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Published: December 2nd 2006
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Victoria Falls
An incredible sight We finally arrived after a lengthy drive and border delays, tired, hungry and weary, and then had to endure a talk about all the activities available to us over the next few days. We went to fuel the hangover at Mama Africas - think it was the severe over tiredness that made us laugh hysterically rather than cry when they brought us sweet doughy rolls along with tiny fried fish and popcorn (in the same bowl) - wrong on every level. The atmosphere was great though with ambient lighting and live music - the 5 of us had a nice romantic evening.
Having spent the last 3 weeks sitting on our arses on the truck we were glad to get the blood pumping and go white water rafting on the Zambezi river. Our raft was pretty successful with 3 and a half guys (one a definitely questionable closet case - when he tried to pull Smith into the boat he was shaking under the pressure - Jo assumed it must be really hard so when the role was reversed she nearly launched him over the other side of the raft!) We managed to stay in the raft through most of the
Only in Zimbabwe
The $29 million meal rapids, however Irish and co weren't quite so lucky and spent more time in the water than on the raft! One girl, Kristy, almost drowned. We became quite concerned when she didn't surface after a while as she was under the boat!
We had a couple of grade 5's which were quite hairy but it wasn't as scary as we expected but still heaps of fun. We all hopped out at one point thinking we could have a leisurely float down the river then realised we were about to hit a rapid - we got fairly decked but it was ace.
Half way down we stopped at a rock jump where Smithers was brave enough to do the higher jump but ended up floating down the river on her back, gripping her arse after giving herself colonic irrigation on impact.
We did rapids 11-24 on the river which included rapids named 'The Three Ugly Sisters And Their Mother', 'The Washing Machine', 'The Overland Truck Eater' and 'Oblivion', and finally 'Thank God We Survived It'. We thought it was game over, then realised we had yet to climb out of the 220 metre gorge - the hard work had yet to
The Vic Falls Train
Cam and Drews transport out of there begin - think Soar Mill but a million times worse!
We had a nice lunch .... eventually, and headed back to town.
The group dinner at Spurs came to 23 million Zim dollars which took an age to count and the waiter needed a wheelbarrow to take it away!
Whit, Becs, Cam and Drew decided to go for a nightcap at a local hostel which we had heard about, Shoestrings (aka shoelaces, stilettos, bootstrings etc) After asking all manner of people directions we found ourselves wandering around the darkest road imaginable, dreaming up possible situations which could occur due to the current circumstances we were in - when a voice came out of the darkness! All four of us screamed like girls and scattered, Cam had a blow out with his flip flop and it flew off and doinked your man around the head! It turned out (after assuring us all he wasn't about to murder us!) that he was one of the guys from our rafting trip. Tucker explained his favourite hangover cure was morning glory - turns out this is a rapid - not to be confused! Whit managed to get herself locked in the toilet and had
An unforgettable day
Me, Jo Becs and Irish at Vic Falls to be rescued by Drew which just capped off the randomness of the evening.
The following morning was spent faffing on the Internet and we finally made it to the falls in the afternoon. We'd been warned that we'd get wet there and at the first view point it was 'spitting' and we thought that would be the extent of the spray, until we got closer and absolutely saturated! The falls were enthralling with beautiful rainbows everywhere and it was very difficult to get our heads around what we were seeing as it was so immense. Danger Point was the scariest look out as there were slippy rocks and no barrier around the edge - one foot wrong and you could easily have been a gonner! It was awe inspiring staring down into the white abyss below and every now and again when the waves of mist cleared you could just make out the water tumbling down the falls on the other side - it was really surreal and a bit like looking at one of those magic eye pictures. It was also very peaceful and calming and the ideal place to scream at the top of our lungs to vent our frustrations at the fact that most of the best characters were leaving our truck that day - which we did with full force! Nothing we could write could decribe the magnificence of the falls - it really is something that needs to be seen to be believed.
After a brief encounter with an oversized Warthog we got back to camp with the aim of having a few farewell bevvies with Cam and Drew before they boarded their train to Bulawayo. Things didn't go quite to plan however, as Jorn called us into a meeting and the guys had to make a hasty farewell for fear of missing their train, so a very brief goodbye was had and 2/5th's of our group had gone - boo! The mood was pretty sombre and we had a few subdued drinks in the bar talking about the boys as if they had died. The train passed through and we waved them off into the sunset looking forward to seeing them again in Cape Town in 3 weeks time. We haven't remained a trio for long as we have joined forces with Irish whose squad was also depleted! We're all feeling the effects of being left with the dregs of the group (except the Mzungu's of course) and are desperately trying to devise a new strategy of entertaining ourselves, which has so far involved pelting mints at each others faces - oh joy! Cigarettes, 20, Vodka bottles, 3, Tolerance levels, -30! On our way to dinner we started to question our new recruits mental stability as she randomly shouted out Drew's name. She hadn't gone mad however, and there Drewy was right before our eyes, telling us he had missed his train and Cam was on it with all his stuff! Of course we believed him but it turned out he was having us on and whilst their train was in the station their driver and engine was elsewhere, due to turn up at 10 pm. We promptly followed Drew back to the train, highjacked Cam and went out for the last supper! The trusting lads left everything with their fellow passengers including passports and wallets! We had a lovely dinner and it was great to say proper goodbyes. We feared we may have got too carried away in the excitement of it all when it transpired we didn't have enough money to pay for our dinner. Just when we thought that doing the dishes was inevitable, we dipped into the US reserve and everything was A OK!
Vic Falls was a great place to spend a couple of days and we now have Botswana to look forward to.
Toodles
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