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 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.