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Published: December 13th 2006
No blog update for weeks and then two in one day. You lucky buggers.
After our final leg of the journey we arrived in Livingstone. This was a bit of a shock to the sytem cos although not very big, it must have had the population of China.
We stayed at the 'Waterfront' campsite which was by far the best campsite we'd stayed on throughout the trip. It still had that chilled African vibe about it but also hosted a lively bar and eating area. The swimming pool was massive and the showers worked!!! We also had internet for the first time so straight on to skysports.com to see what we'd missed.
The night we arrived we were informed that an option for the nights entertainment was to partake in a 'Booze Cruise' on the Zambezi. "Give it a flamin rest mate, we supposed to be experiencing the African culture but it's turning into an 18-30's menorca trip". Still, with only a couple of hours kip the previous night we didn't exactly go kicking and screaming. We couldn't miss out as everyone else had signed up for it and it was our last night with
LET US PRAY
Gorge Swing .....................Ameneveryone so a bit of a leaving do if you know what we mean.
The one off fee of about 67p meant u get free booze and food for the entire duration of the trip which lasted about three hours.
There was only ever guna be one outcome to this boat ride, yes, that's right, 23 of us rolling off the boat three hours later full of whisky, vodka, sambuca and anything else they sell in Threshers.
None of us ate as we decided it would only take up valuable space needed for alcohol. Not to sure what the scenery was like along the stretch river, maybe a few elephants and the odd sunset but hey, we'd seen it all before.
Not content with calling it a night we headed straight for the camps bar.
Time for a bit of a 'Graham Torrington' moment; because we all knew that it was our last night together we were all well up for it and couldn't stop complimenting each other on what great people they were and how much of a fantastic time we'd all had. There was a lot of Love going in the bar that night and a few
Abseil, Vic Falls
Just before i end up in a frenzied spin tears but not from us we may add.
A couple that were on the trip had the idea of making a collection for Kelvin and Jaco (the guides) to show our appreciation for the last seven days. I got asked to make a speech and handover the collection as we were in the bar, haha, great idea mate, could have informed me before we'd drunk half the bar dry.
Their mistake tho, me and Daz devised a speech in the toilet but by the time we'd got everyone to shut up i'd forgotten it all so just went with the flow and ended up talking utter crap for five minutes; but it had the desired effect.
A few smahed glasses later, not mentioning anyones name...ELLEN and we all retired to bed at various stages throughout the wee small hours.
We've included a few photos of our trip buddys so we can look back at the blog in 20 years time and feel the love still.
Due to time running out in Africa before we flew to Oz we thought it best to spend to our last couple of days in Livingstone than risk getting shot in Joburg; this
Daredevil Daz
Is it a Bird, is it a............. also gave us the chance to experience the adrenalin junkie part of Vic Falls.
Our original plan was to do the White Water Rafting and the Gorge swing but to do both of these activities it would leave us no time to visit the Falls themselves, being one of the seven wonders of the world we thought we may aswell make the effort to go and see them.
The Rafting got the boot as we knew there would be other times to do it on our adventure and a couple of people we met on the truck trip were also doing the Gorge Swing adrenalin day.
The whole day included abseiling, a zip-line run and of coure the dreaded Gorge swing.
Abseiling speaks for itself but after the booze cruise experience the old co-ordination wasn't up to scratch. I ended up spinning all the way down without even touching the rock once. Of course i was the butt of all jokes but the way my head was spinning i was just glad to get me feet on the ground. Daz opted out of the Abseiling to save all his energy for the upcoming activities.
Next was the 'zip-line'. This involved running off the top of the Gorge head first with a harness attached to a cord that stretched all the way accross the Gorge. In normal circumstances this would be a frightening experience but to be fair, knowing that the Swing was just round the corner, we had bigger fish to fry.
Still, job done acting like a Superman stuntman it was time for the mother of all mothers.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term 'Gorge Swing', it is basically a Bungee Jump but instead of going vertical, u jump off the cliff face and freefall until the Bungee cord takes over and swings you accross like a pendulum effect. (sorry Bish, look up PENDULUM in the dictionary if we're getting to complicated for ya).
Both of us absolutely crapping ourselves about the situation we opted to go tandem. This obviously meant that if one of us had bottled at the last second you would have no choice because the other one would already be leaning back into atmosphere.
The build was so intense. Meself and Daz both got harnessed up as we were going together and thought
we had a few more minutes to gather our thoughts, no, wrong again, there was a shout from the jumpimg platform saying they are set up for a tandem jump and that we had to go NOW.
"OH RIGHT, SHIT, U READY DAZ"..............long nervous pause ................................................... "ERR SHIT MATE, I'M CRAPPING IT BUT LETS DO IT"
Once again for the second time in Africa we were walking the Green Mile. We'd have given everything to encounter Great White Sharks again.
So there we were on the platform with our harnesses being strapped to the Bungy. We had a DVD shot of the day and the bloke filming us was trying to crack all these jokes and asking us how we felt etc. etc. "do us a favour mate---------------PISS OFF" far to nervous without having to laugh fakely at his crap jokes especially as a few of the people who work everyday at this place had not even done the Swing themselves as they were too scared!!
Ok, all strapped up and we had instructions to get into position. We stood with our backs to the long drop into hell and were told to keep shuffling back slowly
Cert 18
It may look like we're grabbing each others arse, but we were told to do it, promise until our heels were hanging off the edge. This bit was freaky enough, one slip and we'd gone.
We were instructed to bend our knees and put one arm round each other and the other arm holding onto the Harness as tight as possible.
The instructor then continued to say "OK, u ready to lean back"......."WO WO WO SHIT, ARE WE GOING NOW" i replied, Daz was totally mortified at this point and all i could get out of him was "OH F*&k....OH F*&K...OH F*&CK"...................................... "Yes, your going............ONE.............TWO..............THREE"............lean........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................."RARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, F$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$%%%%%%%%%%%%K, SSSSSHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT" O my god damning god, wot a rush, it felt like an eternity before the Bungee became taught and we were free falling forever, we both broke out into fits of laughter although my knee ended up in Daz's face and his arm was wrapped around my head. The free fall part was spent upside down and then suddenly your heading towards the opposite side of the Gorge the right way up.
At this moment adrenalin was overtaken by pain, the harness was like cheese wire and we wondered wether we'd ever have the chance to have kids in latter life!!!!
The DVD is one to be
The Point of No Return
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTT treasured, it doesn't do our pride any good!!!!
Sod this Adrenalin malarky, enough was enough so spent the following day sightseeing at the Falls. It is nicknamed the 'Smoke that Thunders' but this time of year it is more like 'Tap that Drips'. The best time to visit the Falls is March because this time of year there is only 6% of water that there can be. It was still worth the view tho but to see it in full flow must be amazing.
Depression soon started setting in when we remembered we were leaving the next day to Joburg where we'd spend one night in a hostel next to the airport dodging bullets and running away from a mad man with a machete .
So that was it, Africa was complete and time to fly to Sydney.
To sum it up it's the best place in the world (so far).
The people, the places, the wildlife and the weather were all spot on.
We were a tad paranoid about travelling in Africa due to all the horror stories you hear back home but to
We're there somewhere
The Pendulum in full swing be honest, if you stick to the right roads and get taxis after dark then it's all good. We met plenty of people that had their encounters explained to us and that really hits home as to what can happen, but hey, we've still got our MP3 players, wallets, passports and cameras so the buggers missed out on us!!
It's definately a place we'll be returning to, so many things to see an do that you can't do in any other parts of the world.
WE LOVED IT
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WOW....What an experience you 2 have had so far!!!!!!!
Well lads what can i say... your blogs are amazing and make me feel very jealous when im sitting at work freezing cold!!!!! You both sound like you have had a wicked time in Africa and i know that you will continue to have a great time in Oz...although a very difference experience. Have your kidneys and liver started aching yet????? I hope you have a wonderful xmas, enjoy and take care xx