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Published: June 13th 2006
Greetings from Victoria Falls, Zim.
I think I ended the last blog in Namibia, since then we have crammed in an awful lot, but no more skydives! We went Quadbiking across the Namibian sand dunes which was hair raising, as it's all hills and high banks so you constantly feel like you're going to fall off. I swear I could sneeze sand for a week afterwards.
We travelled on, stopping at Otitjowongwe cheetha park, watched the wild-ish cheetahs being fed from the relative safety of our jeep, and then the highlight, we got to actually stroke 3 tame cheetahs. If a cheetah is ever actually tame, mind you. it was amazing, they purr just like Jack, although the similarities stop there. Carla managed to get herself scratched across the foot by a 'friendly' cheetah, which freaked us all out, to the point of Diane trying to hide practically up my t-shirt, bless her.
We started game drives after this, Eddie, (from the comment on the previous entry) said we should go to Etosha NP, which we did, 2 nights one at a camp ground at each end of the park. Boy did we see some animals! Rhino, Zebra, Lions (eleven in one day!! yay!!!)Giraffe, dik-dik, jackals, hyena.....and so on. Etosha is a dust bowl, we did much laundry afterwards, everything had a fine white dusting on it, inside & outside the truck. There's nothing so humbling for someone like me to have to rinse out socks & underwear in the sink or shower! Luckily we have been able to pay a few quid for a few bags of proper laundry along the way.
It's very exciting camping at these places, even though the big game is fenced off, the little game still comes snuffling round your tents!! We had a tent pole mysteriously snap in the middle of the night, which we slept through somehow, and we are convinced it was either a wild pig or the troupe of mongooses (yes, mongooses is the plural, how many of you thought mongeese!? Blame Andy Parkinson for making me look that up at work once. Good old Google) that were running riot around our camp fire.
I can't believe how non-freaked out I've been over the small buggy type insect and creatures that seem to share our tent along the way. i'm getting well hard, me. Beautiful sunrises as we were getting up before the sun to go game driving, and beatiful sunsets too. We pretty much have been getting up between 5-6am for 3 weeks and going to bed at 9-10pm, but needs must. Thats what the animals do, and we needed to see as many as poss.
We then stayed at Ngepi, a beautiful tree hut lodge, where we had a proper double bed - hurrah, but the first night we were there, we were all so horrendously drunk, I don't think we appreciated the glorious setting!! Carla & Vanessa started on shots of Springbok at 3pm, we joined them at 5pm, with the others and we lost count of the beers but we spent about 70 quid!! THAT wasn't in our budget! We may also be on Dutch TV, but, er, I can't go into details as to WHY!!! Alcohol is just the devil!!!! Think flaming sambucas (sam-bookahs as Ness cals them), nudity and leopard catsuits. Oh, and Neil, the owner is from North Walsham. Small world.
The second night at Ngepi, we weren't half as drunk, but sadly that meant we could hear a flappy noise, coming from under our treehouse all night. I say treehouse, but we were approx 4 foot off the floor! Mr Flappy had us freaked out good and proper, as we didn't know if it was coming to eat us! Our hut was open fronted, eg no door or wall, so anything could have eaten us, including the noisy Hippos. But I don't think they would have got up the steps. Nice river- facing shower, bit of a worry when a boat goes past, I've never ducked so quick in all my life!! I'm sure the Japanese tourists got an eyeful! Ah well.
The crew and other passengers have been really, really lovely apart from one annoying bloke, Keith ('I've climbed Kili, blah blah bloody blah') who bless him has been Mr 'You don't wanna do it like THAAAT' Harry Enfield type bloke, you know, giving advice re tents, lions, clouds, dust, everything.
He's been getting grumpier, and his funniest (probably not to him!) moment was the other day, when, after carefully buttering and jam-ing two bits of toast for about 3 hours, he droped them, jam side down, into the dust. And swore. Loudly. Brilliant!!! He then tried to drop kick his fold up chair into the nearby river, and it was one of those 'must look away or he will see us all smirking' moments. I laughed so much I had to pretend I needed something from the truck!!! Muppet. I felt sorry for his other half, Nic was mortified. Ah well, we laughed. And I don't need to tell regular readers that he became a bit of a t-shirt Nazi too! We all invested in a tour t-shirt with our names, etc on. very rock n roll, and let's say Keith was as over-zealous as usual!! ("you want beige, you do, you want this font you do, you want flags....ARGHHHH!).
13th June - Now in Joburg again
Bit of an edit here, I began the above blog in Zimbabwe, where we were meant to be staying for a few nights once our tour ended. HOWEVER, we didn't realise/maybe weren't aware that you need US Dollars in Vic Falls, otherwise everything is 2.5 times more expensive as you have to use Zim dollars. And there's no foreign exchange so you can't buy US Dollars.And, most places didnt take plastic! Argh! What we decided to do, at a bit of extra cost, was book earlier flights to Joburg, so we could get out of Zim. That was a real downer, coz we will especially miss all our new truck-mates, (even the Kili couple) but it meant a much lower cost of living coming back to Joburg for a few days longer. Vic Falls, I have to say, is our first travel disapointment. Not the actual Falls, as I mention in a bit, but the town itself is the shoddiest we've been to. And before everyone starts saying it's meant to be like that, proper African place etc etc I KNOW. We've been to stacks of different places, rich & poor, African & western in the last 3 weeks, and still the naffness of Vic Falls was too much. And we live near Great Yarmouth!!!
So, basically, our tour ended on the 11th, but all of us were hanging around for various connections, so we didnt have to say godbye to our new mates right away...which was a good job as Ness was kind enough (love her!!) to lend us $110 US so we could actually go and SEE the flippin Victoria Falls themselves. They rocked. Most amazing natural sight I've seen, higher than Niagara and totally beautiful. We didn't bother with ponchos coz we're well hard (or tight, they were $3US each!!) so we got soaked, but it's so hot in Zim it was a v pleasant and refreshing time! Half of China was also at the Falls on this particular day, so there was much "Harro-ing" by us, eg Hello in a naff Chinese accent! The video camera footage should be superb, which is handy as our camera has just about dies a death. Going to treat ourselves to a new one in Singapore. Any recommendations of a brand of digital camera?!
So, we said godbye to Ness & Carla (in some backward pizza place!?) which was horrible, hate saying goodbye and they were such fun (hope you're reading girls - Carla, have you explained to Ness what a Soapy really is yet!?!?). We have plans to meet up in Melbourne, partly so we can repay Ness and partly so we can go and see an Aussie rules game with her!!! Oh, and do Ramsay St - the tour too. But that's in August, got to conquer Asia first.
So, that was Overland Africa. Big thumbs up to the amazing crew, especially Claire, top bird, will miss her 'down to earth-ness'. Managed to mess up saying goodbye to the Kili couple, we flew to Joburg with them (First time on BA, not half as sh*t as I thought the were going to be) but they had to go to the transit lounge which meant we went to get our bags and the had gone! Must email them. Hope Keith has recovered from his Delhi-Belly.....
One more safari in Kruger this weekend, Singapore beckons on Monday 19th June.....
Take care out there, hope England play 10 times better against Trinny than against Paraguay. Still sorting the photo's on kodak gallery, will email when they become avaialble AND I promise the next blog will be much shorter.
Heck, we don't get to visit Africa everyday!
Kel & Ju xxx
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Vonnie
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PS.........
Would LOVE to see the photos!! V x