Thursday 15th July 2010

As with any Mission Direct trip, the last couple of days are spent exploring the country a bit further and having 'downtime'. In our case Livingstone! After the 5.30am start yesterday, we piled on the bus for the 8 hour journey. The scenery was beautiful, vast African savannah! Mainly tarmacked road but got stopped at umpteen checkpoints, but that’s Africa for you. I was so impressed by our driver who calmly navigated the last 30km of dirt road.

After a quick settle in and shower (much appreciated!) we were whisked off for a sunset cruise down the Zambezi River. The most civilised thing I’ve ever done! We sat on the top deck, the sun was shining and we had drinks and nibbles. There were plenty of hippos, exotic birds and crocs (apparently we were told that there is a crocodile for every 5 metres of water, can you believe it!)    

Today started off eventfully as I lay awake listening to things crawl about in the thatch roof of the lodge (it doesn’t bare thinking about!) Just as I wondered what was scurrying above my head my mosquito net came out of the ceiling, on top of me! My poor roomie awoke to find me trying to suppress the giggles as I balanced on my bed by torchlight trying to screw the hook back in. Not a pretty sight at that time in the morning, but hysterical all the same!

Anyway, in the morning we headed to Victoria Falls. After donning our lovely ponchos we headed through the forest park. The sheer size of the falls is just mind-blowing. The best bit (that really let you know you’re alive!) was walking across a footbridge over the gorge. As you walked across you are immediately soaked as it felt like you’d stepped into torrential rain, crazy!

We then headed to the other side and saw the Victoria Falls Bridge before awkwardly bumping into a guy skinny dipping in the Zambezi. Whatever floats your boat! We then headed back out to the market but not before being stopped in our tracks by a few huge baboons that seem to have free reign of the place. Anyway, next we were swept off to the country club which was so upmarket!

Afterward a lovely lunch was the safari. Our guide picked us up  before we headed out of the town on the open sided safari bus. A classic African experience as we saw zebra, giraffe, buffalo, wildebeest, wart hogs, impala and of course the highlight, the elephants! After such a packed day we headed back to the lodge just after sunset to freshen up before going out to a lovely restaurant. It was really special just to spend time, enjoying the company of the team. I can’t quite believe that we didn’t know each other until last week. When you live like this you get to know everyone so well and have such a laugh, alongside the challenges of each day.