The heart strings had been well and truly tugged as we said goodbye to South Luangwa, the second-hardest place to leave on this trip, after leaving my family and our stint in Guatemala earlier this year. And it was almost a lot more problematic: for a reason I won't bore you with (but which was Simon's fault…sort of) we were under the impression we had a 3-month visa in Zambia, however when we double-checked, it was actually only for one-month, and so we had now overstayed our visa by 12 days...whoops. So two days before leaving South Luangwa we went to Mfuwe airport, to visit Mr Nkhata, the immigration official, who we were recommended to see as he was a nice guy and might look favourably upon us. However our chances were not looking good: he seemed very stern, and there were none of the usual Zambian greeting niceties (a handshake, and 'how are you?' 'I am fine, how are you?' 'I am fine') and then came the bombshell when he told us that the normal procedure for us now was to pay 4000 kwacha each (£800 total) for an exit permit, by way of a fine for overstaying our visa. This was a serious blow as while we weren't expecting to get off scot-free, we weren't expecting the fine to be so steep, and basically see all of what we had earned in the last month down the drain. But then, we were in Africa ('TIA') and the course of events took a funny turn...maybe in view of our agonised faces, Mr Nkhata kept saying "what should we do, what should we do?' - to which we didn't have much of a response, was he expecting a bribe? We'd heard that if you tried to bribe a policeman in Zambia you might be slapped with an even harsher fine, so we didn't want to immediately go down that route...or not so directly anyway. As it happened, Polly had mentioned that she knew Mr Nkhata liked country music, so we'd gone along to our meeting with a USB stick loaded with some Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Johnny Cash and the likes, and then had the awkward moment of trying to subtly bring that up in conversation… "oh and we've just been visiting our friend Polly at Luangwa River Camp, she told us you liked country music so (ahem) this is for you ..." In the end we don't know whether it was Dolly, our 'it was an innocent mistake' protestations or what, but he ended up backdating a second one-month visa for us, with the stern warning "and if I find out you have been working here then you will be arrested" - eek! But then we did 'tip' him $60 for his efforts and by the time we left everyone was all smiles (particularly us) and handshakes and "go well"s and we were scuttling out of his office like naughty school children, quietly thanking our lucky stars for a narrow escape! How awful to have been arrested in or deported from a country that I consider my (African) home?! But a lesson learnt…always check your visa stamp, even when you think they have said you have three months. You wouldn't think we'd been travelling for a year would you?!

Our plan now was to head north to Tanzania, however we had one last stop to make in Zambia before we did so, using the added bonus of now having about 20 days left on our new visa. We'd been wanting to do a canoeing and camping trip down the Zambezi River since starting to travel through Zimbabwe and Zambia, but had been saving it until now, as a treat with the extra $$ we had earned, and also because June was a much better month to do this trip in terms of the wildlife we would see. So we headed south towards the Zambezi river, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, where we stayed in a basic backpackers and camping lodge, with a beautiful riverside setting, where the sound of the hippos and the birds reminded us of South Luangwa so we weren't too homesick!

From there we started our 4-day trip, canoeing down the Lower Zambezi River with our guide TK, a veteran Zambezi guide from Zimbabwe. We would spend the nights camping on selected islands along the river as we made our way through the flood plains of the Mana Pools region (a Zimbabwean national park), a total paddling distance of about 72km.

After a safety briefing - what to do if a hippo charged at us or tried to capsize our canoe - we were off, with everything we would need for the trip shared between the two canoes, such as our tents, bedding, food and cooking equipment. Luckily our canoes seemed pretty sturdy as after all the wonderful food and wine we'd had over the last month, I am sure we must have been carrying some extra weight (well, I speak for myself)…so actually four days of physical activity was probably just what we needed.

It wasn't long before we had our first animal encounter, getting pretty close to a couple of elephants which had come down to the water's edge to cross to the other side of the river. They didn't seem to sure about us, and so chose to cross quite quickly - it was a wonderful sight seeing them 'trot' across the water in front of us, at such close quarters….little did we know this was going to be quite typical of the next few days.

We rose most mornings around 8am - very leisurely - and after a good cooked breakfast, set off for the day's paddling…which was actually very un-strenuous, most of the time. We were generally always heading downriver, so the paddling was more to keep us in the right direction, and more importantly, close to TK's canoe whenever we were nearing a pod of hippos. I think it took that first day for Simon and I to find our canoeing 'stride' - tandem canoes are known as 'divorce boats' due to the strife caused between a married couple while trying to canoe in the same one! I think on the first day we traded such recriminations such as "What ARE you doing?" and "OI why aren't you rowing whenever I turn round?" and, my personal favourite from my darling husband, "You are about as effective as a toothpick". But hopefully a couple that canoe together, stay together, and soon we got the hang of it and no divorce papers were filed after this particular trip. After a few hours canoeing each morning, lunch was normally a pit stop on one of the Zambezi's many sandy islands, to avoid animals - such as lions - on the mainland who might have been attracted to our lunch, and us. After a post-lunch siesta we were in the canoes again for another couple of hours until it was time to stop and pitch our tent for the night on another island…the first night we had to share the island with a herd of elephants that were crossing from one side to the other while we put our tents up, another magical moment…I never thought we would be camping with elephants! We put our tents up super speedily so that we could enjoy a cold beer before the sun set, and then help TK with dinner preparations, sitting round the fire for a couple of hours until bed time, mostly chatting about his time as a Zambezi canoe guide (he kindly left the scariest stories until our last day) and life in Zimbabwe.

It was the most amazing few days - canoeing on the Zambezi was so peaceful and serene, even when you do remember you are paddling through croc and hippo-infested waters. It was wonderful canoeing between both the Zambia and Zimbabwe side of the river, looking at wildlife, and generally admiring the beautiful scenery. The huge advantage of being in a canoe is that you feel very much 'at one' with your surroundings, silently approaching animals as they come down to the water's edge to drink or cross the river, and we had some wonderful wildlife encounters…some closer than maybe we would have liked!

On the first afternoon a naughty hippo in amongst a pod of others apparently started to charge us, so TK stood up quickly in his canoe in an act of intimidation and to try and discourage it, which obviously worked as we were none the wiser. The second 'hippo incident' was not so calm…on the third day we were paddling in front of one of the Zambezi's riverside lodges, appropriately named Mvuu ('hippo') Lodge, smiling and waving at some guests who had gathered on the deck overlooking the water, when suddenly a MASSIVE hippo reared up just a few metres behind us, on its hind legs, like some sort of sea monster (anyone remember Godzilla?), teeth gnashing, in a blatant attempt to try and capsize our canoe. Looking horrified, TK shouted "PADDLE! FAST!" and we paddled away furiously from this angry hippo, to the collective gasp of the lodge guests, before it had a second, and more successful attempt to capsize us. I wish I could have watched this dramatic scene unfold in front of the guests, it really would have been quite something, and I can just imagine their remarks going from (pre-event) "Oh look at those people canoeing….isn't that a bit dangerous?" to "OH MY GOD!". I am still waiting for the incident to appear on You Tube or some tacky 'When Animals Attack' TV programme. It was a serious-enough incident - TK said that that was the closest he had ever come to a hippo successfully up-ending a canoe - but also very comical, and we couldn't stop laughing about it afterwards…once our hearts had stopped beating so fast anyway. Hippos are very territorial creatures and if you give them enough space wherever they are in the water then they are mostly fine. They feel safer in deep water, but they can scare easily, and so normally as we rowed along TK would tap the side of his canoe to alert the hippos that we were coming, and to give each other wide-berth, but I guess this was a particularly mischievous one!

Animal-wise we also saw lots of crocs, mostly lounging on the river bank with their mouths open to cool themselves down. When you are safely in your canoe they are not so much a threat, even though a baby one tried to 'have a go' at TK's oar …but they are still pretty sinister-looking, especially when as you paddle past they tend to slink in to the water and are then out-of-sight. We also saw plenty of antelopes (impalas, bushbucks, waterbucks, kudu), warthogs, monitor lizards, and a plethora of beautiful birds: an African Fish Eagle, herons, storks, cormorants, kingfishes, skimmers, and beautiful bee-eaters. But the highlight was the elephant sightings…its not often that you can (safely) get so close to wild elephants, but we had some wonderful opportunities to observe these gentle giants from close quarters. It was especially impressive as the elephants looked a lot bigger here than in South Luangwa - probably because we were in a boat looking up at them, as opposed to looking at them from a game drive vehicle, but also because there is apparently a lot more food for them in this part, so they are actually bigger. There was one particularly special moment when we stopped near a watering hole for our lunch one day. We had just sat down to eat when TK heard something, and soon enough we were joined by a huge herd of elephants, who had come for a drink and mud bath in the water. We had just enough time to abandon our lunch spot and climb up a nearby termite mound, and out of their way…this gave us a great vantage point, as we were higher than the elephants, and safely out of scent from them, yet so, so close, literally just a couple of metres away from the nearest ones. We spent ages tucked away on this little mound amongst the trees, watching as more and more elephants emerged from the bushes and came down to drink from the water, and by the end there were almost 20 in total, including some very cute little ones and possibly the smallest baby elephant I have yet to see, who hilariously dived head-first into the water, as if it was his first time. Watching elephants has easily become our favourite safari pastime - they are the most noble, intelligent creatures and just incredible to watch, I think we could watch them for hours. There were two bull (male) elephants almost underneath us, who kept tussling, nudging each other out of the way with their tusks, trying to prove who was more dominant. Then there were the baby ones were always closely looked after by the females of the group, and we saw one adult ellie with a nasty-looking wound on his trunk, possibly from a poacher's snare - it was heartbreaking watching him trying to clean it in the water. After the whole herd had had a good drink, they covered themselves with dust, and moved on…about an hour after they arrived the watering hole was quiet again, and it was as if they had never been there. Another magical moment in Africa.

These four days on the Zambezi soon became a trip highlight. We loved the simplicity of camping out under the stars, just us and our guide, feeling like we had all this wonderful scenery and wildlife to ourselves, and seeing the animals from a different perspective, in a (mostly) un-obtrusive canoe, was a fantastic experience - one that we will definitely not forget in a hurry.