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 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 4- Zambia/Zimbabwe

July 4, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

Today we got up in Livingstone, packed our things and went down to the lobby to wait for our ride. We are going to Victoria Falls today! Sitting in the lobby, we got coffee which turns out is not actually coffee, it is Ricoffy, which is coffee without caffeine. It was awful and made my heart sad. Mophie picked us up and wanted us to finish paying for our transport, but we could not because did not have anymore Zambian Kwatcha. We asked him to take us to an ATM to get cash.

Little did we know that this was going to be the biggest ordeal. We get to what Mophy says is the only ATM in town. The line for the ATM is ridiculously long. Mitch and Bec were also trying to get their hands on some American currency so that they could pay for activities in Zimbabwe (who mostly uses the USD). Meg, Bec, and Mitch decided to go inside the bank and see if that line was shorter and if they could get some U.S. currency. These lines took a really long time. Holly and I stood at the outside ATM talking for a while and eventually began talking to the man in front of us in line. Turns out he is from South Africa and part of a 140 car rally that is driving all over parts of Africa donating shoes to various places. People join this car rally from all over the world and they have various rest stops along the way and they had just had one the previous night in Zambia. Eventually it is our turn, we get up to the ATM, pull our cash and decide we will go to the Shoprite to buy more water and grab coffee for everyone while they are inside. As we are about to go into the Shoprite, we see the other three coming out of the bank. Assuming they are done, we grab our water and start to get in line. They come find us in the Shoprite only to tell us that they waited that whole time, at least a half hour, and the power went out in the bank. They waited out the power outage and when the lights turned back on, it was Mitchell’s turn to deal with the teller. He asked if he could pull out USD, the teller told him he could not, only exchange currency. Mitchell asked if he could pull out Zimbabwean currency, the teller told him he could not. When Mitchell asked what his options were, the teller told him he needed to go pull money out of the ATM outside and come back in to exchange it.

Holy cow was everyone not having this. We finally left the hotel at 9:30 to go across the street for this ATM and it has now been over an hour and we still had not technically done anything. Holly and I felt so bad for them. As they had been telling us this, Holly and I had gotten in and were STILL standing in line waiting to buy more water. The market was packed and not moving quickly. We told them that if they got in the ATM line, all of us would probably be done at the same time, as our line was not moving quickly. Holly and I waited forever. FOR. EVER. And finally bought our water and some Doritos that were sour cream and mild chili flavored. We take the water, go next door into the cafe, order three coffees and next thing we know, Mitch, Meg, and Bec are back. We were excited, exclaiming how fast it went, only to find out that they STILL did not have any money. They waited in line at the ATM, a woman went up to the ATM, touched the screen, and a sign popped up saying “This ATM is closed, please go inside”

The ATM had run out of money. They could not get any money.

We felt SO BAD! But we were able to give coffee to them. At this point, everyone was pretty frustrated and just decided to go back to the car to tell Mophy we wanted to either go to a different ATM or get money in Zimbabwe. The problem with getting cash in Zimbabwe is that apparently Zimbabwe, because the mostly use USD and do not print any USD, was having an economical crisis in regards to how much currency they were currently circulating. Long in the short of it, ATMs were not to be trusted. Only paying with actual Visas.

We trek back to the car, it is way later than we wanted to start our day with and tell Mophy what is happening. At this point, he decides to share that there is another ATM and he will take us to it.

That ATM took them 3 minutes to get money. GAHHHHHHH!!!!!! WHY WAS THIS NOT THE FIRST ATM?!!? Sooooooooo frustrating!

But, we did it. We got money. We got coffee. We had snacks. We finally left. I made a mess of myself at this point. My coffee was dripping and spilled onto my shirt AND I had dropped some chocolate of Meg’s that I was trying onto my shirt as well. I looked like a mess. Everyone was having a really good time. Like, probably the best day we have had on this trip so far.

Finally, we were on our way. We drove to Victoria Falls on the Zambia side and everyone perked right up! We pulled in, handed Mophy our passports so he could go check us in and pay, and waited to go in. In this time waiting, we saw TONS of baboons. TONS of them. Everywhere, around the parking lot. Walking around casually. Mitchell went and tried to sit next tone that was under a tree. While this was entertaining, it was also very sketchy, as baboons are not exactly the friendliest of animals. They wont bother you if you are just walking by, typically, but they can really mess things up and be very aggressive. We also saw them climbing all over cars. We even saw one climb across one car to get to another car to check if it was unlocked! I kid you not, we watched this baboon pull on this cars door handles to see if they would open and knock on the window to see if it was rolled down. It was insane to see happen! Smart animals. Mophy came back with our passports and then.. FINALLY!

We started to head into see Victoria Falls from the Zambia side! We stopped to buy rain ponchos from the curio shops for 10 kwatcha. I almost brought my raincoat on this trip but decided not to because it is not the rain season. Never mind the part where I am going to stand next to a 360 foot tall and. 5,600 foot wide waterfall. Nah, I wont get wet.

We got our ponchos, headed in and I cannot even begin to describe how absolutely blown away we were. I cannot believe that this waterfall is real. It just absolutely blows my mind what nature creates. I think all of us were just blown away by its beauty. We had so much fun walking along the provided paths to the different lookouts along the waterfall. Getting absolutely soaked the whole time. Head to toe. The ponchos were a great investment. The water dropping off of the falls and splashing into the bottom of the gorge created a raining effect for those of us on land. We had to cross a bridge at one point, where we could see the Victoria Falls bridge, and I swear it was like being caught in a really bad rainstorm. One person described it as going through a car wash in a convertible with the top down. But wow, it is so absolutely worth it. It is jaw dropping. See for yourself.

After this, our rough start of a morning was so far behind us. We were having too much fun. Eventually, we began the walk back out. During this walk, we saw a sign for a World War 1 memorial and decided we wanted to follow the path to see it. As we followed it, it started turning a direction that did not appear like it was going anywhere. We were following the path and found ourselves walking near many a baboon. Lots of baboons and babies. We decided we were just going to turn around and walk back, as this did not seem like it was going anywhere. As we turned around, two guys who were also guests in the park, walking towards us, one of them eating a snack. Faster than I can even imagine, a baboon came out of nowhere approached him and snatched the snack/food straight out of his hands. He jumped back and began to run from the baboon towards us. This scared Holly, who turned and began to run too- straight into me. Now, we all know that if you run from a predator, it’s going to chase you. So what did the baboon do? Began to chase them. Everyone immediately was telling them to stop running, trying to explain that running will only make it worse. It was insane! A scary moment. We all just wanted to walk back and leave the park at this point. We go to walk and of course a baboon who was just part of this whole escapades is sitting in the walkway, eating his snack, with a baby on his back. No one wanted to walk past him. But we did, calmly, and it was absolutely fine. But, nerve racking for a moment there.

We left the falls, drove across the Victoria Falls bridge, which is built over the Zambezi river and the second gorge of the falls. We get to the Zambia/Zimbabwe border and start this process all over again. We get out, pay, get our visas and get our bags. The car we were in was not coming across the border with us to Zimbabwe. Mophy and his assistant Axon, were going to walk with us to the hostel. Mophy said his phone said it was about 1 kilometer away, so a little over half a mile. Backpacks on, bags in hand, we began the track. We definitely walked over 1Km before Mophy had enough. We got two cabs. We threw the stuff in and got a lift to the hostel. In the cab, Axon was mumbling about how this was way more than 1Km away and it made me laugh. We got to the hostel and it is SO cute! The whole set up is adorable. Holly had been given a recommendation to stay here and we are so glad we are. They have a live in Maltese named Rosie who is the absolute sweetest. It has hammocks, swings, a lovely pool, table, and cute signs everywhere. And jumbo chess! We got here, unloaded, and decided to get dinner. Holly had been told a place called The Three Monkeys was a great place to go, so off we went! It was a very westernized restaurant for sure, but was so cute! We ordered food, beer, and played some more cards while we waited. We played asshole again and this time Holly definitely used her powers as President. She had Mitch walk around the entire patio of the restaurant while saying “I’m probably the tallest man in the world” over and over. Too funny. It was all in good fun. Once we got our food, we devoured it. Meg ordered sliders which came with three different meats. One was Crocodile, one was Impala, and one was Beef. I tried both the crocodile and the impala. Added more weird food to my list! Now I have eaten crocodile and alligator. Both the crocodile and Impala were good- but I definitely liked the crocodile more. We ate, we drank, we left. We headed home and crashed.