After my night in the dorm from hell, I attempted to have a sleep in today, but it was no point. The people I was sharing with were too noisy and it was already stinking hot. I got up and proceeded to help George with getting us sorted for our departure to Botswana tomorrow. I drew up the new duty roster and then we went shopping in town to stock the truck back up again.

I got back around 1pm and George and I had lunch, then I proceeded to wait for Cat, Kate and Woody so we could get on our way to walk over to Zambia. Why would we do such a thing I hear you ask? So we can swim in the Devil's pool at the top of Victoria Falls, that's why. We left at about 2pm and proceeded to walk out of town, Cat forgot here passport so she had to run back to Shoe Strings in the heat to get it, while Kate, Woody and I waited at the bank.

When Cat returned we walked over to the Zambian border, which was less than 1km away from where we were. We bought a twenty four hour visa for Zambia and crossed into no-man's land which just seemed to go on forever. I was still sore from the rafting and I was having trouble keeping up with the others. We finally reached the bridge over the gorge and crossed it. We walked over the border and then had to find the Royal Livingstone hotel. We found a place called the Falls, which was joined to the Royal Livingstone and got their internal shuttle over to the right hotel, I was very grateful for this as it was quite a drive and we were running a bit late.

The group going over to Livingstone island were beginning to assemble on the decking, but Cat and I couldn't resist a cheeky swim in the magnificent pool in the amazing grounds, which looked like something out of colonial Africa. We got dressed over our wet swimmer and handed over our vouchers to the guy on the decking and then got into a boat to take us over to the island. It is now low water on the Zambezi and I couldn't believe how different the scene was. In 2010, this part of the river had been a raging torrent and we had needed two outboard motors on the boat to fight the current, now there was barely a disturbance in the water's surface and small rocky island protruded from the river.

We reached Livingstone island, which was dry and dusty, previously it had been like a rain forest with mist everywhere. I knew I was going to be swimming in a different pool to last time, but I was not prepared for the fact that the pool I had swum in two years ago with the Dragomaniacs was now completely dried up and the area was now a rocky outcrop. We had to walk a fair way across the top of the falls to get to Devil's pool, and at one point I had to take my shoes off and my knee and legs started giving me real trouble again. We had to swim the last part, before crawling up onto another rocky outcrop, where we could see the pool.

This pool was just as close to the edge of the falls as the other pool, only instead of having the weight of the swollen Zambezi river crashing down on you, the water was still and the pool was deep and I felt relatively safe. Even when one of the local guys we were with helped me up onto the very edge and then held my feet while I looked down into the abyss. Even this was different, two years ago, if you looked over the falls, it was just a void, of mist (the locals do call the falls, Smoke that Thunders) now I could see the bottom of the gorge and the river below.

We swam around at the top of the falls for about twenty minutes, before we went back to the safari tent overlooking the dried up rocky area for high tea. I ordered a Pimm's and lemonade, which they made far, far too strong and I had to get more lemonade off them an ate various finger food, before going back to the Royal Livingstone on the boat.

We got the internal shuttle back to the Falls hotel and had a drink at their more modern bar, I still preferred the Royal Livingstone's old world charm though. We then walked back across the border into Zimbabwe and hitched a ride on the back of a ute back to town. Cat, Woody and Kate took a short cut back but I walked a different way owing to the fact that I wanted an Icee. I arrived back at Shoe Strings and the group were having a BBQ to farewell the people leaving and to welcome the new arrivals. I stayed up quite late drinking and even had one of the local guys putting dreadlocks in Jonah's hair to give me a single dread in the back of my hair, George also got a single dread.

My plan wasn't really to get drunk tonight, only to stay awake until midnight because this is when the bar closed and the music stopped, eliminating on obstacle to me sleeping. Unfortunately, my mosquito repellent didn't really do very much and I spent the night being eaten alive, I really would prefer a tent to a dorm.