Zimbabwe to Namibia

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Where to begin!.... Sorry guys you’ll have to bare with me in this blog. Not only have I spent 3 hours writing this before only to have accidently deleted it but It’s also been a long road down to south Africa and its been filled with so many things that I’m struggling to keep up.
Firstly let me just say this started out as a cheaper diet plan for me. I thought 50 days in Africa would sort out my over the top love for food and my backside.......I was wrong! Even in the poorer countries food doesn’t seem to be an issue as everyone grows their own. So not only have I not lost weight but I’m sure to have put an extra few lbs on because of all the flavoursome foods!
Right back on topic, our last blog was literally just before Christmas so I have to begin where we left off. Christmas day was spent at The great Zimbabwean ruins. This is a place built maybe 1000s of years ago and peoples fascination towards it is as great as Stonehenge and the pyramids. The walls are built below a small mountain that we climbed and according to our guide it is where they believe a lot of gold is buried under it as sacred offerings to their ancestors back in the day. We had beautiful views from the top. That evening we celebrated Christmas with our travel buddies. Gael created a sweet wrappered Christmas tree and we bought some Christmas crackers just to make it feel a little more like home. We had a lovely BBQ under the stars that our cook Wilson had cooked up for us and we toasted to our friends and family. It was a beautiful but tough night missing everyone.
Next day we headed off to a place called Burke’s paradise campsite, owned by a Christian couple and there young children. Me and Robert decided this would be the place we'd relax a little and catch up with our washing and contact our friends and families. It had a pool which we enjoyed regardless of bugs! (In 50°C heat bugs seem no longer a problem). There were two dogs that the owners kept. One was a beautiful black Labrador, only a year old and still very playful. So playful in fact that she made my dress a few inches shorter! She accidently bit me in her excitement and so the owners had to come and prove they had a rabies vaccine certificate for our tour guides insurance. The lady owner did not seem impressed and pretty much blamed me for the incident! Strange because I don’t recall biting the dog first! Lol she was definitely unamused as I joked about the dog owing me a new dress! Lol awkward moment....
We finally made our decent down to Victoria falls after long travels in the uncomfortable truck! This was nearing the end of our first half of the trip and soon we would have to say goodbye to our travel buddies and meet a new bunch that would be joining us down to cape town. Vic falls was probably the most touristy part we’d come to so far during our Africa travels and you could see a real change and more commercialism as we headed further south. First day in Vic falls and we decided that we’d book white water rafting for the next day ( what an experience that was).
We started the day without breakfast as it was an early start and we thought we could grab something as they were going through safety briefing. (Safety briefing prepared us for nothing and we didn’t get breakfast) we sat in the cafe over looking the great gorge that the Zambezi river runs through and watched the sun rise higher in the sky. Once we got ourselves in teams of 8 we made our way to the river. It was an all most vertical drop and the walk down was petrifying enough even before we stepped foot in to the rafts! It was hot when we finally made it down to the bottom and my thighs were already twitching from exhaustion. Once we got into the rafts we were on our way down the river. I was loving every second of it and was wondering why I’d never done it before!! It was exhilarating going into level 1-3 rapids and none of us really thought that it could be dangerous. In fact when the guide gave us the option of going into a level 5 where it was a 90% chance of tipping over we jumped at the chance. Thinking it would be no worse than when you go into the rapids at water world (how wrong could we be!) We fell off and I tried to grab on to the raft but got swept out and under the rapid in to a whirl pool. We’d been told to stay calm if this happened as the water would bring you back up naturally. I did and sure enough I came back up. I started to swim to the kayak as I could here the professional kayaker shouting to someone in a panicked voice that there was another rapid approaching! As I began to swim I saw a girl in front who looked petrified so I grabbed the back of her life jacket to pull her closer to the kayak she grabbed on but I got drifted back out and was heading straight for the rapid... This time I panicked. I think it’s even worse when you know what’s coming and sure enough I got pulled down under the water again only this time I got my trainer stuck between a rock and so I had to wiggle my foot out to get back to the surface! By the time I got back in to the raft I was shoeless, exhausted and looking for an exit. It was at this point I decided if we fell out again I wouldn’t be helping anyone else regardless of how scared they looked.
We continued down the river and saw some spectacular scenery as we smelt ourselves burning from the blaring sun. I had become acutely more aware of every rock that had violent waters splashing around it and decided that there was no way I was going to fall out of the raft again. The Guide went on to talk about the next set of rapids that were four level 3 rapids that moved in to a level 5 rapid that they call ‘the mother' he specifically told us that we needed to listen to every instruction he gave us he didn’t want the raft tipping at all during this set. Unfortunately for me the Swiss guy that sat in front of me leading the raft didn’t see the seriousness and so like dominos he fell into me and I fell into Gael who was behind me... All three of us toppled out and my first thought was that I was going to kill the Swiss guy if I survived.
I saw Gael get lifted back on to the raft as I swirled past them and thankfully the kayak guy caught me soon after. He then told me to swim over to my raft before we hit ‘The mother' only problem with that is the under current was way stronger than my swimming ability. I started drifting down towards the rapid when I heard another panicked guide shouting for his team to pin me up the rock and drag me into their raft. As they pinned me I became aware that my swimming bottoms and shorts were by my knees!! It was then I decided I’d definitely take my chances with ‘the mother' but it was to late they were pulling me up as I kicked, screamed and tried to save some of my long lost dignity. I can’t remember actually rafting through the level 5 as I was still trying to pull my shorts up. Never felt so mortified.
Once back on my own raft the rest of the rapids went smoothly and I soon got over showing everyone my large white bum. It wasn’t until we got off the rafts and realised we had to ascend the nearly vertical cliff to get back to our respective hotels and campsites that true dread set in. I had one trainer on and one hot floor to contend with in blaring midday sun. The floor burnt holes into my sock and I can honestly say it was the hardest walk of my life. Robert was dripping with sweat and I was worried we were both going to collapse. My heart raced and my blood felt like it was bubbling I kept retching thinking I was going to be sick and everytime a cold bottle of water was poured over my head I thought I’d go into shock! We finally made it to the top but every muscle ached and I could barely walk for two days afterwards.
(I’ve made this sound like the worst thing to do but it was honestly an amazing experience! I’d recommend it to anyone!)
The next day we decided we go and see Vic falls in all her glory and she really is a site to see. You can only imagine how people would have felt seeing it before cameras and pictures were around. This is where we said goodbye to out travel companion Gael as she set off back home to new Zealand.
That night Sarah our Canadian basket sharing friend invited us around her fancy hotel called Vitoria falls safari lodge. It was going to be our last meal together and it was definitely a perfect night to say goodbye. Sarah had been waiting for an African sunset since we arrived in Nairobi but everytime clouds would appear. Our last night saw the perfect sunset and the most magnificent big elephants gracefully appearing at the water hole. It was such a beautiful and magical site to see as we knew it was the elephants last place before they died as they’re last set of teeth had gone and so food was a rare option unless they could find food so soft they don’t have to chew.
We finally said our farewells to our new made friends and prepared to meet the new travel crew. They turned out to all be pretty cool too. (Thankfully). We spent new years eve camping in a lovely campsite overlooking the Chobe river in Botswana. Some of us had a pretty messy night but it was good getting to know people. This is also where Rob broke his water proof phone swimming but I’m sure he’ll go in to more detail about that.
After that we travelled through to Namibia where we headed through the Okavango delta and did what I’d call serious camping! We had a hole for a toilet that had been dug out and we used dirt to cover up whatever mess we made. There was no fresh water and we had jerrycans that were bought over on boats that were supposed to last us two days. The heat was so bad we got through all the jerrycans in our first day and so had to wait for more to arrive. It was then we really learnt how to appreciate water and the realisation set in at how much of a problem getting water was for millions of people in the world. Fresh water is something we take for granted. It’s not until you can’t have any that you appreciate the significance. The heat was stifling and showers didn’t exist so you can imagine the state and smell of the 16 of us. It was a good job we were outdoors! Our trip over the okavanga delta was an experience in itself. We were on a boat that looked like a gondola and we had to sit quite still not to rock it. The guy pushing the boat had a big stick to guide us through the water. It was quite hard hitting to know that climate change as almost dried up parts of the water ways and there were times we had to get out and walk in the squidgy marsh lands. It must have been utterly exhausting for our guy pushing us in the boat with barely enough water to keep us a float. We were sweltering in the heat just sitting there so you can only imagine what he was going through. It’s also sad to realise that we might be some of the last groups to explore the okavanga delta if water doesn’t return to fill the waterways back up. It was a wonderful place to see some of the animals on foot and the sunsets and the amazing starry nights made up for the heat lack of water and cleanliness!
From the delta we made our way to swakamund where Roberts going to fill you in with all our antics. On the way to Swakamund 5 of our travel friends ended up on drips! As they were all really sick and dehydrated. We’re not sure if heat stroke or a bug from the delta was the main cause but heat definitely played its part! Thankfully they all recovered pretty quickly!
Finally, I’ll shut up now. Told you it was going to be a long one! Sorry!!

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