Africa - Week 8 | Travel Blog

Africa » Namibia
January 8th 2007

Published: February 2nd 2007

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Blonde Bonnie preparing to Bungy, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Tuesday was my Adrenaline Day & we were collected from camp & taken to the Gorge where the four activities were set up. After the obligatory paperwork the first activity was abseiling 54 metres down the gorge rockface. Was pretty nervous about the height & probably waited in line too long, but got down ok with the adrenaline pumping. Next was the flying fox where I opted to go in the seated position rather than face down like Superman. Just couldn't face looking straight down into the gorge & figured I could hold onto the harness if anything were to go wrong. Got all geared up & on the ramp for rapting (forwards abseiling), but couldn't bring myself to go down face first. The guys were really great & so regeared me so I could do the standard abseil down instead.

After lunch was the main event, the Gorge Swing, with a longer freefall than any existing Bunji Jump in the world. My first time, I just closed my eyes, stepped off the edge & screamed my head off. The second time I opted for the Death Drop, which is where you stand with your back to the gorge, toes

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Black Bonnie preparing to Bungy, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

on the edge of the platform & lean back with the guide holding onto the rope. On the count of three, he lets go & off you plummet backwards into the gorge until it snaps you into a swing & they lower you down! It was really awesome, but the comedown is when you have to walk twenty minutes to get out of the gorge. By then, your adrenaline rush has gone & you really have to work hard to psyche yourself into going again.

Wednesday began slowly with a spot of journal writing & a good old fashioned fry up from the campsite restaurant. Rach & I walked down to the border crossing bridge to watch six members of our group do their Bunji Jumps. I had my helicopter ride later in the afternoon & was being collected at the border, so opted to wait around & write more journal. Found a nice shady spot & was deep in concentration when I spied a monkey about two metres to my left. I'd already noticed they were in the area & had assembled a small pile of rocks, which I proceeded to throw at the offending monkey. This

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Phil preparing to Bungy, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

did nothing but piss him off & he flew at me, so I dropped everything & bolted. Got a couple of metres & realized I'd left my daypack containing my passport & other valuable items on the ground. The monkey also saw my error & we both rushed at it; it was like something right out of the movies. Fortunately I was closer, managed to snatch it away & took off to a spot further away from the monkey filled scrub.

Was harrassed by another monkey enticed by a nearby rubbish bin, before it was time to cross over to meet my transport. The helicopter ride was quite hair raising for me because I'm such a scaredy cat when it comes to heights. It did not feel safe at all & it probably didn't help that I'd sat up front where it was floor to ceiling perspex. The views were amazing though & the half hour did fly by, but I'm definately not in a hurry to get back into another helicopter anytime soon. In my opinion planes fall out of the sky far too ofter & the rate for helicopters is much worse.

I was dropped at

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Team America (aka Al & Jacob) preparing to Bungy, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

the Zambian entry to Victoria Falls & visited the information centre before going into the park & walking around for an hour or so. There were plenty of spectacular photo opportunities & lots of rainbows too, it was really beautiful. I walked over the border & back to the campsite, witnessing a train accident on the way. A man on a motorbike obviously didn't see or hear the train & was hit. His leg bone was protruding from his knee & although there was a large crowd, the ambulance was there so after a stickybeak I continued home.

It was the last night for a few people getting off at Victoria Falls & Raewyns birthday, so we all went out to dinner at the Horseman Restaurant. A blackout delayed our food somewhat & I was the last to be served. After no lunch & a few beers I was starving hungry & polished it off in record time, then headed back to Shoestrings.

We farewelled Vic, Ed & Paul at Victoria Falls & headed off on Thursday morning, crossing the border into Botswana. Did a spot of shopping on the way into town & camped at a

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Al preparing to Bungy, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

posh place that's trying to phase out overland trucks, opting to focus more on middle class Africans as their main market. It was nice there, nothing out of this world though & we spent the afternoon swimming & gossiping away the time. Some of the group had signed up to do a river game cruise, but I was all gamed out & just wanted to relax.

Congregated at the bar for a drink after dinner to view Romys video about the Okavango Delta, which was quite funny. Upon returning to my tent, I could hear what sounded like chomping noises on the other side of the fence & so wandered over to investigate. It turned out to be a hippo eating dinner, mere metres from the flimsy eight foot electrified fence. I was a little nervous, but it either didn't hear me or wasn't phased by my presence, so I gathered up a few others who were still awake to take a look. After a while the hippo slowly began eating further & further from us, so I went to bed still slightly concerned that wildlife could get so close to camp.

I awoke around midnight to the

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Jen preparing to Bungy, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

sounds of a bloody great elephant eating nearby. Peering out of the tent flap, I quickly spotted the culprit as he was practically scratching himself against the fence which was only a metre from my tent. Not wanting to panic this gargantuan creature, I kept my mouth shut & sat there in awe for a few minutes until he wandered further down the fence line. Somehow I still managed to get a decent nights sleep; guess I'm getting used to living with the fact I could be trampled, maimed or mauled to death at any time in this place!

Friday was a long, hot driving day. Stopped at a roadside diner for lunch & had a fantastic Rolo icecream for dessert. Arrived into Sitatunga Camp late afternoon & spent some time charging batteries & getting organized for the Okavango Delta trip before relaxing with a beer & cooling off with a swim. A guy came to talk with us about the Delta trip & collect our payments & only a couple of people decided not to go, so it should be a fun time. Cook group made a yummy fried rice & I retired early as I'm up

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Victoria Falls, Zambia

before the sun tomorrow for breakfast duties.

The truck transport picked us up around 7:30am after breakfast on Saturday morning & I began my stint as 'pretend tour leader'. Romy asked me to do this so the local guides would do their jobs properly as they'd had problems in the past. We drove for an hour or so, transferred into Mokoro boats & were poled into the Okovango Delta for another hour to our home for the next twenty four hours. I managed to fall asleep during the boatride as it was very relaxing & the sun made me tired. Fortunately I wasn't out to it long enough to get sunburned & I managed to finish off my nap upon arriving & setting up camp.

It soon became too hot inside the tents, so the group spent the afternoon swimming & relaxing back at camp with books & games. When the weather cooled, we geared up & went on a game walk. The boats took us to the starting point via the hippo pool & although we were about fifteen metres away, we were in their territory & it felt a little close for comfort. Fortunately, they

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Victoria Falls, Zambia

weren't the least bit interested in us, although neither was any of the other animals & none of the groups saw much on their walks.

Dinner was a one pot wonder produced by my cook group. We had pasta with a selection of bottled sauces, tinned tomatos & a stack of cheese. Very simple, but it went down really well with the group & we had people coming back for not only seconds, but thirds & fourths also. After dinner our guides & polers put on a performance of traditional singing & dancing. Romy had prewarned the group that we would be expected to reciprocate, so group by group we stood & sang our national anthems. The Kiwi's even did the Haka even though there wasn't one Maori amongst them & our terrible singing brought the evenings entertainment to a close.

We were up & ready to go on another game walk before the crack of dawn on Sunday. Once again, we saw very little & the guides kept us out for an extra hour to compensate. Problem was it was getting quite warm, nobody had sunblock & we were running out of water, so it wasn't

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Nicolle at Victoria Falls, Zambia

a very pleasant end to our time in the Delta. Because we ran so late, it was a mad rush to pack up camp & get back to the trucks because the polers had another group of tourists to be collected.

Met another Aussie called Tom on the truck & chatted all the way back to Sitatunga Camp. The organizers provided an eski full of cold refreshments, so I had a couple of beers then & a couple more around the pool later on. Wanted to pull out of the aeroplane flight over the Delta as I was feeling a bit nervy about it, but had booked to make up numbers & there was nobody else to take my place. If I'd cancelled, everyone else would have had to pay extra to make up my shortfall & I figured that wasn't really fair. Wish I had done though, the plane ride was F****N scary. Takeoff was fine, but the fun began when we had to drop sharply to avoid an oncoming bird. Everything that was in the back behind me ended up on my lap, we all almost hit our heads on the roof & the bird still hit

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Nicolle at Victoria Falls, Zambia

the plane. Then the acrobatics started... We did all sorts of crazy stuff, including a wingover & I was freaking out so much I neglected to take any photos & don't really remember seeing much wildlife at all. I was led to believe my pilot was the tamest, however it turns out he was actually the most daring - lucky me! Finally landed, didn't speak to anybody for about an hour because I was so pissed off, but got over it with a beer at the bar back at camp.

Had a stack of driving to do on Monday, so we left Sitatunga camp at six, ate breakfast on the truck & lunch on the roadside. Crossed into Namibia & stopped to change money & do shopping for three days before camping at Rundu.

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