Hi all,

Am now in Livingstone, in Zambia, staying at a beautiful campsite on the edge of the river Zambezi. We arrived here late Sunday after a few days of long and bumpy driving over the pot holey roads of Southern Africa. Crossing the border into Zambia was pretty straight forward, although slightly painful as about a week ago they decided to start charging British people $150 dollars for a visa, whereas before it was free. Ah well, this is Africa. We've hit the rainy season now too, we'd been lucky with the weather up till now, apart from the odd shower. In Malawi, there were a couple of awesome storms that we saw in the distance, before they reached us with a bang. Putting down a tent in the dark, at 5am, in the heaviest rain I've ever seen was an experience I'm unlikely to forget in a while, but it was better than i thought it would be. The last night we spent in Malawi, was at an empty campsite (the 10 of us were the only ones there, apart from one other couple) and it rained from about 5pm until we left the following day. So that evening was spent sat at the bar, while it rained heavily and the power came and went. It was like a scene from a horror movie. There were a couple of days when my feet didn't get the chance to dry out and I thought I would get trench foot, but you'll be glad to hear it's all ok now! :-) All good fun, and hey at least my feet got a good wash! The waterproof poncho I brought with me has turned out to be the best (although least stylish) item of clothing I own here. The weather did get to a few people but it didn't really dampen my spirits (pardon the pun) as I'm just still excited to be here. It's better now we're in Livingstone, as the weather's perked up and we're here for 4 days and are able to do loads of activities, instead of sitting on a truck.

We're actually just down river of Mosi O Tunya (the smoke that thunders), otherwise known as Victoria Falls. We went to see them on Sunday and they are quite simply breath taking; just so beautiful and powerful. The noise is incredible and the spray that it gives off is as heavy as the rain we put our tents down in the other day. This morning I took a helicopter ride over the falls with a couple of friends and I'm so glad I did, as it just gave a completely different view of them. I'm going up in a microlight this afternoon over them too - yay! I've also signed up for a bungee jump, gorge swing and cable slide over the Zambezi tomorrow. Why, I'm not sure! :-)
We're leaving here on thursday for the final week. We'll be travelling through Botswana then finally to South Africa.

Hope you're all well. Happy birthday to Tommy and congratulations to Carolyn and Alex.
xxx