Zambia

-->

18/5/10

Zambia… been in Zambia for 5 days. One trip has ended and the other has begun. Seven people have left us and now we are nine. Usually more would have joined us, but luckily they didn’t. strangers would probably struggled to fit into the group. We know each other’s quirks and habits, irritations can mostly be avoided as we are comfortable enough with each other to get things off our chests. We also now have more space to spread out. Nick and I are still sitting together, as are our favoured neighbours Gordon and Carol. We thought about moving as our position in the bus means that we are baking in the sun for most of the day as we head east, but sitting next to the humerous an mellow Canadian couple helps us keep calm and laugh off frustrations. Besides, Dan decided he wanted to spread himself over both sides of the isle, and is now occupying the last four remaining seats. Dan is our only American. He is an ex airforce and commercial pilot. He has been trying to learn English slang to help him ‘blend’ and not stick out as the American guy.

The cross over time between the two trips was spent in Livingston, south Zambia. We had 5 days to relax, get organized, do washing and get our fill of adrenaline rushes with a whole heap of activities on offer. We decided to skip the activities. Mainly because they were really expensive, we can do it cheaper elsewhere, but also because the only unique thing I wanted to do was fly over the falls, and this is no longer possible. It is possible to go in a helicopter, but at $150 for 15 minutes without guaranteed window seat it seemed a bit pricey. A microlight flight was cheaper, but you’re not allowed to take a camera. If I’m going to put myself through that much terror then I at least want the shots of the view. As for all the other activities, a disproportionate amount of them involved doing stupid stuff while swinging around on the end of a rope, and that’s never really been my thing.

We did of course pay a visit to the mighty Victoria Falls. The horseshoe shaped trench that makes up Vic Falls and stretches between Zambia and Zimbabwe has to be one of the top 3 most iconic waterfalls in the world. You can hear it thundering from about 5km away, and can see the cloud of spray above from even further. It is awesomely powerful and is locally known as ‘The smoke that thunders’. It is also known for being misty, but at this time of year the Zambeezi River is at its highest and 500 million litres of water flow over it a minute. Frustratingly for us the spray is so great that little of the waterfall can be seen. You know you are standing in front of one of the most impressive sights on earth, and you’ll likely never be there again, and it’s like someone has draped a big white cloth over it.

What we did see of the falls was incredible. We took the underwater housing and walked deep into the spray along the ‘Knife’s Edge’ trail. The spray was so heavy it was like walking in monsoon rains at their worst. We got drenched, our shoes and socks full of mud and sand. Sadly, and illustrating the poverty of the country, a craft seller later tried to swap a 10 inch wooden carving for those same dirty wet socks. The market traders are desperate and pushy, all chanting ‘it’s free to look, touch, touch, it’s free to touch’.

 
Livingston itself is the first place we’ve been in Africa where I’ve felt intimidated and uncomfortable. There are so many people trying to get you to buy things, exchange cash or give you something. I am ashamed to say I avoided it totally. We were staying at a beautiful riverside camp called Zambeezi Waterfront. It looked posh but it was mainly used by overland trucks. We had the misfortune of our one night of dining at the bar being the night of the England Australia 20-20 World Cup final. There was a group of teenage/early twenties Brits and Ausies who were waving flags, had painted flags on their cheeks, sand yobbish sporting songs and then vomited all over the toilets. Nice. Another annoyance in the camp was the herds of blue balled monkeys that caused chaos. One sat in the tree over our food prep table, looked at me, looked at the food, looked at me again then poohed just as I worked out what was happening and snatched the food away. They’ve learnt that by doing this they get the food when people throw it away.