I went to Africa not thinking that there would be any nightlife or much drinking of any form. Oh, how I was wrong!

On a Saturday night we would go to a bar called Shoes Strings, it was one of the coolest bars I have ever been to. There were bright colours everywhere, chandeliers made out of cutlery, quirky little chairs and benches, a swing coming down from a tree, a couple of pool tables and best of all a dance floor.

This bar had the best music ever; a little bit of everything! I have never danced so much! I absolutely loved that I could dance in my jeans, top and boots instead of the usual dress and heels for a change! Not only was it an amazing atmosphere but the drinks were dirt cheap - always a bonus! The lovely thing about shoestrings is that it wasn't just tourists, there was locals as well, so we would all intermingle and find out about each others lives.

We were at the lodge so long that we made really good friends with the lodge owner, Brent (miss you!). He was absolutely lovely, so I advise any one who goes travelling to make friends with the big guys because it will make your time where you are even more amazing. For example, Brent had a boat that we went on a few times. We'd buy some beer and vodka (which was around $4.00 dollars for a litre!) and head off to the boat on the Zambezi.

About 12 of us would pile into a truck to get to where the boats were. We'd sail the boat to a bay covered in white sand, set up a table and chairs and with a beer in hand wait to watch the sun go down. The nights we did this will honestly be the most memorable. The word perfection comes to mind!

One thing I don't recommend doing is going to one of the 'local bars'. One night one of the guys working at the lion project offered to take a couple of us. There were six of us altogether. When we got there we walked through the door and I'm not even joking when I say every single head in the place turned and starred at us. It was like they had never seen a white person before. I felt extremely uncomfortable. We walked to the bar and straight away a guy came up to me, Fed and Sarah and offered to buy our drinks, we ended up getting three or four free drinks each, which, granted, is always nice but still feeling awkward we tried to leave as soon as possible and head to our favourite place - SHOESTRINGS. Once again we had a remarkable night.

When our projects were finished on weekdays and we'd have our dinner (if you can call it that), we'd go to the bar, get the beers in and just chill, there was even a pool table at the lodge, which I was definitely the master of! Most nights we'd also get the cards out and play a game of 'Burro' (meaning donkey is Spanish).

'Burro' is probably one of the most dangerous card games I have ever played. In a nutshell it is the Spanish version of 'spoons'; instead of grabbing spoons you slap the table and then hands get slapped on top of yours. I probably have some battle wounds from this game. The most terrible part of this card game is that the person who lost had to do a forfeit. The forfeits ranged from me having to poor water down myself to Sarah having to jump into the freezing cold pool at night.

I am a very competitive person, and although I don't like to admit it I was terrible at this game, and most of the time I lost, until Fernando and I worked out a brilliant way to cheat at the game so we almost never lost (sorry to all other volunteers who have just found out that we cheated A LOT).

The nightlife in Zimbabwe is obviously completely different from England; you wouldn't dream of wearing heels! All I can say is that each night had been hysterical yet so laidback. I would absolutely love to be out on the Zambezi having a beer right now. Africa truly does get under your skin; I can't wait to go back because I know I will do at some point in the future!