Food

The meal the night before was amazing - im normally a very fussy eater and hate anyone cooking veggie food for me as I mostly don't really eat vegetables etc so knowing that someone is preparing a meal especially for you using just veg is quite a scary thing - however the food over the next two days, breakfast, lunch and a 3 course dinner was FANBLOODYTASTIC!

Our room

A little wooden hut on stilts on the edge of the zambezi, twin beds under a massive mozzi net, two little chairs and a lovely slightly rustic bathroom. There were no windows which made waking up a treat due to looking straight out on to the water. The Hippo chuckling all night, though i'm not sure what they were laughing at brought a smile to my face. At 2:30am there is silence - no hippo, no monkeys, not even a cricket stirs. The night sky is a blaze with stars and we actually see the milky way - for those who just thought it was a chocolate bar or something talked about in science - it really does exist.

Day one

We headed with our driver Peter, to the airport to sort or flight for the trip north (not there wasn't the option of a bus just we only had 10 days left) We sorted out where to get a car and price but couldnt book it and so we were feeling very pleased with oursleves.

We then headed to a market, where we were harassed by locals selling goods for about an hour, the market was a whole st but sadly we didn't manage to get more than half way down, we bought a few items and left as there is only so long you can bare people dragging you into their stall and showing random bits of printed paper and gems - there were some beautiful pieces though and we would have possibly bought more if it hadn't been for the constant asking 'how much we wanted to pay, where you from and let me just show you one more thing!'

Off then to Victoria falls - also know as Vic falls, clever!

We walked around the top and saw the rainbows through the falls even from the top we were getting the spray - this is the high time for the fall when they are at there most impressive. As we ventured down the path we came along some baboons - all I can say is...whats wrong with their bums?!?

We put on a small poncho and then a thick rain proof poncho neither of which were any real use other than possibly keeping my belt slightly dry. It was immense!!! I was already soaked before crossing the bridge...it was like standing having buckets of water, gallons poured over you. As we got across to the Zimbabwe side you could really appreciate the size of them - but you also have to appreciate that your shoes are brimming with water and every step you take has your socks squelching like you're walking in suction.

After the falls we went and got changed, and stumbled across a little shop by the toilets so popped and bought some more bits in quiet, then we were heading back to the lodge for dinner but asked if we could pop into the orphanage on the way back on the off chance they would let us have a look round. They did and it was fantastic - clean and full of loving workers. The babies were beautiful, all of their mothers had died in labour and were now being looked after there. The orphange looked after them until they were 25 years old, educated them well and put them through university, the head teacher of the school they all attend had been an orphan their herself. No child is adopted here, they grow up as a family, as when children get adopted and others don't the children left ask the question 'why does no1 want me?' so it was flet better to keep them all together. Each house had a 'mother' who looked after them and cared for their needs like a mother would.

Back at the lodge we had a yummy lunch and went back to the room for an hour before our cruise, where we were joined by Philipa and William from NZ, now I have a lot of nice things to say about people from NZ normally but these two were a right pair of t***!

The pair of t***!

Philipa and William were touring all the hotspots of Botwswana, Zambia, Malawi and Zibabwe in 2 weeks, they were stuck up and all around a bit nobby. Generally rude to the staff and rather abrupt. They never said please or thank you and spent the entire evening and boat trip holding hand and sharing a quick kiss - well im sorry you have a room, use it! Me and mum decided that they we're either newly weds or having an affaire as no1 that age these days is normally that bloody happy! Anyone i did feel sorry for them when they spoke about the earthquake in NZ, but after an hour of talking about it and her wedding crystal that had broken I was almost left wishing the ground would open up beneathe me.

The Cruise

We saw the happy hippo family that had been chuckling to themselves ever since we got there and some baboon and poorly elephant, which i can't type about because it upsets us, and a crocodile. More bad bummed baboons and plenty of birds. It was lovely and we watched the sun set, Guy a lad from england on his gap yr staying doing elephant research also came he was lovley too. We had a drink - me a gin and some food was provided which I passed as when out on the water the last thing you really fancy as a snack is a curried egg, nor really want to smell. All in all watching the sun set as we drifted a long together was wonderful. You just had to block the crap coming out of Philipas mouth out.

Great food and bed time, with the smelling bongos. These are small little insects that do not harm you but if you step on them they release a awful smell, they weren't actually called smelly bongos but thats what we called them.

Day 2

Up as usual, sadly Philipa and William did join us for breakfast and we managed to talk a bit about wedding crystal for a chnage, thank god we were leaving them to get soaked at Vic falls, I swear if that woman would have slipped through the bars then the world would be a quieter happier place.

We took a village walk with Levi, a guy from the lodge we learnt a lot about the way of life and what they are going to be fund raising for - most of the river lodges have people from this village who work for them and they help them to set the village up, at the moment Lizann and john who ran our lodge are helping with plans and funding for a new school and water system. The people were great and the village was beautiful, minimal and sparse but well looked after and had great community spirit - a few children follwed us shouting something - which turned out to be 'WHITES!' Which is possibly a little racist but we didn't point it out as the term 'Is it cuz we is white?" would have not only fallen on deaf ears and confused eyes but just been responded to with a simple 'yes!'

After this we went back for lunch, luckily in silence and then headed with our bags to airport which was very sad but we did manage to get a quick trip into the Livingstone museum which if you don't know who David Livingstone is - read a god dam book!

Last few things

Mum taught a lesson at the school which i think shows how clever these children are as they were able to actually guess what her drawing were - pretty cryptic i thought but they go it!

I was very polite and said goodbye to Pipa and William

Mum had a crush on Guy - which is a bit sick as he's 19 so i'd having to talk to her about appropriate relationships

Baboons bums are just odd

I wanted to spend forever at the lodge

and please wait on bated breath for my blog of the plane journey because if you thought the bus journey was funny you'll need a oxygen mask for the plane trip!