This is Africa!



The memories and stories have carried on in our final few days in Zimbabwe. On Christmas day, we watched Shaun and Adam bungee jump on the second largest bungee in the world. It was located on the bridge connecting Zimbabwe and Zambia over the Zambezi river. So it was neat walking from one country to the next. After that, we checked into our lodge, and then shortly after headed for a tour of Victoria Falls. Victoria falls is one of the 7 wonders of the natural world, and I must say, it is breathtakingly beautiful. I have been to Niagara Falls, and Vic Falls blows it out of the water. Victoria falls is the tallest falls in the world, and they are between Zimbabwe and Zambia. I must say, they are outstanding. I could probably sit and stare at them for hours! We walked along the falls, taking it all in and snapping photos left, right and centre.



Victoria Falls



After the falls tour, we headed to The Boma, a traditional African restaurant for our not-so-traditional Christmas Dinner. This was our first time as a family going out for Christmas dinner, and our first time not having turkey dinner. Instead we had Kudu, Warthog, Buffalo, and the oh so lovely Morpani worms. Morpani trees are seen throughout Botswana and Zimbabwe, their leaves looking like butterflies. The worms come from this tree, were cooked, and although stated as a “delicacy”, they taste like burnt worms. There was African drumming, singing, and lots of fun. We also paid for Valentine’s family to come join us for dinner, so his wife, Nancy, and 3 children, Brandon (9), Tristan (7), and Neladi (11 months) were there to complete our African Christmas along with the rest of us 12. Early the next morning, Shaun, myself, Sunee, Chris, and Frank were up at 6am for breakfast before river rafting. We headed to the rafting centre to sign our lives away, before we headed out (I found it hilarious that on the waiver form, it asked if you have a psychiatric illness, and if yes, do you have your medications. I laughed but then maybe got a bit worried haha). We got to the Zimbabwe side of the gorge, and we then hiked 750ft down the gorge to the river. The setting for river rafting was breathtaking, along the Zambezi river, nestled in high natural and lush rock walls of the gorge between Zimbabwe and Zambia. River rafting was a blast! They were mostly class 4/5 rapids, but also some points where we were allowed to cliff jump (off a 15ft cliff), and ride out some class 1 rapids in the water. We all fell in at some point along the way, and laughed along the way. I’m just hoping I didn’t catch some form of parasite or illness from the water. Here’s to hoping. After rafting, we then had to hike up the 750ft to the top of the gorge before lunch. We were soaked, sun burnt, tired, and the terrain wasn’t well maintained. It didn’t make for the easiest hike, but it was well worth it. Shortly after river rafting, we got to go hang out with some lions that are in a rehabilitation program called ALERT. It was unreal. The lions are wild, but they were often orphaned cubs. The African lion population has decreased by 80-90% and they need a program to rehab and get lions back into the wild. It is a 4 stage program, where they create prides of lions with orphaned cubs in large natural environments, where the lions can be monitored, but they live in environments with other competing and prey species, so they learn to hunt and kill.  When they mate with other lions in the program, the new lion cubs will not be in contact with humans, and will eventually be realized as a pride into the wild, where there are minimal to no other competing lion prides. It’s pretty awesome. So we ended up petting and walking with 2 sets of lions, 18 month old male and female from the same family, and then 10 month old sisters. It was pretty unreal. Then last night we had an awesome final dinner with our “African family”. It was Sherry’s 50^th birthday, so we ended with cake and shots of Amarulu to celebrate.

So we have left Zimbabwe, left our safari group, and are now back in Joburg for a night. I can’t talk enough about how much we loved Botswana and Zimbabwe. We have seen and learned so much about mother nature and the whole circle of life, but we also were lucky enough to meet and travel with some pretty awesome people from all over the world, and been guided by amazing locals. You are always a little worried when you know that you’re 4 of 12 people in a group, as the other 8 could be weird, antisocial, nit picky, or downright strange, but the other 8 were the best mix of individuals we could have asked for. Even though we had long days where we were tired from being up before the sun, spending the whole day in the heat, and then returning to camp after the sun went down, functioning on sometimes 5-6 hours sleep, there were always stories to share, tales to tell, and we were laughing the whole time. The memories I have from this trip wouldn’t be the same with any other combo of people. There’s one story I have to share, and we are all sad that we didn’t have it on video for youtube, as our (and by our, I mean Chris’) commentary was hilarious. I still laugh thinking about it. When we were in Chobe, driving around in our Safari truck, we came across a huge group of baboons. We were watching and taking photos of them, when there was 2 baboons right beside the vehicle grooming eachother. It started off as a very G-rated simple grooming, until the male turned over on all fours, and the simple interaction went from G to X-rated pretty quickly, and the baboon got a nice “rub and tug” from his lady. I guess it’s all natural fun, but we were killing ourselves laughing, and from then on, made jokes about “Baboon Style”. Still funny as I think of it! That’s the scene they left out of the Lion King.

As much fun as we did have as a group, as awesome and outstanding this trip has been this far, and as much as the grand scheme of life seems to make so much more sense, there are certain things that can only be explained by a 3 word sentence: “This is Africa”. These are things that didn’t make or break the trip, but just made you shrug your shoulders and chuckle. For example, the internet doesn’t work when it rains, nobody is on time, people are either early or late, and taking their time in between. ATMs and credit card transactions seem to only work sometimes, and I seem to be able to be better versed with the VISA machine than the people working there, and I’ve never used one in my life. We have paid for things in South African rand, US dollars, Botswana Pula, and other currency, and everyone seems to be okay with it. Getting stuck in the mud, or mechanical problems seem to be a way of life. Your skin seems to peel every time you touch it due to the layers of sunscreen, bug spray, and dirt on your skin. No matter how much sunscreen you have on, the African sun gets you every time. The water is either boiling hot or freezing cold. You have daily interactions with monkeys and baboons, who try to steal your food and objects by dropping sticks, or throwing things to sneak in. You don’t get bit by mosquitos in the thick of the bush, but in the “city” of Victoria falls, you get eaten alive. Electricity seems to work only some of the times, and the plugs and converters needed were inconsistent. Or the fact that the Victoria falls airport had two large flights to Joburg scheduled for the same time, checking in probably 300 people, and their waiting room at departure gate 1&2 (the only departures gates that are maybe 10 ft apart) maybe seats 50. Hilarious. It’s a different world over here, and the African people have been amazingly hospitable, hilarious, fun and constantly reminding us that “This is Africa”. 

So we are now back in Joburg for the night, and we’ve taken on our next challenge of renting a car and we are driving to Hazyview in the morning. Hazyview is just outside of Kruger National park. People drive on the other side of the road here, so our adventures continue, and it should be fun! Hope all is well at home, and everyone is enjoying some quality time with family and friends around the holidays! We miss and love you all! I've posted a few photos below for you to enjoy! Cheers! Xoxo



Hungry hungry hippos

Angry Angry Hippos

Scary Scary Hippos

So Awesome!

Beautiful Lion

Beautiful Zebras 

Elephants!

Giraffes!

A 2-3 day old dumbo! So cute!



He was adorable!