The past few days have gone by in a whirl. We spent a day in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia before making our way to Livingstone, where we have been for the past four nights. Today our trip goes in different directions – 8 of us go on to Cape Town, whilst the rest go to Jo'burg or Botswana directly. Therefore its been a pretty intense period of bonding for us all. First day 19 of us went white water rafting together down the Zambezi river. I have wanted to muster up the courage to go white water rafting so many times during my past six years travelling the world. Every time I never made it – until now. I was terrified – after all I was going down one of the best rafting sites in the world with at least 3 Grade 5 rapids – I was crying after the safety talk and pretty much the entire truck ride from camp to the start of the rapids. The leader of the tour said to me very early on that I'm with him – and I think everyone knew that whichever raft I was going to be in was going to be the most conservative ride of the day. That said, there's only so much a guide can do to prevent you from flipping on some of the bigger rapids. Bernard went overboard on a Grade 4 rapid fairly early on but apart from that the raft didn't flip at all – though there were a number of times where we were extremely close to flipping and we were holding on the side rope for dear life. It was fun, lots of fun, but the photos are quite amusing because I don't think I am smiling in any of them. I look terrified!
I got horribly sunburnt on my legs despite regular application of 50+ sunblock. I think the doxy tablets have made my skin extremely sensitive to the sun. I spent much of the next day relaxing applying aloe vera cream to my legs. Later that evening we had a sunset (booze) cruise and I managed to be the entertainment for the night dancing up a storm until I hit my “time for bed” moment and Bernard very kindly escorted me back to the room. Yes, we upgraded for the night – wasn't it heavenly the next day to have a hangover from hell and at least have the comfort of an ensuite bathroom and a comfortable bed to lie on until the early hours of the afternoon.
We visited Livingstone island and the Devil's Pools at the Royal Livingstone Hotel. We literally went out on a boat to the island that Livingstone visited when he was first shown the falls by the locals. We went to a couple of vantage points then swam out to a pool that literally sits within the falls themselves and spent about 10 minutes enjoying the view (and the fish nibbling at our feet) before settling in for some afternoon tea. We were escorted back to the hotel and I then got myself a Martini to enjoy whilst watching the sunset and the hippos come out to graze for the night. Twas marvellous day out and one of the highlights of my trip.
Zambia – or Livingstone in particular has been absolutely amazing and I would recommend anyone come and visit – and if your budget can stretch to the $800 a night rooms for the Royal Livingstone, then I'm sure you'll have the time of your life!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment