today is our first monday since being in Zambia. and with that our first day off. today we
slept in untill 10, and then met up with three friends that we met earlier in the week. partick
andrew and ken. they are all 19, so same age, and rad dudes. they were more than proud to be
our zambian tour guides for our adventure of a day. for the first part of the day, we crossed into
zimbabwe, bringing the number of african countries ive been to up to 4. we had a few 'errands' to
to take care of over the boarder. so that took up most of the morning, and by 2 we were starving.
so for lunch i finally got to try the one traditional zambain resturant ive been trying to go
to since seeing it when we first arrived. a resturant called, SUBWAY. yes, the have subway in Zambia.
no KFC, no Burger King. not even a McDonalds. but yes, SUBWAY. footlong, steak & Cheese, about 10 dollars
back home, today. 18000 kwatcha. under 4 bucks. thank you God. oh and also, i put tons of hot peppers
on it, because thats what i like, and how i do it back home. the guy laughed at me, but i thought
it was just because i was a typical muzungo eating subway. nope, they definatly use
different hot peppers in africa. they use HOT peppers. not Flavour peppers i was used to. i walked
away with a fireball in my mouth, but glad to have eaten my fourth nationality of subway.
so after lunch to good got better. we went to Victoria Falls national park, and just pulling
into the car park, we saw a wild baboon. raf started provoking it, obviously. and it was all
fun and games untill the monkey had enough and decided to run back at raf. the look on his
face was priceless. and i do believe anna got a picture. so after the not so nice encounter
with the car park monkey, we went to go into the park. for locals, entry is 7000 kwatcha. non- residence
price, 20 american dollars. about a two thousand precent price increase. we had no choice to
pay it but whatever, as it turns out, it would eventually be way worth it. i even tried to
say i was zambian resident, but when she skeptically asked what tribe? the only thing i could think
to say was the muzungo tribe. she laughed. but we still got ripped off. so not 2 minutes on the
path and looking through the trees we could already see the waterfall. an it was amazing. actually,
i dont know if i could ever justify using this word in any other circumstance, but it was
majestic. ha. so we snapped our pictures,
and continued down the path. we past racks of vendors renting rain coats and umbrellas. strange?
not raining, not even close, but too soon found out why. its the wet season, and soo much mist
comes up from the falls that when you get in the open its like its poaring buckets of rain. thank
you aunt kathy again for the waterproof cam. and it was so nuts being near the falls. we crossed
this bridge, that is constantly in the state of downpour because of its proximity to the falls, and
its become so slippery that you can slide along it, better than if it were ice. that was good,
but soaked, and a little cold we moved on back to the warm sun. and admire the falls from a
different, further location. after that patrick andrew and ken, took us down into the jungle to
a differnt path. this on takes us down, to the bottom of the falls. we got to the place they were
taking us, it was called 'the boiling pot' a vicious whirlpool at the bottom of the falls. instant
death awaits someone thrown into the middle of the pool. and stick you leg in, the current will
take you there quick enough. but we snapped some cool picks,
[pic here]
and even saw the huge bridge we crossed over on into zimbabwe.
colin, raf and i. and two of the guys we were with found some nearby shallow rapids. and decided
to 'explore' them. feeling the power of 6 inches of current was cool. and manouvering on slippery
rocks was, (pause) fun. but it was actually really neat. we snaped some pics.
[pic here]
ken took a spill, and then we were back to the path. also, i didnt really mention, throughout
the entire jungle. there was
monkeys everywhere. wild baboons with pink butts. and different types in trees, just... hanging out.
but it wasnt untill this part of the day that we saw our first monkey fight. raf and i stumbled
upon these two monkeys fighting on the rock. it was hilarious. vicious. and a little scary. it
was after this that we took serious the warning about not provoking the monkeys. so back up the
path again. and past even past our start point. this time we went up, where we first went down.
and this path took us to the top of the falls. the guys took us into the river where we were wadeing
it the water just a dozen meters or so from the edge of the falls. also with a little exploring,
and a hopped fence or two, colin raf josh and i found this.
[pic here]
a look out ledge, directly looking over the break of the falls. sitting on the root of a tree,
only one slip from the bottom of the falls, is where i believe is one of the coolest hangouts in
the entire world. the water was roaring and the danger surmounting, so we called it quits and decided
to head back.
but definatly not the end of the adventure. we left the falls, and the jungle park. but we were
definately very still in africa. our three friends took us to this place, surrounded by a fence.
patrolled by an armed guard. (AK-47, no big. i see them everyday) ken and i hopped out, talked to him.
slipped him a 20,000 kwatcha bill. and he let us drive through. TIA. 5 minutes of driving we saw a heard
of antalope. 10 minutes of driving and we saw a 'pumba'. a massive warthog. shortly after several empala's.
and then, around 15 or 20 minutes driving straight into the wilderness. this happened.
one of two wild gariffe's eating the leaves off the top of the trees. what an experience. and with that,
that just about summs up on of the best days of our lives.
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