Monday, September 24, 2012

Malawi


Malawi…

Malawi is going to be a quick entry… We crossed the border around 1030 and drove all day into Kande beach. We were going to stay 3 nights here, and 2 night at Chichimba but myself, Nico and Denise decided to take the PADI certification with is full 3 days. Jareb did the advance certification which took 2 full days. We started at 0730 and went full on for 3 days. Not doing anything else but diving. Lake Malawi was a really great place to get it done. It is one of the cheapest places to do it and it was really fun diving in fresh water. I dove maybe 6 times before this as a resort certification. I have wanted to do it for years and so glad I can now go diving at all my travels. I really felt like I was in my element underwater.

The fourth day we got a ride from Kande beach to the main road. At the main road we got a ride with the guy who  owns the horse ranch into Mzuzu. From there we got a tro tro shared taxi van. We made the mistake of sitting in the back with 5 seats and end up getting squished 5 people in the back for 4 hours while we made it to Chitimba. We left at 0745 and arrived at 1545 exhausted but secretly enjoying public transportation.

We took off at 0630 in the morning towards Tanzania… Country 22 here I come.

BTW I did not take any pictures of Malawi so I am going to have to bum pictures to put on the blog. 

Zambia.. Adrenalin Adrenalin Adrenalin


Zambia…
From the moment we got to Livingstone it was full on. We arrived early enough to sit down and watch the videos of what there is to do in Livingstone. After about an hour of going through the list I decided to Whitewater raft/ kayak (only one guide good enough to tandem kayak so Cecilie, Jareb and I split the river into 3 parts), Pet lions, Rhino Walk, A full day of Abseil, zip line, and gorge swing (54m), then Bungee jump, and somewhere fit a day trip to Zimbabwe.

Friday morning everyone but Yoshi, and Brit got picked up by Rafting Extreme and had a full day of serious white water rafting. Jareb, Maria, Kevin, Cecilie, Nico and I were in one raft, and the other was Denise, Fred, Talbot, Alexis, and Sarah. Our guide was the shit, our guide name was Brighton and I highly recommend him.  We did flip on rapid 3, but that was because our side of the raft (myself, Cecilie, and Kev) over paddled the left side and we went into the rapid sideways. Other than that we were flawless. From Rapid 6 to 23 we split the rapids into 3 sections and Cecilie, Jareb and I did a tandem Kayak with Steve. Kayaking is full on craziness and I absolutely loved it. I started out on Rapid 8 and got flipped at the big wall. It was full on insane being stuck underwater not sure if we could roll out of it. After what seemed like forever (two attempts) I bailed out, and road the rapids by hanging on to the kayak. We also got to body board some of the rapids which were really awesome. I think I almost enjoyed that as much as anything else. Around two we finished for the day, and once we got to the end destination Suse was there with a guy named bubbles who owns Jet Extreme (an insanely fast jet boat that goes up and down the river) We were able to do a 15 minute ride for free because there was a Chinese film crew doing a spot, and they needed people to fill the boat up. It was really cool, but honestly I wouldn’t spend money on it myself. That evening majority of the people went on a booze cruise, while Jareb, Nico, Cecilie, Talbot and myself stayed back at the campground and called it an early night.

0630 the next morning Denise, Sarah, Brit, Cecilie, Alexis, Jareb, Sherry, and myself were on a truck heading to do a 45 minutes lion walk. Its exactly as it seems, we walked a male and female lion. Petting and holding their tail while we walked a few km’s. It was a really exhilarating experience. Back at the Grotto (our campsite) Jareb, Brit, Nico, Fred, Cecilie and myself piled into Rosie, and Suse took us to Vic falls. We had couple hours there, just walking around taking pictures of the spectacular waterfall. We tried walking around the other side where devils arm chair was, but we got caught by scary guys with AK-47s who told us we needed a guide to go there. We would have paid for one, but we were running low on time. That evening Jareb, Alexis, Sarah, Denise, Yoshi, Cecilie, and myself went on a 3hrs Rhino walk. Basically they have armed guards watching the Rhinos 24/7 so they know where they are. We pulled up walked about 20 minutes and the next thing we know we were 100 feet from a male Rhino laying on his back in the shade. We then walked 200 meters to another Rhino this time it was a female and her 18 month old baby. We later came across another male Rhino who was 2 years old. We were able to watch 4 Rhinos in an hour and a half or so. After we finished with the Rhinos, they took us to the Zambezi River to have a snack, and then they took us on a hour or so game drive. The guides were the best that we experienced yet on this trip.  

The next morning was a full day of adrenalin, went to a huge gorge that offered abseiling (Repelling), Zip lining, and finally a gorge swing. We started the day with two abseiling (one backwards, the other frontwards) It was okay, but the guys up top and below were controlling your speed so it was a little disappointing. I told them I have done it a few times but they wouldn’t let me control my speed. After the second time I didn’t want to do it again. The problem was a 2km hike up the gorge back to the base camp after you repel or the gorge swing. Next came the zip line basically you run and jump off the gorge connected to a line on your back. You look like superman going across the gorge. To me that was the less scary of the 3 but a few people were the most scared. After the zip line, came the gorge swing. Basically you can either go tandem, single front or back. You  take a step off of the cliff and you fall 54 meters before the swing catches you. The first time I did it tandem with Cecilie, and my legs were shaking. Doing tandem you have to do it backwards so it doesn’t hurt your neck. It was really fun, and absolutely crazy.  Falling backwards was really fun watching everything falling going the opposite direction.  After the gorge swing we got a great lunch and then we were able to do everything again. I chose to do the gorge swing again but frontwards… Way worse but it got me ready for tomorrow… Bungee Jump!!!!

I woke up thinking WTF… WTF… Why am I going to jump off a perfectly good bridge 111 meters? Myself, Brittany, Jareb, and Cecilie found ourselves leaving Zambia, and going halfway on the bridge that connects Zambia to Zimbabwe. Within minutes of paying $130 all four of us had our harness attached and our stomachs around eye level. Brittany was chosen to go first (we thought this was better because she was the most petrified) She got the towels on her legs, and the extra safety line attached. She stood up and completely had a meltdown, and bailed out. Next Cecilie got called and within 5 minutes she was jumping arms out and falling 111meters no sound no scream. Jareb fallowed same thing perfect dive off the edge. Now my turn… I could feel my heart beating every heartbeat. I kept thinking fear cuts deeper than swords. It seemed like an eternity for the guy to put the towels around my legs. He explained everything to me and told me I was going to be perfectly safe. He got me to the edge and next thing I knew I heard him say 5-4-3-2-1 jump… I Jumped with no hesitation and felt like I dove perfectly… I did it, I just jumped off a perfectly good bridge at Victoria Falls. After the bungee jump everyone crossed into Zimbabwe for the day. Cecilie and I ditched out and ate at the restaurant at the falls then spent the afternoon taking our time walking around Zimbabwe Victoria falls. I highly recommend crossing into the Zimbabwe side to see the falls. It was much more impressive and had rainbows everywhere. We spent hours wondering around taking pictures and really just relaxing. At 1745 we met up with the group and went to a very touristy but yet fantastic restaurant called The Boma. It was a buffet style setting with complete flair. Imagine eating in Vegas at king’s place (the place that does the jousting). It was a setting like that with dancers, music, and all the game meat we could eat. I decided to try wart hog, gemsbok, and all the soup and veggies salads as possible. We had to leave before the show was over because we had to cross the border before ten (we barely made it)… 0400 hours oh my oh my… my stomach was killing me. What was I thinking eating red meat for the first time ever. I was an idiot and paying for hit. I must have thrown up 5 times before 0600.

At 0700 we took off towards Malawi. We had one maybe two free camps or campgrounds before we got to Malawi. I stretched out with a low grade fever and was really, really sick. That evening we stop at a hotel and camped on the grounds. I set up our tent, and called it a night. That night I was cursed with fever sleep all night. I woke up miserable the next morning. I thought I might have had malaria. I took a panadol (paracedenal) and by noon the next day I was feeling hundred times better. Not sure what I had but it knocked me out with a fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. That night we stayed at another hotel type place. I upgraded to a small room for only $10 per person. I read and passed out, with my first good night sleep in a while.


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We took off early for the border of Zambia and Malawi. 
















Monday, September 3, 2012

Botswana... Elephants and more Elephants


Botswana…
Let me first just say WOW… Wild animals and elephant capitol in the world (not sure if that’s true just saying).We crossed the border again with no problems what so ever. We crossed early afternoon and spent the rest of the day driving towards Moun. We found a good free camp somewhere off the road a good distance.

Early next morning and off to Moun where we were all looking forward to the Okavango Delta. We arrived at Delta Rain campground around 1500hrs. We got briefed and had to pay for the Delta $150, and either the helicopter or fixed wing flight if we wanted to pay for it (highly recommend the plane). That night we just chilled and relaxed a little bit. Suse explained what the plan for the next two days at the Delta. We also had a few beers with some other short distance overlanders.  I called it a pretty early night knowing we had to be ready to leave at 6 in the morning.

The next morning we were all packed and ready to go. The truck picked us up and we were off to the delta. After a bumpy hour ride we arrived at the delta where we got to meet our polers (locals who pole the canoes). Back in the day the canoes were carved out of wood but now the Botswana government doesn’t allow it. We each paired up with a partner (shocker but Cecilie and I teamed up) and loaded our gear (long pants, shoes, sleeping bag, sleeping roll, and camera). Got into our mokoros (canoes) and headed deep into the delta. We had a 3 hour ride until we got into our bush camp. Our polers name was Timba. He didn’t speak much English but damn did he make poling look easy. Once we got to our bush camp we were told to put our tents no farther than 7 meters from the fire. Being stupid tourist as we were (Denise and Sarah, Kev and Marie, and Cecilie and myself) we put our tents about ten meters away. Denise and Sarah’s tent was the farthest away then Cecilie and mine were just to the right of them. We had a relaxing day until 1630 where we went for an hour and a half bush walk. I honestly didn’t think we would see much wild animals because we were on foot, but during the walk we saw a herd of 100 elephants, a herd of wildebeest, and bunch of Zebras. So all in all it was a really good bush walk. That evening after dinner I called it an early night. Just read a little bit and passed out… That is until 1130 when I woke up to Kev telling Marie to get into the fucking tent. Then I heard it… The trees snapping and breaking, there was something large very close to us. I asked Kev what was going on. He said two elephants 100 feet away. I woke up Cecile and told her there were elephants very close and we may need to run. She said ok then looked around a bit, then said they sounded close then fell back asleep (thank you very much)… I listened for a while and it sounded to me there were very close. Kev said he had binoculars for me to look at them. While I unzipped my tent Cecile woke up again (this time a little more alert). I grabbed the binoculars and saw two elephants very close. It was a very spectacular sight. When I gave the binoculars back to Kev and got back into my tent another elephant 5 fucking meters away (15 feet) came out of the bushes in front of us. Ears up trunk up, this thing knew we were here. By this time Sarah and Denise were up, but luckily for Denise sack they had their rain fly halfway up and couldn’t see behind them. The elephant started turning around walking away then must have heard one of us talk then turned back towards us and charged a little bit. At this time both Cecilie and I were in complete shock. She couldn’t talk and I started laughing out of fright. Right when I grabbed my camera and kindle. The guide Mix through a fire stick at the elephant and it ran off. We all let out a sigh of relief then started laughing. Note to anyone wanted to do this. The Delta is wild country and listen to your guides. Turns out that the elephants don’t know they can’t break the tents so they would have stopped, but we didn’t know that at the time.

We got a 0600 wake up and by 0630 we were on our 3 hour game walk we were all still so jacked up from the previous nights encounters. We pretty much saw the same animals as the night before but added a few tracks and elephant skulls. We relaxed the rest of the day until 1630hrs where we went on a sunset cruise with our polers and mokoros. Within an hour we were 150 feet away from a hippopotamus doing a little show. He would disappear then turn up either farther away or closer. That went on until sunset.

The next day we woke up at 0600 again and loaded up our gear and headed back to camp. By 1100 we dropped off Yoshi, Sarah, Denise, Cecilie, Jareb and Talbot to a 20 minutes helicopter Delta flight while. Myself, Nico, Alexis, Fred and Maria did the 45min fix week flight over the Delta. Unbelievable! We saw hundreds of elephants, 50 hippos, wild buffalo, and countless other animals. Not only that but a spectacular view of the Delta. By 1530hrs we were off to drive to a free camp.
Next day we had a 6 hour drive until we got to Chobe national park. By 1530hrs we were on a boat full of beer and soft drinks doing a sunset game cruise. It was absolutely spectacular. For only $32 bucks we had 3 hours on the Chobe watching elephants, crocodiles, elephants, hippos, and buffalo. Right before sunset we had the fortune of watching a herd of elephant cross the water to the other side. It was a spectacular show watching them swim with the trunks up, and the babies holding on to dear life.
The following day Cecilie, Jareb, Brittany, Maria, Yoshi and myself did a game drive that was by far the best we have done. We had elephants so close we could spit on them go between the front and the back of the game truck and we saw a leopard 30 meters away. After the morning game drive we took off towards Zambia where we will be doing the adrenalin part of the trip.