Livingstone, Zambia

After our short, but very busy time spent in Botswana, we crossed the border by ferry into Zambia. As we waited on the Bostwana side of the Zambezi River waiting for our G-adventures truck to get loaded onto the ferry, we already discovered the chaoticness of what was to come in Zambia. After at least 2 trucks had pushed their way in front of our truck to go onto the ferry first, we learnt that some of these cargo trucks would wait months in a line to get cleared before they could cross the border.

As we successfully crossed over and handed in our passports to be stamped, we were approached by a number of locals selling us anything from wooden hippos and salad servers to 1 billion dollar Kwacha notes. It was all very exciting however the downside to travelling for 12 months is you have to be very selective with your souvenirs so shopping wasn't really on my agenda (as hard as that is for my father to believe!)

We drove about another 3 hours before we reached "The Waterfront" in Livingstone, which is where we would spend the next 4 nights. Because of this longer stay, dad was kind enough to upgrade us at the hotel into a permanent tent which included electricity, beds, pillows and a fan. All these things become such a luxury after using sleeping bags in basic tents, putting them up and down every day for the past 20 days or so.

Next was the decision of optional activities as we had 3 full days in Livingstone to fill in. I chose an adrenaline package of a zipline, giant swing and bungy jump off a bridge in front of Victoria Falls whilst dad chose a helicopter ride over the Falls and a lion encounter experience where you could go and pat the lions and walk with them. There was also the booze cruise, promoted as a "sunset cruise" however we were warned that people rarely remember the sunset. Dad graciously sat this one out because he knew how much I wanted to have a fun night out with my friends and wow was it fun. Unlimited drinks - cocktails, beers, spirits whilst floating down the Zambezi River in search of hippos and crocodiles. I can't recall actually how much hippo searching we did, but I heard the next day that we saw around 5 or 6. As the 2 hour cruise flew by, we pulled up to our campsite, all quite happy and buzzed. What happened after that, was all a bit fuzzy but the photos found the next day (hangover style) suggest that there may have been some dancing behind and ontop of the bar, a quick dip in the pool in front of an audience in our bras and undies, consuming a random man's garlic and feta pizza (so yummy) and a night out on the town of Zambia. Probably not the safest decision to make after about 6 hours of drinking but as our G-Adventures trainee driver Renee always told us - "we're young, we should live in the moment!" I remember that we were the only white people in the 2 clubs that we went to but I'm pretty sure we had a blast. And who might you be wondering was my partner in crime, creating enough mischief with me to keep the whole of the Zambian population entertained … The Danish Dynamite (DD) Pernille. A nickname given to her by these random Austrian guys that we met last time we went out together in Windhoek, Namibia. Absolutely f***ing wild but absolutely f***ing awesome at the same time. I never expected to make such a good friend so quickly. I guess after 22 days of sitting of buses for hours at a time, cooking, eating, cleaning, drinking, swimming, climbing sand dunes, partying and jumping off bridges together - you really get to know someone. Plus this would be the last big night we were going to have together because she was finishing the tour in Livingstone and joining another tour to go back down to Johannesburg 2 days later.

I think we can both say, and so can the other 20 or so people that saw us at the bar that Thursday night, that it was a night we will never forget - well bits of it anyway. However this wasn't quite the same experience for the other member of our Slumber Party team, Seany. The British kid, 5 months younger than me, 1.5 years younger than Pernille. He was the Danish Dynamite's smoking buddy and the only person who really understood how embarrassed I could get sometimes from my dad since he's my age. Usually he's a bit more chilled than us girls which is good because we needed someone like that in the group to even out the balance however we noticed Seany drinking 2-3 drinks to our 1 drink on that booze cruise and we knew this was going to be interesting … As we all stumbled or danced our way off that cruise we all thought we were at the same level. Little did we know Seany was "on another level." After Sean drank cocktails for 2 hours on the boat, he downed another few beers, 3 vodka shots and a bottle of our favourite sweet champagne "JC LE ROUX". Well he managed to drop and smash 2 glasses of that champagne but that's another story. We weren't quite sure what happened to Sean after that, because if he was around we would have made him jump in the pool with us, but apparently he got put to bed by 2 of the more responsible members of the group after dropping a glass ashtray on the bar manager's friends foot. Ha ha ha we can always count on Sean to make us laugh. As he woke up the next morning to realising he'd thrown up all in his tent and on his sleeping bag, we were in nothing but hysterics. It was probably for the best that he didn't come out with us because who knows what would have happened with the 3 of us all "motherless". Usually Sean keeps us tamed. Luckily Sean is staying on the tour for the next 20 days until it ends in Nairobi so even though I've lost my DD, I've got the British Kid to watch "Wolf of Wall St" with me on the 10 hour driving days we have ahead of us.

As we all slowly got our s*** together on Friday morning we realized we needed something major to sober us up and what better way to do this then to jump off a 111m bridge … twice. After a couple of bottles of water, a quick snooze on the toilet for Pernille and a couple hours with a broom and mop for Sean and his tent we got ready to go to the border of Zambia and Zimbawbe as the Victoria Falls Bridge is on mutual territory between the two countries. The first activity of the adrenaline package was the zipline across the top of the cliffs crossing over to the bridge. This was the perfect starting activity to get you prepared for just how high up this bridge was. As well as the power and intensity of those falls, as you could feel the mist from the falls as you were flying across the zipline.

Next was the swing and in my opinion this was the most terrifying of the 3. The first 3-5 seconds of freefalling after you jump off that bridge made me lose all control of my senses and just scream. After I went first, Seany followed and although he didn't scream he definitely lost control of his legs as they were going crazy like he was trying to run away while he was freefalling. Then it was Pernille's turn and to both mine and Sean's surprise she freaked out. I'm pretty confident if I convinced her to do it the night before after that booze cruise she would have been the one going first. However the best part of Pernille is just how easy she is to persuade into s***. "Come sit next to me on the bus"… "ok" …. "come out clubbing in Zambia" … "ok" …. "now let's jump off a bridge" …. "ok" and with that she did it - and some help from her Swedish tent buddy (another good friend of mine) Carolina who offered to do the tandem swing with her. And just like we'd expected, she loved it! Can't say Carolina enjoyed it to much but she is such a brave girl - she did the skydiving the week before. Last but not least was the bungy … something I hadn't done since I was 11 in New Zealand from a 75m bridge. However somehow this was less petrifying than the swing as you could feel the restraints around your ankles. It was absolutely awesome, the best feeling imaginable because you know its just not natural or normal to jump off a bridge. You beat everyone's expectations and of corse your own and have nothing but a sense of accomplishment when it's over. Without hesitiation Pernille jumped off that bridge absolutely loving the bungy whilst Sean couldn't get his head around the whole "jumping head first" thing but no way could he deal with the s*** Pernille and I would have given him if he didn't do it so jumping off that bridge again really was the easy option for him. We even convinced Carolina to jump again which was probably the biggest triumph of the whole day because she really didn't like it! She's the perfect candidate of someone overcoming her fears!

The following day, our last full day with Pernille, we decided to go back and visit Victoria Falls properly. In my opinion this was my favourite part of Livingstone as it was one of those days, just like the day I climbed Dune 45 in Namibia and went swimming in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, that I really pinched myself to realise how lucky I was to be in Africa. These falls were indescribable! I had never experienced such intense power from a waterfall in my life. We were so close, yet so far from them and absolutely drenched within seconds. It was so freaking cool, we couldn't help but take so many selfie photos just to prove that we were standing on the Zambian side of the magnificent Victoria Falls. Luckily we all had our waterproof cameras and ponchos on as we walked across the bridge feeling the force of those falls. There were 3 routes we took - a photographic trail around the top of the falls, the boiling pot route which took you to the bottom of the falls where the rips and currents are so strong its scary and the route with the bridge where you just get soaked and realise that it must always be raining there. It was such an amazing experience, a real "can't believe I'm in Africa" day and such a special way to end the first half of the 40 day African camping tour with my DD and the British Kid.

Catch ya on the flipside!