Today was a big day and a lot of fun, but also kind of bittersweet since it was the last full day our group had together before we all sort of went our separate ways. It started at a ridiculously early hour that I cannot actually remember entirely just at the moment, but the first thing we did was hop on a small boat to cruise around on the Chobe River for a good portion of the morning.
The Chobe River is what divides Botswana and Namibia, and since the border is technically at the river’s deepest point, at any given time on the river you could either be in Botswana or Namibia. This was the result of lots of arguing and eventual arbitration between the two nations.
It was actually a lot different from the game drive we did through Chobe last night. You get a much different perspective from the water and we saw a lot, but a lot of different things than from yesterday. Obviously there aren’t really herds of elephants hanging out in the river itself so we weren’t surrounded by them so much but we did end up quite near an awful lot of hippos.
Hippos actually kill more people in Africa than any other big animal (mosquitos don’t count). More than lions, elephants and mutant zombies combined. It’s pretty easy to see why too, they look all cuddly and harmless as they just kind of float around not doing much. But then you get closer and one opens its mouth and you realize they could probably bite your boat in half if they really wanted to. Of all the animals to not screw with, hippos should probably be pretty high up there on the list.
Soon after we were back on dry land we were out of camp and headed towards the Zambian border. Due to the problems currently going on in Zimbabwe, the Botswanan border into Zambia has become the main route for shipping and trucks to get into the country. The trouble is, that can sometimes takes weeks of waiting. So the roads as we got closer to the border itself were lined with cargo trucks pulled over just kind of waiting around. Refugee camps full of people fleeing from Zimbabwe also dotted the roadsides as fairly regular intervals. We’d seen quite a bit of Zimbabwean refuges back in Johannesburg as well. I try not to get political in these things, but it’s hard not to get frustrated over how Zimbabwe is run. It seems like Mugabe is gradually losing power (especially in the last year) but I’m sure that’s little consolation to the refugees in those camps.
Anyway, we managed to get across the border in about a half hour. It was relatively painless and just required filling out a few short forms. Getting our truck across would take a bit more work though, so Jimmy stayed behind to take care of that while the rest of us walked down a road that was technically a no man’s land between Botswana and Zambia to a ferry that would take us across to the Zambian side of the river.
We loaded up onto the ferry and were soon crossing the river. On the far shore, Andy spotted the wreckage of what looked to be another ferry just kind of sitting there crashed. That was a very reassuring image. Fortunately, ours did not crash and after a short ride we docked and exited to the Zambian border crossing, where more exciting forms and paperwork commenced.
Our truck hadn’t made it through yet so we jumped in the back of a giant truck we had to climb a ladder to get up into that belonged to a guy Gerrie seemed to know. He was a pretty nice guy actually, but was missing a bunch of teeth and look liked he hadn’t showered in a few weeks. Then again, at that point I probably looked (and smelled) like I hadn’t showered for a while either so I’m really not one to judge. Anyway, he gave us a road to Victoria Falls, which was about an hour and a half inside the country near the town of Livingstone.
The falls itself is a border between Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe though it’s a fairly commonly held notion that the Zambian part is the best to view it from… though there’s probably some folks from Zimbabwe out there who would disagree. At any rate, to sit here and describe them would be a waste, pictures work much better.
One thing pictures can’t really get across though is a sense of scale. It’s not the biggest waterfall in the world but it really does give a sense of “this is nature showing it can kick my ass”. You can hear the roar of the falls from quite a ways away and once you get up near it unless you’re taking cover under some trees you’re going to be getting wet from all the spray, even at the top of the falls. And this was during the dry season. Had we gone during the rainy season when the water level was at its peak, all the pictures I took would have been nothing but white spray as nothing else would have even been visible – not to mention we’d have all been thoroughly soaked the entire time (though we managed to do a pretty good job on that part anyway).
I wandered around the falls with Andy and Katrina for a while, before they went off to the small museum next to it. I figured I could read about it anytime though, and I was only actually standing there now, so I’d just keep looking at it. I bumped into Allison and we both managed to get suitably lost trying to find out way back out to meet up with the others at the truck – which had made it through the border much quicker than we had expected. She also ran into a baboon carrying a baby, which was quite funny.
Once we met back up with everyone, Michael departed the group. He was going to stay at some hostel just inside Zimbabwe and wanted to get there before the sun set so he didn’t have to find it in the dark. I figure I’ll run into him at some point in Kenya next week so I’m going to pick up his t-shirt back at camp tonight and take it with me.
Before long we were at the camp grounds, although it was really more of a proper lodge than just a campground. It was built right along the Zambezi River and had a full on outdoor restaurant and bar, and even actual rooms to rent if camping wasn’t your thing.
As it turned out, Allison and I were the only ones actually staying there on our own that night. The Irish girls were staying at a hostel in town, Andy, Katrina, Jim, Elizabeth, Lydia and Tara were all continuing on with another group and of course Michael had already left. Allison was going to join up with another group to head into Namibia but not for 6 days and I was only there for the night before I flew back to Johannesburg and then to Nairobi. Unfortunately, the lodge didn’t appear to have any records for Allison and only had me down as booking a plot of land (presumably to set up a tent on). Gerrie came to the rescue (once again) though and let us set up camp with him since he was in town for a little while too.
The last thing we had planned as a group was a cruise down the Zambezi River as the sun set. Apparently there was a cover charge to get on, but the boat had an open bar. Gerrie had several times excitedly mentioned the ‘booze cruise’ at the end of the trip throughout the past week.
There were a lot of people staying at the lodge, so it wasn’t just us on the boat but we managed to secure two full tables on the top deck at the back to hang out in for most of the night. I’m sure there was some cool stuff we floated by but I think we were all more interesting in just hanging out and enjoying the last few hours together. As one would tend to expect in an open bar situation, a lot of folks consumed a lot of alcohol. I didn’t drink any hard stuff, I just stuck with the local Zambian beer (Mosi Lager, which is actually pretty good) so I was better off than most but not so well off that my memory isn’t a little blurry.
The cruise was a lot of fun, and I think probably the best way to end the trip we could have had. After it was over we all headed over to the bar at the lodge to continue hanging out for a few more hours. It was actually kind of weird, because the bar at the lodge was clearly the most happening spot around. It was full of people, mainly westerners, many of whom were dressed like they were out for a night on the town. Meanwhile I’d been wearing the same pair of pants for the past week.
We stayed for quite a while, as I don’t think anyone particularly wanted to leave (except for poor Jim and Elizabeth, who I think had a little too much on the cruise and were back in their tents next to a bucket. I have to say though, those two are awesome and never had any trouble keeping up with a much younger group. If anything, I think it would have been the rest of us having trouble keeping up with them.)
I also found out a lot of interesting things about my fellow travelers. For starters, I finally learned how old everyone was. I was generally in the right range in my guesses for most, though I typically erred on the younger side by a few years. I guess everyone here just seems younger. Except for Gerrie, he actually was younger than any of us, which I thought was kind of funny. Never would have guessed.
Lydia also mentioned that she had been an Olympic swimmer. I first I thought she was making it up, since that’s the sort of thing I would probably make up while drunk but it turns out she was serious. She swam for New Zealand in the ’96 Atlanta games. That’s actually seriously pretty stinkin’ cool.
Thanks mainly to the wonderful Mosi Lager and a little help from Andy, I managed to convince her that I had won a triple gold medal in dwarf tossing at the same games. It was going well until Tara did the math and pointed out that I’d have been 12 in ’96.
At some point as the crowd thinned considerably at the bar (I have no idea what time it was) we decided we should probably call it a night and everyone said their goodbyes and was off. Wandering around a dark unfamiliar campsite while intoxicated is an interesting experience. At different points we had to go off looking for both Lydia and Allison and I managed to get extremely lost trying to find the bathrooms twice, only realizing I had gone the wrong direction because I hit the river. Also putting up tents in the dark under the same circumstances is not easy. Mine ended up on partially on a hill and a little collapsed on one side.
It was a really fun night. In fact, I would daresay it was the most fun I’ve had in a very, very long time and the only thing that made me not get too depressed that it ended was that we all talked about connecting on Facebook once we got back to our respective homes. Isn’t technology grand!
