Author's Note

Hopelessly, I'm taking a mental picture of you now, 'cause hopelessly the hope is that we have so much to feel good about.
- One Republic

P.S. Please feed the fish :)

Saturday 8 September 2012

AFRICA BLOG - Day 25-27

Day 25 - Wednesday 18th July
I've found out when you can get the hottest shower here ... it's at half 5 in the morning! Not really worth it!
     Anyway set off for Hwange about 7am and pretty much slept the whole way to Bulawayo which is quite an achievement considering the quality of the roads - I've lost count of the number of times I've headbutted the window! We stopped off in Bulawayo for a cheeky Pizza Inn and toilet stop. The toilet standard was pretty poor - as Sarah summarised "There's no toilet seat ... and there's no loo roll and it doesn't flush ... and the door doesn't lock ... oh and I've just broken the tap!" This is Africa!
     It was then a very, VERY bumpy 4 hour drive from Bulawayo to our first destination of Hwange National Park. Once we reached our lodge we were served our lunch which was a much needed cheeseburger and chips - nom! At 4pm we were taken out on a game drive. Apparently there are 20,000 elephants in the park and I think we saw most of them! It was incredible tosee so many elephants, all different sizes, including uber tiny ones - cute! :D Herds of 30+ would just wander across the track! We went to a watering hole and it was like a scene from Lion King - zebra, elephants, baboons, giraffe everywhere you looked! We travelled between 3 water holes and saw loads of animals - ele's, zebra, giraffe, kudu, impala, hippos, crocodiles, dikdiks, baboons, ostrich and a warthog which naturally we all felt it compulsory to shout "PUMBA! at! Sadly no buffalo or rhino sightings but never mind.
     Back at the lodge we chilled out for an hour then went for dinner and the entertainment by an awesome African drama and dance group called "Ingonyama". They sung and danced for a while then did animal imitations which were hilarious and during their last dance they grabbed each of us up to dance with them. I think most of our group bought their CD afterwards! Back to our rooms and bed by 10pm, up early again tomorrow to complete our journey to Victoria Falls :)
King of Elephants!
Herd of ele's
Sunset over the plains of Africa <3
BABY ELEPHANT!
PUMBA!
Day 26 - Thursday 19th July
So up at 6am to find we have no electricity so myself and Sarah had to find our way to the loo and wee by candlelight - how romantic!
     We paid a quick visit to the Painted Dog sanctuary - pretty cool place. We saw the 3 painted dogs they have in their rehabilitation which were awesome looking things, although sadly I think only one of them can be released.
     Another long journey after this up to Vic Falls. We were given the key to our lodge which by Africa standards was pretty nice! Myself, Neeru, Sarah and Torie are room buddies - woop! We had a few minutes to settle then were rushed off to start booking our activities for the next couple of days. I've booked bungee, gorge swing, zipline for tomorrow and white-water rafting for Saturday. Feeling weirdly OK about it at the moment too - sure that won't last! We eventually went for lunch at about 3:30pm - we waited hours and although it was good there was no where near enough of it! We didn't leave the place 'til nearly 6pm, but we did go to a supermarket where we bought more food and plenty of booze to pre-drink on before the night out at Shoestrings. We had a little rave in the minibus in the middle of the car park while we waited for everyone to finish shopping. Shiloh, our legendary driver, has Against All Odds and I Want to Know What Love Is on his mp3 so about 12 of us were belting them out at the top of our voices - bet the locals loved us :P
     Pre-drinking had truly commenced by 8pm - me and Sarah had nearly 20 people in our room! We set off for Shoestring (a backpackers lodge 5 mins walk away with an awesome reputation! 12 of us stayed and partied there for a while and thankfully they did food as everyone was still hungry! Myself and Paul shared a thai chicken pizza which had chillis on and man did they burn!
     Finally back at the lodge soon after midnight and we somehow ended up with 8 people here! The 4 of us plus Nick, Paul, Kay and Malene stayed up for a while being "cuddle buddies" and singing - standard volunteer behaviour!
Roman and John the painted dogs

Mine and Sarah's room at Vic Falls

Neeru, Sarah, me, Jay, Gunns and Sunniva bored and waiting for food at Mama Africa


Day 27 - Friday 20th July
Oh GOD! Why didn't I choose the helicopter ride like any normal person????

^^ ok so, that was written at 8am this morning. It is now ... 7:19pm and I'm alive! And freakin' loved it! The slide was pretty tame and we started with that to get us into it. We'd already walked passed the bungee platform, 111m above the river, so we knew what we had in store for us next. I was 6th out of the 12 of us to jump so I got to see Caroline, Nick, Sunface, Paul and Ingvild go first and laugh at them, plus they all loved it which was encouraging! I weirdly wasn't too scared ... until everything was ready - harness, towels (around my ankles as a cushion guys, come on) and strap around my ankles (which I'm bruised from) and I had to jump towards the platform edge - hell did that get the adrenaline pumping! I looked to the horizon and for a split second doubted whether or not I would jump - it's very unnatural trying to convince yourself that it's ok to dive head first off an 111m bridge! But when the instructor counts down you feel pressured! It was incredible though - I would do it again in a flash! You don't really feel the fall as because you're upside down you're completely disorientated and it kinda feels more like flying. Absolutely epic! After an hour or so of adrenalin still pumping round my body I was ready (ish) to do the gorge swing in tandem with Neeru. This was much worse! You step off the same platform and fall further than the bungee before the swing kicks in. It also didn't help that I stepped off a split second before Neeru so she was almost on top of me for most of the drop! Not sure I'm too keen to do that one agan!
     I think we finished everything by about 1pm and everyone was starving as most of us were too nervous to each anything for breakfast! So obviously we went to our favourite Zimbabwean fast food restaurant - Pizza Inn! Woo! We didn't have much time to eat either as we were scheduled to do a sunset cruise on the Zambezi at half 3. 
     This was a beautiful experience, you could literally see the Sun setting on the horizon - added bonus of seeing a crocodile and some hippos while we were on the river too!
     We got back around 6ish and decided to go to the same place we went for lunch yesterday for dinner - Mama Africa. First off though we had to contend with a very drunk Nick (there was free alcohol on the boat cruise) coming in and breaking our mosquito nets, jumping on us, telling us we're his "faves", announcing "IT JUST DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE" (his zipper) and whacking my phone out my hand when he realised I'd been filming the entire incident. Me, Sarah, Torie, Neeru and Sunface eventually went out at 7:30pm and thankfully were served loads quicker than yesterday. Our guide was due to pick us up at 9pm to take us to the rest of the vols at Shoestrings, so in Africa time this meant we got picked up at 9:20pm. I was exhausted! from the day and really wanted to go to bed but apparently I was the only one so I begrudgingly went along to Shoestrings but I was glad I did as we met some very attractive South Africans called Leo, Walter and Johann (plus others whose names I've forgotten/wasn't listening when they told me). It was really nice just to chat to each of them ... and it helped that they were hot :P Leo also came to my rescue as my "boyfriend" when a terrifyingly short and round black guy proposed marriage to me and suggested we had a crocodile drawn carriage at our wedding tomorrow!!! Leo played the role fantastically and we even danced for a bit just to reinforce the point! We returned to our lodges shortly after midnight to get what little rest we could before getting up at half 6 to go white water rafting.
BUNGEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
I can fly!
And strike a pose!

Me and Neeru not showing our nerves pre-gorge swing!
Oh dear ...
... what a mess!
Mr. Hiphopopotamus
Sunset on the Zambezi River