The Zambezi River & Devils Pool (11/26)

We woke up very early on the 26th, pickup was at 6:30 am for our white water rafting trip down the Zambezi (signed our life away the 3rd time here...). The Zambezi river is one of the top 5 white water rafting rivers in the world (pretty sure it rates #3), although the guides all claim it is THE BEST (and of course they know, right?!). It is definitely not a boring river to raft, that is for sure. It is so amazingly beautiful too, although you don't really get the chance to absorb the scenery when half of the rapids are class 5 (the highest rating allowed to be ratted commercially). The rest minus maybe 2 are 4's.... Anyone who rafts knows that means a major thrill ride. There were actually a couple level 6's which we were required to walk around.... And just FYI, 6 is the highest grade, which includes everything over 5- even Victoria falls herself, haha. The level 6 ones we saw on foot were absolute beasts. Again, we got the video and pictures we can post later. Kyle was thrown out of the boat on one of the level 5 rapids, along with everyone else on one rapid or another...... Minus me!!!! Yeah, I am not sure how, but I was the only one who did not get thrown out- unless you count the time another raft came up along side of us and that guide chose me to pick up and throw out of our boat for fun. That being said, I think I had the most wounds of anyone from the trip, not sure how that worked. I have a huge bruise on my arm, and Kyle gave me a blow to the head above my eye with his oar, haha. Okay, so all in all the actual rafting part was amazing. Now, to the bad part.... When the ride is over in order to get back up the cliff and get to the food and ride home you have to climb a very steep 300 meters. I thought I was going to pass out and go falling along the rocks back into the river. I may not be in the best shape, but that walk was hell- I could not believe they require everyone to do it. Apparently they are working on a cable that pulls you out, but unfortunately that was not complete soon enough!!!!!!!! The other bad part was that I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs and when they say the African sun is harsh they do not lie. I didn't notice until later that the tops of my legs were totally fried. Not much you can do at that point, learned my lesson!

 

After white water rafting we again were rushed to get back, and we were immediately picked up to head to Zambia for a trip to Devil's Pool. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Devils Pool, it is a natural pool formed off of livingstone island on one of the edges of Victoria Falls. It basically is one of the reasons this trip needed to be planned when it was.... People are only allowed into Devils Pool during a couple months of the year, the other months the flow is far too heavy over the edge for it to be safe. We chose to have high tea on the island (or maybe that was my decision since I am the British wannabe). They picked us up in a tiny motor boat from the Royal Livingstone sun deck, of course we signed our life away AGAIN, and then we headed off to Livingstone Island (an island in the middle of the falls which is only showing during summer when the water is low, the other months it is covered in water pouring over it). We went to the edge of the island looking down at the pouring water around us then made our way over to Devils Pool. This was one of our favorite parts of the trip. They tell you to make a jump into the water and one of the guys takes your jump picture. Most people are very nervous and just kind of jump- I was pissed they wouldn't let me do a back flip off the rock but I still had what the others said was the best jump of our group... And if that is the case Kyle's definitely was 2nd because we were the only brave ones. They got a great picture of Kyle's, but they were late taking mine. I'll post them later along with the pictures of us literally hanging over the edge of the falls. Yes, the guide holds your feet and sends you over the edge of the largest waterfall in the world. SO, SO awesome!!!!! I could have stayed in Devils Pool all night with a glass of wine... We were so bummed when they made us get out for another group, haha. After we got out we went for snacks (which were more like meals), high tea, and some alcoholic bevs on the island. It was such a great experience.... We met a nice couple from Australia and enjoyed talking with them for a long time about all sorts of things!!! I absolutely love the people you meet while traveling... It's one of the best parts! So Devil's Pool was the ending of our day, and it was a really great ending!!!!!

The beginning of the "Signing our life away" part of the trip (11/25)

Our primary school visit was planned for noon, and we were supposed to be seeing their kindergarden graduation while we were there. This gave us plenty of time for an activity in the mean time..... Or so we thought. We decided to head to the famous Victoria Falls Bridge which is over the Zambezi River and sign our life away for the first time of this trip.... Kyle wanted to do both the bungee jump and the bungee swing, I did not care to do both, but wanted to do the swing over the bungee. For those who are not familiar with a bungee swing as I was not either previously, it is basically the exact same thing but you actually drop further- at the bottom instead of being upside down when it catches and you bob up and down it catches you and you go swinging straight towards the cliff rocks. This particular bungee spot is the 3rd highest in the world with an 111 meter or 365 ft drop.... And it's argued to be the best in the world. Okay, I cannot display the feeling of being on the edge of a platform that high and having to jump off. For some reason jumping out of a plane is easy, but when you can see where you are headed straight to below you it is much scarier. I decided that Kyle and I should do it tandem (thought it would make it easier to have someone else taking the step with me). Well, we did it and we are alive to share the story so that is good. It was scary as hell though and I still cannot believe I paid $190 to jump off of a bridge. The drop was definitely long though, and the thrill of the line catching you at the end was the biggest relief. Kyle talks about doing it again, but honestly, I just couldn't believe the activities we did which lasted all day vs 10 seconds were less expensive than the bungee stuff... Kinda silly. Anyways, so although they promised us it was going to take no time to do both Kyle's jump and our tandem jump it ended up taking a while.... And I was panicking as time neared noon and we were supposed to be ready for school pickup at 11:45.

We raced back to the hotel..... A long really fast walk which made us sweaty and tired!! We madeit back late and were told Anne left and said to call when we got back so we did that. She came back to get us and all of our school supplies and we headed over to Chinotimba. We missed the graduation ceremony which was a huge bummer... We heard it was adorable and all of the gowns were too big on the kids which made it even cuter. Walking into the school grounds was like we were celebrities walking into a school in the US. The kids all smile, point, stare, shout and laugh at things in Ndebele, their local language. English is spoken at school though and all of their 2nd language. We met with the head master/principal, introduced ourselves and she came out to organize a little giving ceremony with the kids. We told them we were from the US and had brought things for them... I think everyone was shocked at how much we actually brought and we kept getting asked how we got it all there. They didn't even know that about 70 spiral notebooks and 30 boxes of crayons were missing in our lost baggage (which was supposed to have arrived, but didn't- here we go again!). The kids were so thrilled though for any little thing... Most of the things like colored erasers, sparkly stickers, sports erasers, and individual colored pencil sharpeners are things they have never even seen before. It was very neat to see their faces as they checked out the goodies. We took some pictures with them and they were all so eager to hold as many supplies as they could fit in their little hands! After wards their teachers told them to put the things back and they got in lines and took the supplies where they were told. So obedient and willing to help, Kyle was most amazed by this. We walked around the school and took part in the conversations between the principal and the Rotary rep as to what was in the agenda to help out the school in the future. Their playground was a trash dump, so it sounded like the next thing to be done is to be able to maybe add a small playground with a swing and slide and maybe a soccer goal or something. The crazy thing is that although this school is possibly the worst in the area, once you get in the more rural areas of Zimbabwe they have even less.... Pretty much nothing. Classes are held under trees. Our future children better be good and never take school for granted or we have the perfect place to set them straight!!

We had to get back to the lodge for our afternoon lion walk where we would be signing our life away for the 2nd time. Our day was one big rush. We were picked up not long after we returned and set off to walk with lions. What a cool experience the lions were!!!! When they brought out the lions we were thrilled to see 2 lions which were not small at all! They told us their names, but they were not easy ones, and Simba and Nala was much easier for Kyle and I to call them. The male lion really liked Kyle... When it was his turn to go pet and sit by him for pictures the lion rolled over on it's back wanting Kyle to pet his belly.... It was like our dogs! After we all took still pictures we began walking around the reserve area with them. We learned that just 2 days prior during the lion walk the female lion had spotted an injured water buffalo (very large creatures!) and decided to take off after it. Of course the male followed while everyone else just watched along. They 2 youngsters ended up taking the buffalo down which was amazing for the trainers to see since they are not to an age level ready for release into the wild yet by any means. It was a long battle, but we saw the remains of the buffalo on our walk... Not much more than bones left, we got pictures of that as well.... Just wish we were there to see that fight!!!!!! We got the video and the pictures of the lion walk we can share..... Cool stuff!!!


We once again were in a huge rush after the lion walk... We had reservations for the Boma Dinner, which is a dinner comparable to a luau in Hawaii, but with traditional African dancing & singing (which we actually found more entertaining and fun than the luau's in Hawaii). When you arrive they put what Kyle called an "African Toga" on everyone and painted our faces with tiny traditional tribal face paint. There was very interesting game meat for the main course at dinner- not much of which I enjoyed- but that doesn't say much because I am an extremely picky eater!! The dancing was so fun though and so was the music. We each got our own African drum to learn to play and we did games on it. Afterwards everyone was dancing in a circle and calling out people to dance in the middle similar to a wedding in the US or something. All in all, a great experience!!!!

Goodbye Johannesburg, Hello Victoria Falls!! (Thanksgiving, 11/24)

We woke up On Thanksgiving thankful for a new start to a new day. We arrived at the airport extra early in order to get the lost bag situation figured out face to face since the phone obviously was not getting us close to finding the bag. Kyle ran in to talk to them while I stayed with our rental car. I started to get nervous when it was less than 2 hours until our international flight to Zimbabwe, we still had to return the car and Kyle was still inside. He made it out though and we actually had a lead on the bag.... It was found in London, the baggage sticker had come off apparently. It was supposed to come to Johannesburg the next morning and they would have it sent to our hotel in Victoria Falls from there. At least it was something. So we returned our car and headed for takeoff to beautiful Vic Falls!

Arriving in Vic Falls was discouraging at first because it seemed as though the rain had followed us. It turned out to just be a very short small storm which was good. When we arrived at our hotel we called Anne who is the lady I have been planning our primary school visit with and she wanted to come meet us at the hotel that evening just as a meet and greet. We had plenty of time to check out the falls in the mean time. I cannot even begin to explain Vic Falls, or Mosi-Oa-Tunya as they call it which means "The smoke that thunders". The best way I can show it is via pictures from the sky taken from the flight of angels, a helicopter ride over the falls. Can't wait to share those. Seeing it face to face on the Zimbabwe side was the best, but you just cannot show in pictures it's size or intensity that way. We met several people both from Canada and other places all over the world and everyone had the same answer that Vic Falls beats Niagra Falls hands down. Makes sense being is how it is the largest waterfall in the world and one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. Certainly a beauty which is indescribable!

We wrapped up the day with a short meeting with Anne, who is fabulous, and some dinner! Busy day coming up.....

Graskop, the Panoramic Route & road to Johannesburg (11/23)

We woke up on the 23rd to no rain, but still very thick cloud cover. We headed out for the panoramic route despite the clouds and hoped for the best. We were able to see the falls along the route, but the 2 things we were most excited to see we could not: God's Window and the 3 Rondawels. We tried to make the best of it though and found our own spots to stop and make pictures. We also found some good photo ops of baboons and pigs.

So after seeing what we could we headed out for the long 6 hr journey to Johannesburg. No one tells you how beautiful the entire country of South Africa is... We got to see much of the country on the drive and I am thankful for that. The weather also was beautiful blue skies outside of Graskop.

Okay, so we are not thankful for the drive experience in Johannesburg. As we are getting close to Johannesburg it starts pouring.... Bad. The traffic was horrible, too. It was dark at the point we were there and we were just trying to drive in the rain and traffic without disaster. We had directions from google maps printed to our hotel there where we would just stay until our flight the next morning to Vic Falls. So after getting lost and turning around about 4 times we finally get to the supposed google maps directions to our hotel. Ummm, not at all the right place. We have no working cell phone, in the biggest city in the world in a foreign country where it is dark and pouring. We ended up being lost for 3 hours. It was so awful.... And the worst part??? We had no gas left and they do not have a feeder or access road along their highways so when you spot a gas station you cannot find a way to it. I literally just started crying after driving about what seemed like an hour on empty when our empty light started blinking. We were freaking out. Our last option was to make our way to the airport after searching for so long for a gas station on our own with no luck (assuming we could even make it there without getting lost 100 times). Thank God we were not lost 100 times on the way there and that they were able to help us. Also, thank God that our car actually made it there... I still cannot believe it made it. Anyways, I think we arrived at our hotel at 10:30 when we were supposed to be there around 7. We were starving and spent so we ordered room service. It arrived- the order was wrong though. Then we noticed that they gave us no silverware or ketchup so I called that in and they delivered ketchup but no silverware. 3rd time was the charm I guess but at that point we were just ready for a new day!!!!!!

Arathusa: Final morning (11/22)

We woke up on the 22nd at 4:30 a.m., the normal wake up call time for morning drives, to pouring rain.... Not good! We opted to stay in along with the rest of our group and wait to see if it cleared up. In the mean time we hung out with Stephane and Kelvin, our new friends that live in DC. It did clear up, so we set out with not high hopes of seeing much since most animals are hiding from the rain/wet conditions. We did not see much minus a ton of water bucks hanging out by e watering hole (which we did get some great photos of) and of course impalas and kudu. We were very bummed we never saw a lion but after only getting 3 drive opportunities instead of 4 because of Our missing bag mess & being late to the lodge- we saw just as much Asa everyone else who had been there for 4 drives before us. Lions had moved south and had just not been around for a week or so. We also knew we would have the opportunity to walk with them face to face in Zimbabwe so it wasn't too disappointing. So, we returned to the lodge, packed and headed out for Graskop.

The weather was yucky all the way to Graskop which was a bummer, but of course we would rather it have been then and clear up for the next day when plans were to do the panoramic route. We had dinner at a yummy Portuguese restaurant and then went to bed.

Arathusa Safari: Evening Drive (11/21)

Our evening safari drive proved to be even better than the morning drive, and was the best drive of our stay at the lodge. It started out slow but our tracker Debeers spotted something in the brush back in the distance so we went to check it out. Turned out to be 3 male elephants. It is crazy how good the rangers are at knowing everything that is going on in the wild. Our ranger Ryan and Debeers were talking about how they looked to be on their way somewhere and that others must be close. Sure enough after driving towards the path they were headed we ran into a huge playful mud bath of around 30 elephants of all sizes. It was one of the coolest things to experience... Kyle's favorite part of our safari stay. The female elephants are very protective of their young and Ryan had warned us of this after he has been charged at by a few females in the past. Sure enough one in particular Did NOT like us watching them from so close and she flared her ears and came towards us. Before she could get up too close Ryan just started backing up our vehicle- the rest of the time we tried following them that same one would turn around towards us to let us know she did not like us there so eventually we let them proceed. I have so many amazing pictures from these experiences and I am so sad that my iPad does not cooperate posting them- damn Macs! Guess they can wait until later.

Anyways, so after the elephants we saw a beautiful giraffe, water buffalos, and Mafufunyane, an older male leopard who has been around Arathusa for a while- he gave me the best photos of our safari. Beautiful animals! So all of those we saw before sundown.

Giraffe:

Water Buffalo:

Mafufunyane:



When we were on our way back to the lodge we spotted Karula, a female leopard with her daughter cub, Xivindzi. We followed right next to them for a long time. Again, it is crazy the behavior patterns the rangers know- Karula at one point stopped and let out a strange noise. Ryan explained that it was a call noise and that her son cub was probably supposed to meet up with them. After about 10 min of following them Karula stopped again and Ryan said to wait for the son... And sure enough out walks Xivambalana, her son from the brush. Cool stuff- seeing their meeting was so cool... The mother made sure it was him first them they started rubbing up on one another and Karula was licking her son as if to clean him up. It was one of the cutest things ever!!!! It was too bad it was so dark out because it made it very difficult to take pictures... Especially because they were moving and so were we. Kyle got good video of it though. After we followed them a while we headed back for dinner time!

Arathusa Safari: 1st Morning Drive (11/21)

Howdy! Well, it is a rainy day in South Africa today (the 22nd), which was okay because we were spending the most of our day driving to Gaskrop. Kyles bag is still missing and that has been a huge pain in the butt. It will be a scene when we go back through Johannesburg to head to Victoria Falls- bags don't just disappear people!!!

It was sad to leave Arathusa Safari Lodge though- we had a hell of a time there... met some awesome people, and had some crazy cool drives!!! They bring you up SO close to the animals (as in just a few feet!), it is surreal. When you see the pictures you will understand.... Yes, I took them, no edits, and many look straight off a nat geo magazine. Here is a summary of the things we saw the first morning, that is all I have time for right now (pictures from the drive to go along with most of them):

** Giraffes

** Zebras

** Rhino (the biggest one both our ranger & tracker said they have ever seen- although it was not the first time they had seen this one).

** Cheetahs (the most rare of the things people like to see- we got lucky!)

** Leopard (prettiest animals ever!)

** Wart hogs (not pretty enough to waste my time uploading its own picture, lol- see it further away in the pic below)

** Impalas & Kudu (Impalas are everywhere and the Kudu are nothing uncommon either). Picture of Impalas from across the watering hole of our lodge- also you can see a wart hog in it too)
** Wildebeest

** Water Buffalo (I'll post a pic of this one under a later drive)

Ah, we have missed you LONDON!!

There are a couple days to catch up on, however the computer at our safari lodge is so, so slooow. Apparently you cannot use an iPad to post pictures to the blog, so when I first tried to make updates after London it didn't work out (if anyone knows a way around this let me know!). So our layover in London went very well- minus the fact the town was unbelievably crowded (I guess it was Saturday and a holiday is coming up so tons of tourists were there. Anyways, the weather was AMAZING. Its never a good idea to put me in that city when the weather is so good because it makes me feel even more like I belong there. We were not able to see the olympic site as fully as we would have liked because it was fenced off, but did look as though there was still quite a bit of work to do. Here are a couple snaps we got on our quick walk around town (sorry they are small, again- slow computer!)...

I will catch up on our morning/evening safari's later- if the evening one is as sucessful as the morning we are going to have a VERY hard time picking photos. Right now I need to go figure out where our missing bag is- YES, one of our bags did not make it here and it is a huge mess! Poor Kyle is in the same jeans he left in because all of his pants were in the missing bag... it is getting HOT out so I need to locate that bag asap!

Certainly not "without a hitch..."

I wish I could say our vacation went off without a hitch, but I guess that wouldn't make as good of a story. Luck was in our favor while planning this entire trip- we got the last regular hotel room left at our hotel in Victoria Falls AND at our safari lodge, and where there were originally no rooms left at the B&B we are staying at in Cape Town someone called and canceled for the week we will be going allowing us to stay there (it was the cheapest for what you get of anything I found!).

Well, our luck started to change a few weeks ago. I got an email from the Cape Town B&B just asking for arrival times, so I sent a cheery email back sharing our excitement and giving her times as well as our flight information in case things are running behind. I get this response... "I don’t want to alarm you but I suggest you check your flight with Zambezi Airlines. we have heard that there seems to be a problem with some of their flight schedules." Okay, I thought, I will just check online and see what is up. So I go to Zambezi's website and what do I see? A large headline reading "ZAMBEZI AIRLINES SUSPENDS OPERATIONS 01 NOV 2011. We regret that all flights have been suspended until further notice." Ummm... WHAT?! So apparently they had their license suspended for "safety concerns", but really?! Right before we leave? Well, I am so so so thankful that sweet Anne who owns the B&B sent me that email because had she not given me the heads up we would have ended up stranded in the airport with no way to Cape Town. Her email came at the PERFECT time- as in literally on November 1st, the day the airline suspension was announced. We were able to call our travel agent, Rana (who is SO wonderful) and get her help getting us on a new flight with a safer airline. The crazy thing is that we still have gotten no email or any communication from Zambezi to give us a heads up that our flight would not be happening. They also would not respond to Rana's calls or emails regarding a refund, so I had to dispute it with our CC company- wasn't much of a dispute since there was plenty of evidence out there for them, but still a pain....

Okay, so then this past weekend I am taking pictures for one of my dearest friends (Morgan), her husband & their sweet pup. We are at the park, people all around and we only leave sight of the car for a very short period. We return to a shattered window- my purse and camera bag gone! Really? My keys were in my purse (minus my car key which was on me)- so now someone was in possession of my ID with my address and my house keys... great! So after calling the police, and cancelling my credit card (thank God I only had 1 CC, my ID and insurance card in my wallet) I head home to make sure they weren't trying to make a rush trip to our house. I called several locksmiths and after the cheapest one would charge $300, I said screw it! I went to home depot to ask if they could change the locks if I brought them in and they replied with "most of the time, yes." We have Kwikset locks, so I knew this meant yes. So while Kyle is playing golf I undid all of the deadbolts and all of the door knobs (there were 11, total). I bagged them up and then Kyle returned to take them up to home depot while I took pictures of my nephew. When we went to pick up all of our newly changed locks and new keys they only charged us $5 for everything... I love Home Depot!!!

I am thankful that November 18th is finally here, and pray that the "hitches" are over. Our bags are packed, and Paisley is at Camp Lovey's (my sweet aunt & uncles- they are so kind to take her in and spoil her with love and a huge yard to play in!). Although I am a little bummed our trip happened to fall when the 1st Breaking Dawn movie is premiering (I heard it was amazing, and I can't wait to see Edward on the big screen again when I return), I am still so, so excited!!! Happy trails to us......

Welcome!

Kyle & I have decided to try starting a blog (something I never thought I would be doing)!! As you are aware, we are going on another adventure... This time to Africa, and I would love to use this as a way to keep our family and friends up to date with our daily adventures, as well as to journal our vacation for memory sake. Most of the hotels we will be staying at should have wi-fi, and therefor we should be able to post routinely. Hopefully I will not bore any of you too badly, but I am certain that at least the pictures I post will grab your attention! ;)