The "Real Africa" and Extreme Activities

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Well it's been a while since my last post. We've been deep in what we call "the real Africa" where there isn't even electricity, much less internet access. All of my tourmates and I have agreed that this is what we expected out of Africa.

After Windhoek we stayed at an amazing campsite just inside Botswana. We played volleyball for hours and partied with a few other tours. We then went to the Okovango Delta and it was amazing. We froze to death during a 2 hour ride on the back of a truck. It was cool though as we saw tons of animals and waving kids. Then we had a 1 hour ride on a mokoro, which is a boat made out of a tree trunk. You just sit there and a poler propells and steers you through the streams. Very relaxing. We then camped in the bush for 2 nights. It is really freaky when you are sleeping in your tent and you hear lions roaring and chasing other animals around. We're not even allowed to use the bathroom alone at night. And when I say bathroom, I mean a hole in the ground. We went on a few game walks and the polers (who camped with us) did some tribal dancing and singing. It was actually really cool.

Next we went to Chobe, another game park in the northeast of Botswana. We did a game cruise this time, down the Zambezi river. We saw tons of elephants, crocodiles, hippos, warthogs, etc. The cruise was amazing and a lot of people said it was the highlight of the trip so far. For me, it's definitely between Chobe and the Delta.

Yesterday we crossed into Zimbabwe and went to Victoria Falls. The Falls are so huge. I have tons of great pictures that would take me hours to upload here, but I promise I'll have them up as soon as it's convenient. We went on a sunset cruise that night which was dubbed a booze cruise due to the open bar. All but 4 of my tourmates are parting ways so it was our last official night together, although we'll all be together tonight for the last time.

Today was probably the most action packed day of my life. We went white water rafting in the Zambezi. This is my third time rafting but the first time that it was truly white water rafting. We went through class 5 rapids (class 6 is the biggest) and bought the DVD so we're going to try to upload it to youtube soon. We saw some crocs along the way, which was a little unnerving since we were fallling out of the raft due to the crazy rapids.

Then we went for the "Hi-wire Activities." First was the Fox Run. Basically you are tied to a cable by your back. You run down a platform and put your hands up, lift your feet up and you jump over a gorge about 300 feet up. You fly face down (like Superman) to the other side. That was just the warm up.

Next was the Zip Line. This time you are harnessed in a sitting down position. You sit on a ledge and they push you off. You get up to 70 mph on the way to the other side of the gorge.

Finally there was the gorge swing. You walk out to the edge of a platform 300 feet up. Then you jump off. Instead of a bungi jump where you just dangle, you swing out into the gorge when you get to the bottom. I am serious when I say that I've never been more scared in my life. I think the stress outweighed the fun. I have no regrets though. Erika, one of my Canadian tourmates, has probably the best video I've ever seen of her going off the ledge backwards, falling upside down, and giving the best horror movie scream you could ask for.

We're in Vic Falls until Sunday when we transfer to Livingstone in Zambia to meet the rest of our new tourmates for the next 3 weeks. So it'll be a much needed relaxing day at the hostel tomorrow. Hope all is well at home. The updates might get more infrequent. Word has it that east Africa has even less facitilites than southern Africa.

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Comments

[Jessica Gibbs]

Heyy, looks like you're having an amazing time! Everything sounds so crazy but so cool, keep having fun, it sucks here! Be safe, miss ya!

[Danielle]

Sounding Awesome!
just wanted to say hey and that the trip is sounding amazing!