Well last night turned out to be a wild one, these African booze cruises are not a good thing. Phoebe and I weren't feeling too well this morning eak, we slept in though so it was a very rushed breakfast before getting a taxi with Serge, Una, Nicole, Geoff, Randa and Phoebe to The Royal Livingstone hotel to experience The Devils Pool.

What a fantastic experience this was. The Devils Pool is a section right at the top of the falls where you can go swim and actually look over the top. I thought we were going on a swimming trip, but it turned out to be an adrenaline pumping experience, hehe. To start with we were taken on a small boat to Livingstone Island where a guide took us right to the top of the falls and we walked along edge. This trip is only available at low water season between October and February, because the island is under water during the high water season. It was unbelievable, we then had to swim for a bit through the current to another small island, if you weren't a good swimmer you would be at the bottom of the waterfall in seconds. A very scary thought. We all made it to the island and walked over the rocks to the edge, this is where we were given the opportunity to jump from the rocks into a pool that had a current running through it. What was special about this pool was that it had a wall about 3 metres long that the water went over, therefore we had to jump into the centre of the pool and swim straight to the wall so we had something to hold on to. I went first to jump in, I hesitated for a second because it actually was pretty scary but when I had reached the wall it was amazing. A complete dream chill axing in a pool at the top of Victoria Falls. After the 7 of us were in, the guide then took hold of our feet one by one, and gave us the opportunity to hang over the top of the falls. I put my hands in the current and went so far forward I could see the bottom of the gorge. CRAZY!!! We were only given 20minutes in the pool as the next group was waiting, we managed to persuade our guide to give us another shot hanging over the edge before we had to get out. Una and Serge were in there late 60's and managed it too, the 7 of us had an amazing time. Swam back through the currents and part of the trip was breakfast on Livingstone Island. It wasn't a normal camp breakfast, it was more like brunch and we had eggs benedict, scones and muffins! Of course this trip was from the 5* hotel so it was a 5* brunch!!!

Well what else can I say about Devils Pool..! Just google it and watch You Tube videos so you can understand what we were doing :)

Of course it's Mum's birthday today, so when we got back to The Waterfront I managed to get working wifi so phoned Mum and wished her happy birthday! Was really good catching up because it had been more than a week since I last spoke to anyone from home. There was more goodbyes this morning with Serge, Una, Sarah, Gerrard, Stephan and Yan heading home today :(

After passing through The Royal Livingstone hotel in the morning for the Devils Pool, we decided we would go back there for a 'High Tea' and spend some time in such a beautiful hotel. We had a relaxing few hours, which I managed to do a lot of washing and sort out my big rucksack. We all showered and got dressed up before Randa, Nicole, Phoebe, Geoff and I got a taxi to The Royal Livingstone at 3pm!!!

Well what can I say... there was a zebra grazing the lawn next to the swimming pool when we arrived and it stayed the whole afternoon. High Tea was with Royal Albert china cups, tea pots and plates, then the selection of mini quiches, sandwiches, smoked salmon and cakes was unbelievable. I took loads of photos so will show you all when I'm home :) Doug and Verginia also were there for High Tea and we were all meant to get taxi's back in time for our next tour welcome meetings.

Instead we all postponed out taxi's and had cocktails on the decking at the bottom of the lawn, on the bank of the Zambezi watching the sunset, with someone playing the flute and the zebra walking right next to us. It was bliss, fantastic company and so many laughs.

We had to drag ourselves away, to show face at our meetings :( Today was the day 16 new people arrived to join our group and 5 of our old group joined the Jo'berg trip. We went straight to the bar to get a few drinks for the meeting, and the 6 'oldies' in the group stuck together at the back. It was a quick meeting and everyone introduced themselves but the group doesn't look anything like our last group :( This was Chris's first day as a guide rather than a driver hehe but he didn't pretty well.

The evening was then spent in the bar area at The Waterfront with everyone that was left from our old group and the last night we had with Greg our guide. It was another great night, with loads of fun and quite a few ciders :)

Every night back packing is a Saturday night!! But tonight was a Saturday so it was all good. xxx