After all of the excitement at South Luangwa, the next few days were quite boring. The next morning we had a really long drive (at least 12 hours) going halfway across Zambia. The roads were really dry and dusty, so we were all covered in dirt within a few hours. My dreads were really bugging me and making my head itch (with all the dirt covering my scalp). So I decide to take them out. Avril was nice enough to help me, so we got them all out within about 3 hours. My hair was so crimpy and crazy that I really did have an afro! (Personally I thought I looked like Side Show Bob from the Simpson’s tv show.)

 

The next day we set off for Lake Kariba, were we bordered a house boat. Boy, was that luxury after camping a driving all the time. Since, we were the only people on the boat we each got to have our own bedroom and bathrooms. Plus we even got air conditioning one night. (Talk about upgrading from the tent and sleeping bag!) We basically spent the whole time on the boat being lazy bums!

We entertained ourselves by playing tons of Scrabble and a Taboo like game, reading, and listening to music. A few of the more adventurous people jumped off of the top of our 3 story houseboat into the lake. Personally, I didn’t even want to swim in that lake, since it was full of crocodiles and hippos.

 

We had 3 house boys cooking and cleaning for us, which was awesome. (One night I had requested that we have enchiladas. They ended up making rice with spaghetti sauce on top. Oh well, at least we didn’t have to do the dishes!)

We were all getting a little crazy by the 3^rd morning, so I was pumped to be going to Livingstone and Victoria Falls today. The next few days are going to be jam packed with adventurous activities. I will be going in a micro light airplane over the falls, everyone is doing a Rhino walk, than doing a dinner/drink boat cruise down the Zambezi River, and the last day I’ll be walking with lions. Yeah!

We stayed in South Luangwa for 3 nights, and we had a lot of adventures there. The night game drive was really cool! It is a pretty quiet and remote park, so there weren’t too many people there. It started out like any other game drive (watching hippos, impalas, lions etc.) After the sun went down it felt like a game drive/haunted hayride/search and rescue mission. It was quite spooky to be in the complete dark in an open truck knowing that there are lions all around.

We did end up finding one male lion and it was really neat. He was watching a herd of elephants cross a little gorge.

During the day time we basically just relaxed by the pool, reading and what not. On our last night at Flatdogs, we had a very exciting evening. Jo and Mike were in the middle of cooking dinner for us all, when the night watch man came around telling us that there were elephants and hippos in the camp. We immediately spotted it and made a beeline for the truck, so that we would be safe from any charges. We sat in the truck for about 30 minutes watching the group of elephants.

After a while they moved off, and Katherine (our guide) said it was safe to walk to reception to pay our bill. So we all set off there, and paid with no problems. Me, Claire, Mike, Claire, Jo and Avril decided to go back to our campsite to finish making dinner, we got a security guard from the camp to walk with us. (He was supposed to be the elephant expert and our protector, who would throw himself in-between us and the elephants if it came to that.) Anyways, as we were walking back, we noticed that he wasn’t really shining his flashlight around. Out of the corner of my eye I saw an elephant coming straight for us. The next few seconds were crazy. Basically it was me shouting, “Elephant!” and grabbing the security man. Then the security man threw Claire and me into a tiny tree, and he just left the other 4 to fend for themselves. (The tree he threw us behind was about 4 feet tall and about 2 inches around, I’m quite sure that wasn’t going to protect us from an elephant charge.) As we were running around screaming, the elephant turned around and started retreating from the crazy white people. We were safe, but very freaked out.

That night we had about 6 elephants walk right under our tree house as we were trying to sleep. It was a very interesting, elephant-packed day!

For the past few weeks we have been making our way south, and are basically hanging out at the ocean, islands, beaches, and pools. The pace of the trip has slowed down a lot and it’s been really nice to relax, instead of drive every day.

I am now in my 6^th African country, Zambia. So far the landscape is pretty similar to Malawi. We are staying at a really cool campsite called Flat Dogs, near South Luangwa National Park. There are tons of elephants and hippos all around the site. We could hear them calling all night long. (You couldn’t believe how loud a hippo can be!) Claire and I have put our tent up on a tree platform. I was pretty hard to get it set up 20 feet above the ground on a platform that is a few inches narrower than our tent, and doesn’t have any railing or safety things. But it’s really neat to sleep up there with the monkeys all around us.

 

Last night at our campsite, a lady was walking to the bathroom at about 3:00am, and she was charged by an elephant. The elephant ran at her and pushed her into a bush. She was fine, but a bit freaked out. (I’d be too!) I’ve decided I’m never going to the bathroom in the middle of the night again.

Tonight, we are going on a night game drive. It starts a bit before sundown, and then we drive around with a big spotlight to show us all of the nighttime creatures. It should be pretty cool.

I’m starting to get excited to come home, and show off my amazing tan!