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hello there everybody, happy new year!
so then.... what have we been upto. well nothing much just microlighting, white-water rafting, swimming on the edge of Victoria FAlls. oh and yachting and climbing Table Mountain.
Microlighting was fantastic- even though i was extremely hungover from a big night out the night before. We'd planned for a quite night but some mad kayakers dragged us out, thank goodness it wasn't the night before white water rafting otherwise i doubt that we'd have made it. Being up in the sky in a 'paper plane' (as the German guy on our truck put it) was brilliant, it was like a contraption from chitty chitty bang bang but it glided so smoothly and being up in the air with very little to hold you in was really exciting-360 degree vision-fantastic!
The day of christmas eve we spent white water rafting- yes we actually made it out alive even though at some points when we were trapped under the boat and being dragged through grade 5 rapids it didn't feel like we would. Even the first rapid of the day was hard work, it took us six attempts and a flip to make it through! We got flipped three times in total, which out of 23 rapids grade3-5 (5 being one of the hardest rapids anyone can do) isn't bad going. The third flip was the most spectacular-we've got photies to prove it! We had a choice of routes to choose and we opted for the hardest which was hard work but great fun at the same time especially when the boat did a James Bond style flip up in the air and we all came tumbling out and got washed down river. Bridgey the hypercondriat thought she'd broken her nose-thats what nursing does to you! (Bridgey has requested that i add that she did get smacked in the face by an oar, soory paddle, whilst being under water-think shes after some sympathy.) Even our guide came flying out of the boat at that rapid which served him right as he'd previously been showing off by playing air guitar at the edge of the boat. At one point we had to get out of the boat and walk around rapid 9-aptly named 'commercial suicide', as it was a grade 6 rapid that only professionals could go down. The first half of the morning was the most intense two of the people from our boat left half way through the day, our replacement being a 60 year old who didn't know the difference between paddling backwards and forwards-good on her for doing it though-nan we'll get you rafting the Zambezi if it kills us! The afternoon was tamer-except rapid 13, Jo's favourite it was like being in a liferaft on a stormy sea! We even got chance to swim (through our own choice), we even saw crocs (not where we were swimming though). Pulling each other into the boat was hilarious, lets say we got alittle up close and personal with some of our fellow rafters-not through our own choice, rather through falling on top of each other. Although we'd made it through the Zambezi alive we still had the cable car ride left which was a rather dodgy contraption that wouldn't look out of date at the Black Country museum-it was a rickety cart that looked like something they pulled coal up out of the mines in. We ended the day by watching our spectacular flip over and over again on a dvd that the rafting guys had made.
Christmas day was spent on Livingstone island looking over the edge of Victoria falls, even jumping into the pool of water which flowed over the 108m drop. The rest of the day was abit more relaxed eating pancakes and visiting an orphanage where we sang christmas songs and shared a Zambian style christmas dinner.
A quick note to anyone visiting Zambia never bring Mastercard, or HSBC cards for that matter they don't work!!!!!!!!!!!!
Left Zambia and headed to Namibia on Intercape bus, it was a whirlwind tour (well not quite it involved 20hour bus journey-twice!)but we wanted to make Cape Town for New Year. We stopped off briefly in Windhoek (capital of Namibia), it's got a heavy German influence in terms of food, housing and interbread people. (Only playing, they were just peculiar). On our second Intercape journey we had the pleasure of being upgraded to a sleepliner which meant that we could actually move in our chairs-wooo! It would have been a more pleasent journey if it wasn't for being couped up with an annoying little girl who insisted on stealing Bridgeys book and prodding her feet for the whole 20 hours!
Cape Town-yey-we made it! The day of New Years eve we spent at the Victoria and Alfred waterfront (we thought of you Uncle Don). It was really expensive there but had a brilliant summer atmosphere as there was lots of traditional live music and was buzzing with people. We also visited the Robbin Island museum and learnt about its uses as a leproseum, army training ground for black men and white women and also the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. We also had a look around the craft market which we had hoped would be traditional crafts but which actually turnede out to be like the 'Good home and food show' at the NEC.
New Years eve we spent at a really cool bar in Cape Town called 'Zula bar' where we spent the evening dancing to live R'n'B (real R'n'B dad) and regee- JAkey you would have loved it! We danced until we could dance no more then headed home.
New Years day we spent on Camps beach getting sunburnt and trying to avoid the mass of people-locals move out of the area for the whole day because its so manic as we later found out. It would have been a beautiful beach if it wasn't for all the people and the freezing Atlantic sea despite which we continued to go in and jump the humungous waves. well... that was until everyone was told to get out of the sea as a shark had been spotted swimming near by.
Since we were in CApe Town we thought it only right that we got out our walking boots once again and climbed Table Mountain! We're we mad! What a climb! Mind you the view over the city was worth it. We hadn't endured quite enough pain so we thought we'd climb down again and we're still aching a week or so later! We've also been living it up on a yacht (well for an hour), we saw a massive fish (and we mean massive)-it was a Sun Fish, they eat jellyfish and come to the surface to extract the poision- see dad we have learnt something!
We also gave our selves a birthday treat and went to the theatre to see 'Stomp' (sorry dad and Zo we couldn't wait any longer and seen as it was there it felt like it was a sign). The performance was amazing! They made fantastic sounds out of plastic water bottles, bin lids, brooms and even the kitchen sink (no joke). Talk about imaginative-everybody must go and see it.
We've also been touring around alittle- we went to Cape Point and the Cape of Good hope which is the most southern westerly part of Africa. We also went to see the penguin colony (yes penguins in Africa)at Simons town and went for a bike ride through the Cape's nature reserve. Oh and a bit more walking seen as we haven't done much for a while.
Next stop we're off to Jefferys Bay for surfing, then Durban and Swaziland on the Baz bus. We're also going to Port Elizabeth on the 10th and Port Edward on the 13th just incase these dates ring a bell to anyone. Not quite sure why they would!
And talking of birthdays...... HAPPY BIRTHDAY to.... Granny, Grandad, Rach and Andy. And a belated happy birthday and hope you had a nice day to aunty Maureen.
Love you all lots, speak to you soon. XXX
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