Part Two of the Second Roadtrip!

The Stunning Victoria Falls

After making it to Victoria Falls the night before we were all super pumped to have made it to our target destination. In the morning we headed out to the city to try and score the best deal for white water rafting on the Zambezi river at the Vic Falls. So in true bargaining fashion we went from one agent to the other, and attempted to play them against each other to get the best deal. After an hour of bargaining we had managed to cut the price down from 140 usd to 95 usd!! #Winning! You might be surprised why the price is in US dollar, and the simple answer is that Zimbabwe simply gave up on its own currency. Everyone knows about that one country in Africa where its costs a million dollars to buy some bread, and billions of dollars to buy a car, well thats Zimbabwe, and as you can see from the picture, their currency was insanely inflated to the point where they stopped using it and adopted the US dollar. But going on, we also managed to get a good deal for an evening sunset cruise over the Zambezi River, which is more commonly referred to as a “booze cruise” because it includes all you can drink alcohol! Adam had also decided to go bungy jumping, so without letting him build up his nerves we headed straight to the Victoria Falls Bridge to see him jump from 111 meters high! Although I was tempted myself, I thought the rafting would be better value for money, so I passed on the occasion. After Adam did his jump (where he nearly shat himself) we took a short stroll to the Victoria Falls national park, where we would finally see one of the world’s most beautiful natural wonders. Despite paying 45 usd for the park entrance (ridiculously overpriced for a national park…) the sights from the 18 different view points was absolutely breath taking, photos again can’t really do the real thing justice. The water falls down from the Zambian side and falls down into the Zambezi river which splits the two countries. We spent about two hours taking loads of photos (ofcourse!!) and admiring the stunning view. After losing track of the time we rushed back to the hostel where we would be picked up and taken to the Zambezi river where we would enjoy our sunset cruise. 

Look away mom!

Adam Bungy Jumping

We were welcomed by a locals performing their tradition songs/dances and headed straight for the bar on the boat. We were the only ones there until we were joined by probably the last thing you can imagine…a school bus full of children…yeah, our jaws dropped when we saw the 25 kids jump on board. We however soon forgot about them as the drinks kept on coming, while we also met the teachers who insisted that we have photos taken with them! On the cruise we saw a couple of hippos in the water, a baby croc, and thats about it. Despite the captain telling us that the more we drink the more we see, we didn’t see too much. The scenery was however very nice, especially as the sunset, and with free alcohol we were sure to have a good time. 2.5 hours later, we made it back to shore, finishing one bottle of vodka, one bottle of russian bear (no idea what that is, but hey, it was free), and countless beers whilst on the boat! We were taken back to the Backpackers hostel where we had some more drinks with the backpackers before we called it a night.

A friendly welcome

Let the cruise begin!

Jaw dropping views

They know where the party's at!!

Cheeeseee!

Hipppo!!

Our first croc sighting of the trip

With the teachers!

The next morning we woke up at the break of sunrise and prepared ourselves for what we be a very adventurous day. With no hangovers, we were off to a good start ;) We got picked up from our hostel and were brought to the main office of our rafting company. We had a quick breakfast and then were taken to the Zambezi River. The rafting started just after the Vic Falls, so we had to descend all the way through the canyon to get down to the river. The girls didn’t dare to look down, as I can tell you , it was a loooongg way down! Once at the bottom, we were given a quick briefing by our guide and then set off to take on the Zambezi River. Normally the rafts hold 8 people plus the guide, but fortunately for us we had the raft to ourselves plus two of the rafting staff to help paddle. The Zambezi River is one of the most challenging and intense white water rafting locations in the world (in the top 5) so this was gonna be one hell of a ride! For those that have gone rafting in Asia before, that “big” rapid that you face somewhere in the river would be classified as a grade 3 rapid, here at the Zambezi the we would be facing grade 5 and grade 6 rapids (the highest classification) with it being a common occurrence that your raft would flip over. In total there were 21 rapids that we would be going through. As we took on the first rapid we all immediately woke up and were pumped with adrenaline. Rafting through the canyon of the Victoria Falls is something I will never in a million years forget! After each rapid the river would get calmer again before the next rapid, which was nice when you needed a break. Rapids 2,3,4, and 5 went very smoothly, we tackled the rapids with perfect execution and managed to all stay on the raft… this all changed we got to the 6th rapid of the day called Devil’s Toilet Bowl. The guide made jokes before the rapid that the devil would consume “pieces of shit” which got us all laughing. Nevertheless as we got right in the rapid the shear force of the river completely took us out and flipped the raft sidewise. At first I found it quite exciting but this soon changed as I stayed longer and longer underwater. With the currents so strong underwater the lifejacket wasn’t too effective, so once you are out of breath you start to think….ooh shit… this is bad! This is probably one of the closest times I’ve felt like I would die! And not in the way you joke around, for example when sitting in the back of your mates car and they clearly cant drive to save their lives (Elliot *cough cough*), but the real deal! 20 seconds later (although it felt like 10 minutes) I finally broke out of the underwater current and made it back to the surface! The same had happened to the rest of group so everyone was taken away by what had just happened. A minute later we all got back onto the raft and continued going down the river as if nothing had happened. One rapid after the other it definitely gets your excitement back up. At the 18th rapid, Stairway to Heaven, we literally headed straight towards heaven and flipped over vertically, but this time we surfaced within seconds which was a lot better! The rafting trip ended with a grueling hike back up the canyon, which some people say was tougher than the actual rafting! Once at the top we ate some well-needed lunch before making it back to the backpackers hostel where we all passed out! 

Unfortunately the only rafting photo we have!

Hostel Pics

Our cute little cabin

On Sunday it was time to leave Zimbabwe after a crazy 3 days and head to Chobe National Park in Botswana where we would go on a game drive. Since our car wouldn't be able to go through the park we booked a game drive from one of the lodges, as we all still wanted to witness the sights of one of the most beautiful national parks in Africa. Unfortunately luck was not on our side that day as it had been raining the whole night before and was still raining when we went on our drive. With rain most of the wildlife doesn't need to go to the river to get water, so as a result we didn’t see too much. Chobe is known for its huge elephant population, yet the only thing we saw was their poo :( We did come across probably 100 hippos in the river which was very cool to see, as well as one very close to the car on land. As you can see from photo, the hippo might look cute and cuddly, but it is by far the most dangerous animal in Africa, with the most human kills per year! But anyway, after the game drive we drove back to Namibia and stayed a night at a fancy hotel next to the Zambezi River. We booked a double room for the four of us, so the girls took one bed, Adam the other, and I took the sleeping bags and slept on the floor. By reading this you might think we drove a lot to get from Zimbabwe to Botswana and then Namibia, but the truth is that these countries all meet at one place, so it was only really a 2.5 hour drive to go from Zimbabwe to Namibia.

Well....Ok...

Hippo's in the Wetlands

Hippo Crossing!

Up Close!

Our Ride!

Monday was dedicated purely to driving back towards Windhoek. For the first 7 days we drove at most 4 hours a day, but the return leg would have to be done in 2 days which meant waking up early and driving for hours to get to where we had to go. We did however make the decision to get the car for one extra day and go to Etosha National Park (The place I had been before) as Chobe was quite disappointing. So that night we made it to the town of Tsumeb and had a good nights rest at a backpackers hostel which was right down our alley in terms of our budget!

That Sunset!

At 4:30am the next day the alarm went and we were on our way to Etosha. It’s a well known fact that you see most of the wildlife in the morning when they are most active, which is why we made the decision to wake up so insanely early. At Etosha we were treated to another breathtaking day full of wildlife. The moment we entered the park we were welcomed by tens and tens of giraffe, with on coming right next to the car. We also spotted a hyena next to a waterhole and then drove our car next to his path to see him run less than a meter in front of the car. The highlight of the day however was seeing a leopard in the wild. At a (what seemed abandoned) waterhole we noticed that all the antelopes (The kudo’s, zebra, oryx, etc.) were looking at one direction. With the antelopes clearly not at ease, we sensed that there was a potential predator in the area. And  behold, looking into the bushes we saw an amazing leopard, well camouflaged and ready to strike if an animal went to the very small waterhole. The spectacle continued when a couple of elephants headed towards the waterhole causing the leopard to flee from its spot and disappear into the bush. For us to spot a leopard was exceptionally rare as they are the most difficult big 5 member to spot, so our day just couldn’t get any better. After lunch we left the park and headed to a small town called Outjo where we stayed at a nice german guesthouse and celebrated what a great trip we had. We clicked and got along so well, which made this trip that much more enjoyable.

Elephant Herd

Momma with her little one

Dawwww 

Spot the Leopard!

Leopard in Action

The "White Ghost"

Great Shot of a Zebra

Hyena Crossing!

Amazing to get that close to an Hyena

My Favorite!

About 40 elephants playing around

This guy just sh*t himself!

On our final day we finally got to sleep in till 9:00am and have a very nice relaxing morning (which was quite rare!) Afterwards we headed towards Windhoek where we returned the car (we spent 1 hour in Windhoek trying to find car rental place…) and got dropped back to Na/an Kuse. It felt good to get back to the farm, and we were all ready to get back to work. It hit me when we got back that I only have 1 week remaining, time really flies in Africa! That’s it for my second road trip, hope you enjoyed the post and thanks for reading ;)

PS:

After almost 3 months in Africa without a haircut my hair has gotten really long to the point where I can start thinking about getting dreadlocks! That being said, there was a white guy at the backpackers who had dreadlocks… lets just say white people shouldn't have dreadlocks because it just looked ridiculous! On the road we sometimes spotted very local barbers (in a tin shack next to the street) and stopped at a couple to see if they would cut my hair. Disappointingly no one could cut my hair… so I guess I have to go for a ponytail now ;)