Time: 12:52 am
Days abroad: 79
(post #4 of 10 day vac trip)
It is quite late…but I made 2 days of my trip per night my goal and I am sticking to it…so, 2 days it is! Onward.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
We woke up at 5…maybe I should stop saying this…since it happened nearly EVERY DAY. Some vacation…
Anyways, we were out of camp by 6 because our driver promised us a long drive over really bad roads and we needed to get to Chobe National Park by 3 for our game cruise. So, away we went…bumping off down the road. It was indeed a long drive over very bad roads…however, there were giraffes and elephants EVERYWHERE:
I swear, giraffes in Botswana are like deer…we saw so many we were actually tired of seeing them…like “ya, ya, another giraffe, woopie.” Also, due to the bumpiness of the road…and the oh so high quality craftsmanship of our truck…the top of a bolt holding one of the seats to the floor sheared off and shot across the bus…the seat became completely detached and the poor girl sitting in it had to jump up or risk being bounced right into the aisle. Hahaha…here is Conrad, really pleased with the situation, attempting to repair the seat:
We finally arrived at our campsite in Chobe. We set up camp, had a little lunch and went into the town of Kasane to change money or get supplies. I had some seriously vicious heartburn due to my anti-malarial so I purchased a lollie (which is just how they say ‘popsicle’ in the Queen’s English).
We bumped along back to camp at about 3 for a game cruise on the Chobe River. We were on a huge boat with 2 other tour groups, one of which was a buss of 22 of my fellow CIEE comrades…I have to say, the Americans on the boat did not make our country look too good…they were very loud and carrying on when we were supposed to be quietly game watching…I can see why we Yanks have a worldwide reputation…
The cruise lasted until about 6:30…we saw elephants; hippos; kudu; springbok; buffalo; HUGE monitor lizards (relative of Komodo dragon); baboons; crocodiles (finally!); and, of course, about a million birds. I have pictures of all of these but I’m only including the hippos because they are ADORABLE:
And the Kudu, because I promised my grandfathers some big game pictures: 
We had yet another incredible African sunset…this time over the Chobe River. The land you can see in the picture is actually Namibia, we were staying on the Botswana side of the river: 
We had dinner at about 7…South African sausage, potatoes, squash, salad, and bread…we wandered down to the bar for a little bit but it was somewhat less exciting than the previous 2 bars so we went back to our campsite. Thursday, March 31, 2011
We were SUPPOSED to be able to sleep in…Livingston was not a far drive away. Unfortunately, I was awoken at 5 by another campsite of people leaving and the birds. There is one bird that the Tswana called the “Go-away” bird that makes the most hilarious crying noise…it was not so hilarious at 5am on my sleep-in day.
We had breakfast at 730 and were out of camp by 8 headed for Zambia. It took us all of 20 minutes to get to the river crossing that is the border between Bots and Zambia. We were told to expect a loooong wait for the ferry (up to 3 hours) but we got our exit stamps, paid for our Zambia visas and were hurried down to the ferry because it was about to leave…so much for a long wait. Haha.
The ferry ride wasn’t long and then, we were in Zambia! We got our entry stamps and then we had to wait for Conrad to register the truck so we all went to sit in the truck and wait. There were so many Zambian and Zim guys around trying to sell their wooden and stone carvings and they would take ANYTHING as currency…one guy wanted my shoes. One of them was named Adam and he set up shop outside my window and we had a nice little conversation. He wanted a tshirt from the states and I had a ratty old Oregon one I would’ve gladly given him if it hadn’t been locked under the bus in the luggage bin thing…he was wearing a shirt that said Hoboken and he kept saying "I want a shirt from the US, a shirt from the US.” And I said “you are wearing a shirt from the US…” and he pointed at it and said “No, no, no Hoboken, Brazil!” bahahaha, I didn’t have the heart to tell him Hoboken is, in fact, in Jersey. Adam also had a niece named Kailee, though, based on previous experience…it was probably some crazy long African name and they called her Kailee for short….
We finally got the truck registered and set out for Livingstone and our last campground. Livingstone was about an hour from the ferry crossing. We stopped in town at a Spar (grocery store) so everyone could use the ATM and get some snacks. Zambian currency is the Kwatcha…and it is hilarious because it is 4,800 to the dollar…so I bought a coke and a snickers bar and my total was about K8,000. It was so hard to go to an ATM and type in that many zeros…I had no idea how much money I withdrew.
We continued on to our campground/resort which was called the Zambezi Waterfront. The cool thing about the resort (and most of Livingstone) is that they accept any form of currency. So we could get rid of our Namibian dollars and our Pula and our US dollars...whatever we had left, they would take it. It made figuring out the meal bills very hectic though, haha.
We set up camp, had lunch, and then met for our activities briefing. Livingstone is a HUGE tourist attraction (Victoria Falls) so there are about a million adventure activities to do while you are there…our resort set up a briefing session for us about all of our options and answered all of our questions. I signed up to do a game drive with the Swedes (Martin and Bella) and a lion encounter with Bella and Aman. Both on Friday, my last full day of vacation.
After our briefing, Conrad drove us to the Vic Falls entrance and turned us loose…however, Conrad and Sarah failed to mention that we should not take anything of importance with us into the falls…because it would be wet. Their words were “prepare to get a little wet”…what happened next might as well have been the 40 day flood. We got SOAKED. We were all in a panic over our cameras (mine got damp through 2 shirts and a rain jacket) and I got maybe 3 okay pictures of the falls:
Our guides had made a big deal about telling us to get everything off the bus and nobody wanted to leave valuables in their tents because these little suckers: 
know how to open zippers!! They were ALL OVER our campground and since we couldnt leave our valuables on the bus anymore and they werent safe in the tents...many people had their passports and all their money on them and it all got drenched. The falls, however, were INCREDIBLE. I hear they are even better from the Zimbabwe side but I didn’t have the funds for the visa…so I satisfied myself with the Zambia side. It was stunning…we hiked around for a couple of hours then Sara and Bella haggled with some of the guys in the market outside the exit before we caught a cab back to the campground. We got the name of our taxi driver and his phone number because he promised to give us a discount on our fare to the airport then we set about the business of drying out.
We had dinner in the restaurant at the campground and went to bed fairly early…we had our game drive at 6:45am on Friday…
That’s it for today guys…I am beat. I went to yoga class this evening (laugh laugh, I know) and yoga is HARD. So now, I am going to hit the hay.
Sorry about the lack of exciting details...I promise I will make it up tomorrow...I am just exhausted and so tired of wrestling with the internet...
Goodnight all
Love
p.s. you all better LOVE the pictures tonight...they only took like an HOUR to upload properly...holy moly...
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