On Sunday I travelled 7 hours from Lusaka to south to Livingstone. It was quite enjoyable ride as I sat at the front where more leg room is and next to the window. It was great practice for the 30+ hours that I will be spending on the bus when I am coming back from Dar es Salaam. Livingstone and Jollyboys backpackers is nice, I have had great time so far. It is quite big place and I recommend staying on the dorms preferable on the bigger one so you will make more friends and do the activities together. Jollyboys is very international, I have met people from USA, Canada, England, Australia, Germany, Austria and Norway. The activities desk is very good, too as there is lots of activities that can be done in here and most of them you will have transport from the jollyboys to the place.
On Monday I went to day trip to Chobe national park, Botswana for safari (game drive). On the way to Botswana’s border we saw a giraffe but bus couldn’t stop, so no picture of it. The border crossing is fast only takes about 5 minutes on a boat to cross the Chobe River that separates Zambia and Botswana. On the safari, first took the boat out to the Chobe River to see the animals that are on the water or near of it. We saw hippos, crocodiles, monkeys, buffalos, elephants, lots of birds, antelopes. The hippos and elephants decided to give us real show as they were playing in the water. The boat trip was around 3 hours long and after that we had lunch before then went to game drive with jeeps on the Chobe National park. There we saw more buffalos, antelopes, birds, warthogs, lions and elephants and one week old baby elephant. We didn’t see any giraffes L I would like to have seen them too, but at least I saw one on the way there.
Tuesday was a lazy day. I took the bus to the Victoria Falls, were I walked around in the national park and exploring the great views. It was really beautiful, stunning but similar to the Niagara Falls but much bigger. I would like to see them when there is more water. There is more water on the Zimbabwe’s side but I didn’t go there as it would be very expensive because of the visas and entrance fees would cost me almost 150 euros. I also walked down to the water level (to the boiling pot) and it is more stairs than in Jätemäellä ;) First real exercise done for 2 months and I was dead when I got back up from there.
Wednesday is going to be action packed day as we (me and Edwin) are going to spend the whole day white water rafting. I am really looking forward to it. I have never done it before, hopefully we don’t turn the raft over. Rafting was awesome, I want to do it again, and it was so much fun. On our first rapid we flipped the raft over, but it was kind of fun feel the power of the water. I also fell off from the raft couple times, but the water was so warm so I didn’t mind. The scariest part was when we were allowed to swim down couple rapids as they were small ones but I got stuck into a couple waves that pulled me under water for maybe 5 seconds. On the smaller rapids the guides allows you to tip the raft over if you want, half of the people on my raft wanted but the other half didn’t so we couldn’t do it then. I really want to do rafting again, hopefully I get to chance to go to New Zealand and do some white water rafting there. At the end of the rafting we didn’t have to walk up from the bottom of the gorge, we took the cable car to the top and it was nice to not have to walk up but the cable car was bit scary.
Thursday: Devil’s pool and walk over the falls. I walked there with the group but took boat ride back because I didn’t want to end up at the bottom of the Victoria Falls. In my group there were 3 people from Moldova/Ukraine and they didn’t speak much English so they did not understand the instructions that the guide was giving us so we almost fell over the path that goes across the Vic Falls to the Livingston Island. Then we almost lost one of them when we swam to the devil’s pool as she couldn’t swim properly even though she said that she can swim. So having that kind of experience I didn’t want to walk back so I and two Australians decided to take the boat back. The devil’s pool trip supposed to take about 2 hours (walks there, swim and then walk back) but it already took us to walk there 1.5 hours and the whole trip with the boat ride took me 3.5 hours. That took me so much time, so I didn’t have time to go to do the zip line ride. I will do it tomorrow or Saturday. On the evening I and Edwin went to eat at the Ocean Basket, it was South African seafood restaurant. The food there was really good and cheesecake for dessert was yummy!!!
Friday: Bit lazy day, walk around the town and then I spent the rest of the afternoon reading a book. The weather have not been great today, it has been cloudy and rainy and bit chilly as well. I had plans today to go to the Royal Livingstone 5* hotel to have some drinks and watch the sunset over the Victoria Falls but I will try that tomorrow as the weather should be better. On the evening we went to the Falls complex, where is 2 hotels, restaurants, bars etc. There is a buffet that serves crocodile tail, and it tasted like chicken maybe because it was grilled on barbeque spices. The food there was really good and I ate bit too much. On the complex they have animals there too, zebras, giraffes, antelopes, crocodiles, and I saw this time zebras and antelopes, but on the other day I saw giraffes as well, but I don’t have picture of it.
On Saturday I wanted to be an
adrenalin junkie, and do the zip line from Zambia to Zimbabwe. It was really
nice, the view was great but it didn’t give the adrenalin rush that I wanted. I
have seen people to do the gorge swing before, it is 4 seconds of free fall and
then the rope catches you and you will swing. I wanted to do this as I can’t do
bungee jump because of my knee. The swing really gave me the adrenalin rush
that I wanted, it was really scary when I jumped as it felt like I just jumped
from the bridge to the river that goes under but in few seconds I realized that
the rope will catch me and when I was down the view was excellent.
