Has been nearly 2 weeks since last entry and have done loads but will try to keep it brief!

We left malawi and travelled into zambia to a place called chipata where we stayed for a night before leaving for south luangwa national park. We spent 3 days in "croc camp" which was a really nice camp site with a swimming pool on the river bank just across the river from the national park. The camp was open ie. no fences so we had wild animals walking through- I (laura) was pretty nervous of sleeping at first but got used to it! The bar man spotted a lion, buffalo and hippo wander through one night and on the last day we were relaxing by the pool when we had a family of 4 elephants walk through for an afternoon snack on our camps trees, it was amazing! We did evening and early morning game drives and had some really close encounters with some lions which was great and also spotted another leopard so we were really pleased.

We left the national park to drive back to chipata to the camp we had been in before and found out that the president of zambia was having a conference there that eve. We all had food as usual and went to bed thinking we wouldn't be able to catch a glimpse of him but then we were woken up by some of our group as the president wanted to meet with all our group! So we met the president of zambia,tourism minister and minister of education in our PJ's which was quite amusing!

The next day we left early to drive to the shore of lake kariba. We spent 3 days on a houseboat on lake kariba, basically a 2 floor boat that had rooms a bar and a jacuzzi. We sailed around the lake to various isands and watched elephants, hippos, crocodiles and antelope come down to the water to drink and swim which was great. We also had opportunity to swim, fish and had some lovely meals and a fancy dress party on board. It was nice to sleep in a bed rather than a tent for a change! After returning from the lake we found out that a few metres from where our boat was moored on the last night a local 21 yr old girl was killed by a crocodile which was both awful and scary.

After lake kariba we drove via lusaka the capital of zambia to livingstone where we are currently. It is situated next to victoria falls so we have spent the last few days relaxing in our camp which has a swimming pool and exploring the falls. We walked around the falls and walked to a place called devils pool which is a natural rock pool literally on the edge of one of the largest waterfalls. We swam and had some great photos taken but it was so scary as we were sitting on the edge with the water coming over us!

The next day we went to a local preschool to volunteer for a morning as it is where one of our group used to work. It was great the children are beautiful and so happy. Stani played football with them and organised a penalty shoot out while i read books and made butterflies out of card and glitter, they loved it! That afternoon we went with a few of our group to the most expensive hotel in livingstone for high tea where we had a proper cup of tea! and ate as much cake as we could, we then sat on the sunset deck and watched the sunset over the falls with a cocktail.

Yesterday we went white water rafting on the zambezi river, where they are mainly grade 5 rapids so for our 1st time rafting it was quite scary but great fun! I spent quite a bit of time in the safety raft so I could go down the big rapids without having to paddle as it was so scary when the boat flipped over where as stani stuck at paddling in the other raft. Anyway we survived to tell the tale but are both aching all over today!

Today we are relaxing and souvenir shopping and we leave for botswana tomorrow. We only have 2 days there on route to jo'burg and will be visiting a national park but other than that just driving straight! Will be in touch again soon but back in the uk on 18th for 5 days before flying out again to USA.

Hope everyone is well,

Lots of love xxxxxx