Trip to Livingstone

We’re continuing our saga of limited internet access this week. The part that was ordered from the UK came in & the man came from Livingstone last Friday to repair it, but the electricity was off, so he could not fix it. While here, however, he noticed another part that had gone bad & had to be ordered putting it another week or 2 behind. At least we have this slow dial-up service to fall back on which is better than nothing! It just makes it very hard to up-load pictures or to complete online classes. But once again – TIA!

On Friday morning at 6:00 a.m., we all piled into the old yellow school bus for our first trip! We headed off on the 2 hour journey over some good & some very bumpy roads to the city of Livingstone. Once there, we made a quick stop at the ATM for some cash & then off to the Zambezi Waterfront Hotel where we would be staying for the next 2 nights. No – not in one of the nice waterfront hotel rooms or chalets – we were camping in tents! They have about 30 tents set up on platforms in a field with 2 foam beds & a lamp in each. Pretty primitive, but overall not bad! At least there were clean bath houses available with hot showers in them!! Best shower I’ve had in a month!

First thing, we headed off to do some Adventure Sports. 17 of our group decided to white water raft (including Shelby). It was a half day adventure in class 3 & 4 rapids of the Zambezi river. She has a video showing them flipping at most of the rapids!! She said it was a blast.
Savannah chose to do a half day Adventure package that included rappelling down a canyon wall, doing a zip-line type run across the steep canyon, & doing a gorge swing which was basically like bungee jumping, but you swing across the gorge rather than dangle by your feet. All this took place in the gorge of the Zambezi River. Vann & I satisfied ourselves by going with Savannah & living dangerously vicariously through her!! It was pretty exciting! I'll try to get video or pics on soon!

After the adventures were over, some of us headed to the Royal Livingstone Hotel, which is an exclusive hotel right on the banks of the Zambezi river, just a few hundred feet from the head of the falls. You can see some of the mist from the falls off in the distance. This hotel has beautiful grounds & there are cute little monkeys all over the place including some with their babies! They were a lot of fun to watch. While there we enjoyed High Tea in their tea room with a selection of hot or iced teas & all sorts of sweets & pastries. That was our lunch for the day!
Next stop was Victoria Falls which is usually spectacular!! It has a mile across opening to the falls which in wet season is so full, you can hardly stand close to it due to the mist coming off of it. However, at the end of dry season like we are now, it is less than spectacular although there are still some nice waterfalls coming off of it. You can see some of the pics of it at the links on the left.

That evening we enjoyed a stir-fry buffet dinner back at the Zambezi Waterfront Hotel before turning in to our tent for an early evening. Roy, who is accompanying us on this trip, is an early riser, so we’re sure he’ll be around bright & early to get us started!

Saturday started bright & early as expected with Roy stirring everyone around 6:30 a.m. After a continental breakfast, we headed toward the Botswana border to the Chobe Game Reserve. We had little difficulty getting across the border & were loaded into open air vehicles for the drive into the park. I must say this place was very barren & desolate looking. It is the end of the dry season & there is little green to be found. What little there is is being eaten by the wildlife as there’s just not much for them to eat right now.
The first part of our tour was on a boat where we floated the Chobe river. We had to make a quick stop at a little booth to report how many people were on the boat & when we did 3 or 4 monkeys climbed on board to try to snatch some of our food! As the boat started to leave, they all jumped off except 1 small one who stayed until the boat was about 15’ from the shore, then lept off & swam back to shore. It was really funny!!

On the boat tour, we saw a lot of unusual birds, some hippos, monitor lizards, & a few crocs. They fed us a delicious meal of kudu (an antelope) & fish with all the trimmings, before heading out on land cruisers for the land portion of the trip. We saw some kudu, elephants, giraffes, sable, antelopes, water buck, cape buffalo, & even a couple of lions that were hiding under bushes. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see them very well & for some reason our driver didn’t want to stir them!! It was a little thrilling being in an open air vehicle about 20’ from lions!

That evening, we arrived back at the hotel just in time for a quick shower before dinner. The food was great at this place! It is definitely a tourists place & caters to all coming to see the Falls & do the Adventure activities.

Sunday morning we started off with a breakfast buffet before piling back into the yellow school bus for a short trip to the Livingstone Central church of Christ. There we enjoyed fellowshipping with around 300 Zambian Christians. It was interesting as after the service they introduced a couple who was going to be married in December. They stood up in front of the congregation with the boys parents indicating that they knew about their plans to marry & approved. The girls family was from a ways off, so someone else stood up for her. She stood with her head bowed the whole time & a sad look on her face. She is supposed to do that as she is mourning that she is leaving her family. That was a nice cultural experience for us. Afterward, we stopped at the Hungry Lion for some take out chicken & headed to a rest area by the river for a picnic lunch. Next was shopping at a curio “mall” just outside of Vic Falls where the students enjoyed practicing their bargaining skills & purchased bowls, baskets, masks, drums, jewelry, paintings, & all kinds of other fun stuff!! Back on the bus for the 2 hour jaunt home.

As we got closer to Namwianga, we could tell that it was starting to cool off (thank goodness) & there were a lot of clouds in the sky. We found out it had rained all afternoon, & we shortly enjoyed another round of lightening & thunder that evening, but only a little bit of rain. We ate a quick dinner & headed back to church services where we sang a couple of songs for the group. After almost every service, they have at least a couple of groups sing songs. There are a lot of great singing groups here & the people love to sing! Dad would like a couple of the quartet groups that sing – even if we can’t understand a word they’re saying!!

All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend! Traveling here is certainly much different than we did on our Greece trip. No 4 star hotels – no air conditioned chartered buses – no tour guides, but still a lot of fun!

Monday morning I awoke with stomach cramps. We’ve been passing this around since we’ve been here, so I guess I won’t get to go to the Haven again today. I really miss getting to see the babies!!

We had a little excitement the last couple of days. On Sunday night, our night watchman killed a black mamba snake in our driveway. Then, tonight one of the girls came into our house & left the door open behind her for just a minute. As she turned around to leave, she saw a cobra coming into the house. She screamed & a couple of guys & the night watchman came running & threw bricks at it to kill it. It has rained only a couple of times now, but is apparently enough to bring them out!! I think I’ll take my flashlight out with me from now on!!

We leave on Friday for a 9 day camping trip to Northern Zambia, so this will probably be my last post for a couple of weeks. We're really hoping that by the time we get back, our internet will be up & running & picture loading will be much faster.