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hello! i'm gonna skip the past 2-3 weeks of life and blog about them at some point in the near future. right now spring break is fresh on my mind, so here we go.
we were to be picked up at 4:50 am on friday on our street corner to drive to the cape town airport and fly to johannesburg. i finished a paper that i had due that day at 442 am, so i didn't wake up susie and jamal until then. i mostly wanted to entertain myself by having them freak out that they only have a few minutes to get going...it was hilarious. i packed quite light because jamal forgot to pick up my 3 loads of laundry, also hilarious. i actually ended up not needing much extra than what i could find. the check in at the airport was so african...our bus of 50 or so basically just piled all of our luggage in one spot without dealing with serious security. TIA. our airline, "1time" was totally crotch and the flight was annoying but only a couple of hours. we arrived in Jo'burg (lots of theft at this airport) and got onto the overland vehicles which were waiting outside for us. there was the lion truck (27 people, including myself), and the elephants truck (another 20-25). we spent almost all of the first day driving. i kept getting whiplash from falling asleep and having my head thrashed around. the back of the truck looked like a normal bus but in the front the seats formed a U shape around a table. we were lucky to have a radio and an ipod connector, which worked whenever it wanted. only a couple of hours into the drive it was already getting really hot and the air became dry and hazy. we stopped at the Botswana border to get our passports stamped; the officials scrutinized my israeli passport and kept talking amongst themselves about it. spent the rest of the ride sleeping and staring out the window at desert like scenery. we arrived at our first camp site around dinnertime, which was way more snazzed out than i expected. it had a pool and a bar and other nice accomodations...we slept in one of the dining rooms on the floor. we were served a good dinner of something delicious and crashed early to wake up at 5 am the following day. had a small breakfast (teaand some rusks, which are basically hard crumbly biscuits) and hit the road to drive all day again. stopped for a bigger breakfast of eggs and such once people were actually functional.also stopped in the town of Maun to purchase bottled water and snacks. lots of people were selling crap on the streets and asking us for food/money. we had tuna salad for lunch in the scorching heat. i should mention that we had a cook, Morris, traveling with us to prepare our meals. food groups of about 4-5 people were assigned to help with preparation and cleanup of each meal. by the end of the trip my main role seems to have been grating the cheese. susie and i took a walk toward a donkey and its owners, who were a bunch of young cute kids. the desert area around us was a free range bathroom, girls on the left and guys on the right. classy. we continued driving until reaching our second campsite, another one fully equipped. took a freezing swim in the pool and a hot shower. woke up relatively early to pack our daypacks for the next 2 days, before heading out to the Okavango Delta. trucks came to pick us up right from the campsite and we had to squeeze all of our things, including tents and sleeping matresses and food. the ride to the delta was awesome. children and families would always wave from their dwellings. we passed a ton of animals and our truck kept brushing up against trees so i soon gave up on leaning against the railing. we arrived at the delta to be greeted by the people who would be taking us to our little island in their kmoro boats, which are basically like canoes. most are made of wood though some from fiberglass and last about 5 years. each canoe held two people, along with their sleeping bags and backpacks. the kmoro drivers stood at the back and 'drove' the kmoros for about 2 hours while we sat/lay in them. for these 2 days we were separated from the Elephants, who had a different camp site on an island nearby. and kmoro ride was amazing, we saw an elephant pretty close by and our driver, Slay, taught us to make cool necklaces using a water lily. we arrived on our deserted island and went for a cold swim in clean water. the bottom was covered with mush and weeds that came up to my waistline. while dinner was being started, we were taken on short walks in groups to look for animals. now this is the africa that everyone envisions. morris cooked up a bomb dinner which was to be eaten with our hands, and which i'll recreate upon arrival back home. susie and i decided to sleep outside, and so did a bunch of others. we actually didn't even bring a tent with us because we were told the stars would be incredible and sleeping outside is the way to go. the stars indeed were unlike i've ever seen them before, they were as low as the horizon and covered the entire sky above us. however only a couple of hours into my sleep it became absolutely freezing. i tried to move closer to the fire but it was burning out so i was covered in smoke by morning. didn't sleep all night due to cold temps, but i was too tired to fully wake up and go share a tent. i kept hearing crazy animals noises nearby and the wind was out of control. we were woken up at 6 am to split into groups and go for long walks to observe animals. the walk was awesome but i felt like i was sleepwalking because i was so tired. i kept tripping over myself and other people. oiy. as soon as we got back i passed out in the sun. some ladies that came with us were wearving bracelets our of weeds and selling them to us. ate eggs for breakfast and lounged in the sun for most of the day until it was too hot and we went for a swim. i got to learn how to drive a kmoro. the sticks that they use are really long and hard to manage, but i did alright. played lots of hacky sack until i fell in the water while trying to catch it. got owned by a thorny bush that was in my way...more people than i thought witnessed the show. took a kmoro ride to watch the sunset and observe some hippoes. at night around the fire the locals danced and sang for us and we tried to reciprocate but they didn't seem too entertained. in the morning we saw that only about 500 feet away from our tents there was a bloody mess of intestines and a zebra's tongue....hyenas did the damage. we got back in the kmoros as we parted with the delta. the ride back in the open truck to our campsite was quite abusive. we weren't sitting on the driver's side so he clearly didn't care that our side kept brushing up against everything on the side of the road. one time i was too slow to put my hand back inside the truck and got some nice bloody scratches from the trees. packed up our own trucks and headed back to Maun for some more water/snacks/ and booze that we were told to buy for a sunset cruise the following night. arrived at another nice camp area but unfortunately the showers were cold. instead of a fire pit we had some akward lamp. the bar/outside dining area was way too fancy for camping. on my way back to the tent, lacking a flashlight, i faceplanted over a road block. now that was painful...especially the next day. talk about accident prone. sleeping in the tent was at least nice and cozy. woke up earllly to drive to the new camp site, at Chobe National Park. Susie and a couple of others designed tshirts for all the Lions which turned out pretty cool. at around 4 pm we got onto our senset cruise, which was great for seeing animals up close. got drunk within an hour. returned to the campsite and chatted with locals about botswana. woke up super early on my own in an attempt to battle my unexpected hangover. tried to help morris make breakfast but got splattered with burning oil on my arm. left the campsite early to make our way across the border to Zambia. we arrived at the ferry station and were given priority to cross the Zambezi river to zambia. pretty sad considering many people have been standing in lines there for days. when we got back on the bus we were followed by locals who were trying to sell souveneirs. i ended up trading my dirty, damp, smoky towel and a hair tie (yes, that's what they wanted) for a carved hippo. drove a short couple of hours until arriving to our final camp site at Victoria Falls. The campsite was huge and a big touristy place, as people would stay there and do a lot touristy stuff they have to offer. We had a briefing about all the acitivities and i signed up for white water rafting on friday and a lion encounter in Zimbabwe on saturday. Most people signed up for that combination, though some went with riding elephants, bunjee jumping, etc. Our African rand is worth s*** in Zambia so i was lucky to have some american dollars which made everything way cheaper. we pitched our tent for the last time and i got chased by monkeys that would hang around and steal our food. went for a quick swim in the cold pool and ventured at to see Victoria falls from the zambian site. the falls were beautiful and since we had plenty of time to explore, susie, alex, and i went around different trails and got to see even cooler views. on our way our we stopped at the market which was a complete ripoff because of the mass of tourists that go there. at night we went to the bar and i managed to pay 14 u.s dollars for 3 double drinks. those who had rand were ripped off majorly. our tent was infested with mosquitos at nighttime and i got bugbites for the first time on the trip. woke up early to go white water rafting. after practicing in our raft with our intructor, boyd, and 6 other girls, we thought we were ready to go. he flipped the boat on us a bunch of times before we started and made us rescue eachother out of the water to practice various scenarious. after the first rapid i understood that he wasn't kidding. this is one of the scariest things i've ever done, and so much fun. most of the time we floated/paddled on calm water and enjoying the gorges and amazing scenery around us. before we reached each rapid boyd would tell us how to manuever it, the class of the rapid, and the % chance that our raft would flip over. the first one, class 5, blew all of us out of the water and scared me pretty bad. i was underwater for what felt like forever until i finally popped up short of breathe. a little glimpse into what drowning must feel like. it took us all a few rapids to get used to the fact that we're gonna get our asses kicked so we might as well enjoy it. some were only class 2 or 3...that's not to say the raft can't flip over, but if you paddle fast and hard through it, it's doable without being drenched. i spent most of the trip sitting at the front with ashley, so we really got to feel the rush. there were a total of 25 rapids but we weren't allowed to do #9 , and i understood why when i saw it. the thing looked evil. we got out of the boat and walked around it. after #10 we had a light lunch before proceeding. apparentely they used to do a big cookout for lunch but because people who get lathargic from eating and sometimes vomit, they decided to take it easy. good idea i must say. the second half of the rafting was a lot more chill, still some crazy rapids but not as deadly as the first ones. let me briefly discuss rapid #8. i believe it was class 4-5, and i remember boyd telling us we have to paddle for our lives through it so that we don't flip over. i remember paddling as hard as i could and everyone screaming at eachother to paddle harder. then i saw a s***load of water come over our raft and we instantly flipped over. i was projectile thrown out onto the water far from our raft. my head came up immediately but the current was so strong that it just owned me for the next few minutes. i think i swallowed half the river while being owned by the zambezi. everyone else managed to get back on the raft relatively soon after. we had professional extreme kayakers follow us throughout the trip for rescue missions. i was floating alongside one of the other girls for a few seconds before the kayaker paddled over to us and screamed at us to grab the front/back of his kayak. i was told to grab the back but right as i did the current ripped me away from it. eventually i managed to make it onto a raft that wasn't my group, and shorly after i returned to mine. needless to say it was quite the mess but awesome. i was burping water for the next 24 hours. boyd sometimes liked to mess with us and flip our boat on purpose. one time he pretended to panic and told us we have to get out quickly and grab onto the rope around the boat (better known as the 'oh s***' line). we all freaked out and did as we were told, and once in the water he was just standing alone in the raft and laughing at us. a couple of times we were allowed to get us and swim/let the current carry us as we floated on our backs. for many of the rapids we would also have to duck and hold onto the oh s*** line while the water splashed over us and we attempted to prevent flippage. a couple of girls suffered from nose bleeds, and i have quite a few bruises from paddles and such. the sun and wind were hot so no matter how soaked we got, we dried almost instantly. we returned to the campsite to watch a long video of our adventure, which actually made it seem quite badass. everyone was exhausted and went to bed early. i woke up feeling congested and lame. i figured it must be because of the cool water/hot temp mixture from rafting. we crossed into zimbabwe, got more stamps in our passport, and arrived at the Lion Encounter site. This place is a conservation park which is actually really cool and does great things. The lions were unreal and the entire experience was very exciting. On our way back we went to a famous trading market, where frequently you can trade clothing and other things for souveneirs. it was approximately a million degrees outside and i soon realized the last thing i wanted to do was interact with these crazy locals who were harassing me to buy their things. susie and i were literally chased by some people as they attempted to bring us to their booths/stations to show us what they had. all i wanted was a cold drink and after a lot of shady business i was delievered an overpriced Fanta. we returned to our campsite for the last night of the trip and the infamous all you can eat/drink Booze Cruise. The obvious problem with that was the starting time of 4pm. The cruise was less than 2 hours and everyone was trashed by the end. People raided the bar afterwards and had a crazy dancing session in the auditorium. I was feeling considerably worse than i did in the morning so after my fair share of partying i ended the night with nyquil. Woke up early on Sunday morning feeling even more sick and dragged ass while packing and trying to start on a boatload of homework that was assigned for vacation. A few people on the other bus got really sick with what i think must have been sun stroke/dehydration/maybe food poisoning. Mine was just a nasty cold. We drove out to the Zambian airport, took a short flight to Jo'burg, and another one back to Cape Town. I had a random nose bleed for most of the last flight, by the end of which i was feeling like death. Upon arrival back in cape town we were greeted by rain and s***ty weather. I was depressed to be back and would go back out into nature and away from city in a hearbeat.
this concludes the above short version of my spring break. pictures on facebook soon.
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