Good Morning from the falls!!

LOTS to catch up on, been a very hectic few days, so...

We crossed the border back on the 18th (which was technically day 31 of my trip for anyone who cares!) and we entered Livingstone, otherwise known as the start of real africa. I say this because when we got there, i didnt realise we were there! As the main city, i was actually shocked, all the shops were just like shacks, and it was dodgy as hell! but I guess from now on its going to be like this and worse, im starting to doubt the availability of pools and bars at our future camp sites... except this one of course because its like a bloody resort!! wohoooo!! I mean it, its got a restaurant, and bar, and internet cafe and pool and an auditorium! an auditorium, in livingstone! WTF!

oh and before i forget, i love Zambia already...im a millionaire here!!! a big one! Yes! Tick of the life list - at 22 became a millionaire....in a third world country but still...it counts!

Soooo, the camp is LUSH, only thing that sucks is that loads of people are leaving the tour here so i have to say more goodbyes, including Alex...which means new tent mate...intriguing i know...but apart from that, there was some VERY important business to attend to that evening, after booking all my activites for the next couple days it was absolutly mandatory, as in we would get chucked off the tour if we didnt (honest), to attend the famed 'Livingstone Booze Cruise'. Let me clarify, for the equivilant of about 10 pounds we had the solem job of drinking as much as humanly possible for 2 hours whilst sailing down a big river - oh and there was dinner included but I kind of forgot and just kept drinking instead...parents you have brought me up well! That night was fantastic, just absolutly brilliant! so much so that the 2 hours boat ride turned into nearly 3 because we insisted on keeping the party gonig by refusing to stop! And i made a great friend called Efram (i think)...i say great friend, i actually mean great bartender who kept slipping me double double vodka's hehe :P oh p.s. great new drink - vodka (lots), tiny bit of orange cordial and then fill up with sprite - who knew!

That night successfully continued to the early hours in the bar - something i think the staff were very happy about seeing as the offer of a tab seems very sensible when you are that drunk...until you have to pay it the next day..ouch! Think i probably wracked up about oooo 25 pounds worth, eek!

The next day we had the joyous oppertunity of going white water rafting. I say ppertunity but we had all already paid the previous day so hangover or not we WERE going rafting...it started out a bit dodgy with them providing us with a fry up breakfast...and me nearly offering it back to them 20 mins later...but after that it was fine...kind of...

Hopefully I will get the chance to upload the pics and video from that day because the rafting was FANTASTIC! after the death defying walk down the gorge to get to the river (which consisted of a wooden ladder - basically little twigs - and a hold rail that collapsed under me and slashed my leg open!..mum, dad im fine, stop dialing 999 now) the rafting itself was great, i mean really really great! the rapid were so strong one group went over on the first one! actually every group went over except mine! and by the end of it we were activly trying to flip over for the fun of it but couldnt! well, i did do a rather impressive (and totally planned of course) backflip off the raft at one point but apart from that we were just too damn good! screw you mother nature!

The rafting was kind of surreal at points though, like at one stage me, alex and kav were in the water, with our feet attached to the raft, floating in the water and eating apples for lunch! and we even went through a rapid like this and everytime the water would go over us we were just sticking our arms up in the air crying save the apples save the apples!! Crazy eh! Also, at one point every raft was attacking each other with paddles etc so Kav took an apple core and hurled it at the other raft, about a good 20m away and hit the guide guy smack in the back of the neck! absolutly fantastic! Although one thing i will say for rafting - its bloody hard work! paddling and s***...no no no not for me i dont think..i like my arms flabby thankyou very much..no toning excersise for me!

Rest of the evening was pretty chilled, we all had a nice dinner together and I receeded into the background a bit seeing as I had about 60% of my body covered in 3rd degree burns...not so good...but everyone got burnt from the reflection of the water so that was kind of ok, just hurt a bit...but its gone now so yay!

It rained AGAIN that night...and flooded the tent AGAIN....not impressed...

Next day then...oh yeah MUD!!! soooo much mud! everywhere! In fact, we were making mud pies yay!! i had forgotton how satisfying it was to pretend you're five and start messing about in the mud! brilliant way to start the day :P funny thing is i would never have done that at home, just like i would never walk round bare foot in the streets or round the camp but here, its bare fot all the way! it makes sense in the mud anyway - one of my pairs of flip flops got stuck and broke in the mud at the last camp so not risking that again! Nothing planned today, I wanted a day just to chill out and go on the net (which later decided to not let me do ANYTHING that i wanted to do!) The worst thing today though was that Cecelia left, there were tears and emotions and it was horrible, just reminded me that Lindie (one of our tour guides) and alex and other people too were all leaving the next day...i was not a happy bunny...but then i had a pancake and that helped dramatically as pancakes always do! still, it was horrible :( I met all the new people joining the tour that night, everyone seems great - more bloody canadians! but seriously, i think the group, both new and old have been amazing so no problems there :)

SO now we are on Sunday I do believe, hmmm what happened sunday?? oh yeah, I DEFYED THE LAWS OF GRAVITY! hehe no actually I went absailing, gorge swinging and did this thing called the flying fox - all incrdibly cool and dangerous :P basically it was an activity day that me alex and kav decided to do, so we arrived at this cliff top and almost straight away were strapped in and taken to the top where we had to absail down! i went first and i have to say tom cruise makes it look easy in the movies! ITS NOT. Especially when your legs are too short to reach the side of the cliff to push off so you end up dangling and twisting so you can see the outside and basically the big gap you might fall into! And you have no hpe of turning around again either! But eventually you get to the bottom and obviously high five the guy at the end who was doing most of the work for you :P

After that it was the flying fox! OMG its sooooo much fun! basically you are again strapped onto a cable that runs from one side of the gorge to the other. Then you take a running start and jump off the end and literally fly to the other side, or as far as you can get anyway! Its an amazing feeling! especially when you pretend you are superman like i did :P We must have done it a good 4 or 5 times each, doing the running man, swimming through the air, anything we could think off to get completly accross because apparently you got the whole day free if you made it...we didnt...but not for lack of trying!

However. Then came the gorge swing. Now its not actually like a traditional swing, its more like a big cable that you are strapped to and you do a tarzan swing accross a very big very deep gorge. sounds easy eh! its not. the swing itself it easy but its the stepping off thats not. basically they wont push you so you have to walk to the very edge with your toes off and actually step off into nothing! then you fall...a lot...and then finally you swing and its amazing!!! like OMG i was swearing like hell and making even more obscene noises but WOW! Thats the only way to describe it, wow! Kav went first and i swear he was going to hit into the rocks lol! Ill try to get the video and pics up from that too! I gotta say though, not many people can say they have stood at the edge of a cliff and taken a leap of faith off it, im pretty proud of that :) So yeah, a pretty good morning actually!

After that Alex left to go bungee jump off an even bigger clff, and me and Kav decided to go to Victoria Falls themselves for a little afternoon shower. My God do you get wet! we were absolutly soaked to the bone! But they were brilliant...even when Kav went off in his own little world for 10mins asking the falls 'why falls, why do you fall'??? But seriously, they are definitly worth a look! And it was really nice to be able to sit n basically the top of the falls and just chill out, watching them - but woah the spray from those things really gets ya! Amazing memories though, really amazing :) There was also a market at the gate that we took a stroll round, gave me a chance t flex my bargaining skills :P I managed to get a few little bits and peices, but my favourite was a necklace that i swapped for a 1.50 pair of shoes from tesco that i was going to throw away anyway! 6 dollars my arse, you will take the shoes and like them! lol! So yeah, a brilliant day, and although it was soo hard to say goodbye to everyone that evening - Petra, Ray, Sandra, Lindie and Alex, its all part of travelling i guess - friends for life but maybe a little further away then would I like.

So we are up to yesterday (told you this was going to be a long one!) Very emotional (and wet) morning but anyway, Lindie left to guide her own tour that morning, basically going back the same route we had just come, but was horrible to actually see her leave :( I will never forget her mud fight with Kav where they both ended up wrestling in the mountains of mud and then needed me to carry their stuff to the showers! Yes ladies and gentleman i did get it on film dont you worry! The added downer that morning was that it all reminded me that i have to say goodbye soon...not something im looking forward to at all. So we moved camp and straight away found the bar - in which i might add i played 5 games of pool and won them all! four against kav which is was not impressed at...apparently just because i have been playing snooker since i was about 7 he thinks i hustled him for drinks....i am totally innocent...as is my own personal snooker cue at home :P But yeah so it was a nice chilled evening, the camp was called Eureka! by the way - very cool name for a camp! Almost as cool as Mama Rula's which was a few days ago i think.

Looking forward to Chipata tomorrow and Malawi for the next few days so will talk soon xxx