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...continued from previous blog...
It's absolutely impossible to capture anything about the spirit of our safari & how mad it was. I've described all of the sightseeing, but not much about the day to day madness of being on the truck for hours going delirious, or the freezing cold nights, or anything we really got up to. Here are a just a few of my memories from the safari:
- Playing football with Conor - any excuse to get the football out for a kick around, & being careful of obstacles such as baboons or biting ants! (Anneka stripping off because of the biting ants was also very funny!)
- "Team Sexy" (Kel, Carl & Sam) - & all their madness & funny conversations.
- Jay & any excuse to play a drum (or any instrument if he could only get his hands on one!)
- Always asking how much the upgrades were, even though I knew I couldn't afford them after the first few days of spoiling myself. It still felt good asking though...
- Watching Mike have his head shaved with a blunt razor by the Masai women. It was kinda funny, in a sadistic kinda way!
- Conor & I started a theme of having photos taken in every bar, each time we had a cocktail. General fun & laughs with Conor because he was always so happy (because everything was always "grand"!)
- Sam & "that jumper" - which was originally cream (I think!)
- Drinking weird looking shots until late with Nat & Jay in Botswana & having a good sing-a-long; & then having to get up early the next day with sore heads, & still a bit drunk I think! Once the hangovers passed & the boredom on the truck kicked back in, another drink was in order by about 3pm!! Oh dear.
- Sam's singing outbursts & Carl's dancing.
- Having to sleep fully clothed with several blankets, & still being so cold we would lie awake shivering! Also, always having to wear a fleece in the day - I thought Africa would be hot & I would get a tan! When I left, Wess said he hadn't seen me in shorts during the whole trip! (That's cos it was so bloody COLD! Do you get the idea?!)
- 'The Canadians' & how they loved their beer, "ay"?!
- Giving up a bit on personal hygiene & letting standards slip! It was just impossible to shower every day, & you kind of get used to that after a while; & so showering every other day & sleeping in my clothes then waking up in them & wearing them the next day became "normal"! We also gave up on laundry after a while because you had to sleep in everything anyway! We must've looked like tramps by the end, I'm sure! I threw most of my clothes away because I couldn't bear to wear them anymore!
- We got to know each other quite intimately by the end, after all the toilet stops in the bushes by the roadside along the way. A few of us girls just stopped caring altogether in the end, & all grouped together. Oh well.
- The "adventures" of the truck. The terribly bumpy roads didn't make for a smooth journey, so if you weren't literally being bounced off of your chair, then something in the overhead compartments would bounce out & hit you instead! (& it was normally on Mike's head!). Then there were the endless hours on the truck, which would send us delirious sometimes! Time was killed by chatting, playing cards, listening to music (when it was working on the truck), & everyone apart from me found it easy to sleep too. But it never filled the long 12 hour journeys, & that's when we'd go mad. Drinking occasionally passed the time & relieved the boredom; a drinking game passed the longest drive across Tanzania from Arusha down to Dar es Salaam, & was actually good fun! Oh, & then there were the border crossings. They were normally 'fun' (especially when hung over) & time consuming.
- Many evenings sat around a camp fire, chatting & trying to keep warm.
- Playing "I have never" on Kande Beach, & learning lots of interesting secrets about each other.
- The chore rota. Olga, Aneeka & I formed "the laughing lions" chore team, though I think we should have been re-named "the lazy lions" because we didn't once clean the truck when that was our duty! Cooking & washing up were fine, but we always conveniently forgot when we were on truck duty. Oops!
- Camping in an unfenced camp ground in the Serengeti, hearing animals nearby, & the campsite crew who slept in a metal cage - slightly unnerving when we didn't have any protection!
- The fancy dress party - how those high heels fitted Carl perfectly & how he actually suited his outfit; how Sean eventually gave in & got into the spirit of things, & even put on make-up; seeing Jay trying to walk in high heels; having to divert my eyes from Michael in his tight, white, all-in-one suit; & seeing Conor in a pink dress, being more concerned by the fact that it was too big rather than that he was wearing a dress!
- Aneeka & her general madness - taking photos of everything, including guide books, & spending ages chasing a baby goat because she wanted a photo of all of them individually! Her amusement at my previous job at Weetabix; every time I said "Weetabix" she would smile (or maybe she was laughing at me!). And her fascination with the curio shops, & attempting to get 2 Malawi chairs checked in at the airport to get home to Canada!
- My little chats with Olga & Carolina. I miss them.
- Wessel's laugh - it was infectious.
- Kel naming me "Rach the rock star" after my performance on our last evening, when I was woken up from sleeping round the camp fire & refused to go to bed & made us all go back to the bar for another 2 hours drinking. Ouch! No wonder my head hurt the next day!
Some of my favourite quotes from the trip:
Now that we've finished the tour, I've read through some of the info. Acacia sent to me. Here are a few of my favourite quotes (I've highlighted my key words):
- "Come prepared with a sense of adventure and a flexible attitude..."
- "Travelling overland is fun, but it can also be challenging. This is a participation tour..."
- "Travelling by truck can be arduous at times..."
I'm not sure that any of us actually read the brochure! Also, did the guy who wrote this actually do an overland tour?! I'm not convinced!
Some quotes from the group that I will remember from this trip:
- "Not another impala?!" (everyone, excl.Petey & Lorry)
- "How much is an upgrade?" (Everyone)
- "Feckit brew" (Wess)
- "No, I'm not drinking for a few days" (MY famous last words)
- "Do we have to get up that early?!" (Everyone)
- "It could be a rhino. Could be a giraffe. Could just be a branch" (Johann, Kruger NP)
- "It's grand, so it is" (Conor)
- "Who wants to get in to Shanequa?" (Everyone)
- "Your Mum's an Acacia tour!" (Team Sexy)
The tour was incredible, & we saw & experienced so much in such a short space of time. Overall, my personal highlights of the tour were:
- The Serengeti because I've always wanted to go there & to see if it's just as breathtaking as it looks in photos & on TV. It was.
- Zanzibar - the beaches & clear blue sea were lush.
- Victoria Falls - incredible, both sight & sound.
- Managing to see all of the Big 5 - lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino & leopard.
- The evening game drive in Kruger NP - the madness of the drive, & getting up close & personal with the animals.
The overland safari was ... tiring ... awesome ... fast-paced ... draining ... incredible ... exhausting ... amazing ... breath taking ... etc etc. It was a fantastic experience & provided a good introduction to & overview of south east Africa. What really made the trip for me was the amazing people I got to experience it with & share these memories, & I very much hope to keep in touch with them
I still don't feel like I've done this trip justice on my blog; we experienced so much, & I shall treasure those memories, & let my photos speak for themselves to fill in the gaps which I've missed.......
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