn out too bad. Overall, it was a successful, entertaining lunch.

Our drive included playing lots of cards. Bec and Mitch asked if anyone knew how to play a game called Presidents and Assholes. For those of you at home who know, it was essentially just Asshole that we played. The starting card was different, the high card was different, but overall, the same concept. If you know what Asshole is, you know it is typically a drinking game. Bec and Mitch, dang Aussies, do not play it as a drinking game (WHAT!?) and we did not play it that way, obviously, in this car. Ultimately we ended up playing this semi-hybrid of both countries versions of this game. We played for a looong time and it was unbelievably fun. Holly and Meg had never played and we just played round after round in this car, down this bumpy road, all the way through Zambia. It was intense, people were yelling and laughing.

This is what we did. Ate, laughed, talked, and slept as we drove. It is acceptable and common practice here to throw trash out the window. So as people ate bananas, you were expected to just toss the peel out of the window at any time. Bec did this once, without looking, because she was in conversation, and nearly through this banana at peel at a group of kids! She did not hit them or anything, but all of them watched this banana peel fly and looked at it like “What the heck” and it she felt bad, which was the entertaining part. Along this drive today we also saw mice being sold on sticks as a snack. Children on the side of the road just hunt mice, put them on sticks, cook them, and then sell them. We did not eat them. I was genuinely thinking about it, as was Meg, and considering it (as gross as it sounds to me) but then Meg brought up the point of disease and being unsure, so we opted out. No mice for us. But they do sell crickets in the local markets…so maybe that.

The sun set, which was beautiful, and next thing we know we are driving in the dark. Which actually felt super sketchy at times. There is no streetlights, which is fine, but people pretty much just pass other cars whenever they want. Bumpy roads, night time, passing, headlights, driving fast, just felt…. a little sketchy at times and I think made everyone nervous. In my short lifetime, I have done well with sometimes finding myself in situations that may stress me out or make me nervous, but are entirely out of my control. I have learned to talk myself out of being stressed, understanding that there is literally nothing I can do about it and being stressed only makes the situation worse for me, but will not change anything, so why put myself through it? I chose to stay relaxed and truly, we were fine. We arrived in Lusaka and Mophie took us to a local Mall (which blew Holly’s mind) and we went to an ATM to get some Zambian Kwatcha and food. I opted for a Chinese restaurant and got some Sweet and Sour chicken with steamed rice. Meg, Mitch, and Bec all went and got burgers and fries. We took our food to go and headed back to the hostel to devour it. We all went to bed and crashed, the plan is to leave at 6:00am tomorrow to head even farther south to Livingstone, Zambia which is just closer to Victoria Falls and Zimbabwe.