Waterfalls and Rafting and Bungee... Oh My!

Last year for Easter, I broke my foot, I had to wade into a river to exit a bus and I got robbed.
So this year, my friends and I thought we would try to make this Easter vacation a little better starting out with 30+ hours worth of bus rides. Brilliant, right?

For Easter break this year we headed to Livingstone, Zambia, home to the magnificent Victoria Falls.  After a series of days venturing across the country of Zambia by bus, we found our hotel, ate a delicious seafood dinner and settled in to our cozy backpackers lodge.

Day 1 of adventures began with a white water rafting trip down the Zambezi River. This is the river that plummets the nearly 200 meters creating Victoria Falls. One side of the canyon is Zambia and the other is Zimbabwe. This time of year the water is high which made for an exciting day. They put my 2 friends and I with 2 men about our age, one of New Zealand and one from Australia, both named Tim, who are on a 4 month journey biking the length of Africa starting in Cairo, Egypt and ending next month in Cape Town, South Africa. We named our raft Team Cacheche (Team Chaos) and off we went. The trip was great and everyone made it out alive (although both Julia and Lauren were tossed overboard.)

Forward, Forward!

Look at that pretty white water

Get down!

Wee!

And, there goes Julia... 

After the rafting trip we had lunch and set out on our Sunset Booze Cruise at the top of the falls. This trip was… not what we expected. We were the first ones to board and were well into our first drink when a gaggle of nuns proceeded to board followed by families with children. This was not the crowd we were expecting but we decided that meant more booze for us.

beautiful sunset on the Zambezi

We tried to get a picture with the nuns in the background. And they were onto us. 

 The next day was the day we visited the falls. We went out to the falls and I immediately separated myself from the group and crossed the border into Zimbabwe to go bungee jumping. I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful location to jump in the world. The canyon was beautiful with the Zambezi below me and the falls behind me.  I enjoyed bungee jumping, but didn’t completely enjoy how long you have to stay upside down… I had a lot of blood in my noggin when I finally swiveled upright. 

Then I met back up with Lauren and Julia in the park and we hiked around a few trails before heading back.

Victoria Falls

Julia and I. You can't see the falls through the mist

The bridge that I bungeed from. The right side of the canyon is Zimbabwe and the left is Zambia

Getting ready

Let's do this!

At this point, the phrase "What was I thinking?" came to mind

and then I decided to just go with it 

Above the beautiful, churning Zambezi River

The final day we signed up to do a tour of Livingstone Island. The story goes that Dr. Livingstone saw the mist created by the falls and heard the crashing water, so he landed on the tiny island right at the top of the falls to investigate and the island is what kept him from plummeting to his death.
We were escorted out to the edge of the top of the falls by our guide. And when I say top, I mean inches away from the edge. It was absolutely amazing. We took a bunch of pictures, not many of which turned out great due to all the mist, but what can you do? We had a great time swimming around and doing our mermaid photo shoot. The swimming was followed by a delicious breakfast of eggs benedict overlooking the falls and then we took the boat back to the mainland.

So much mist!

What a beautiful day for a swim

Mermaid photo shoot!

The David Livingstone marker

This one was almost too close for comfort

The three of us and our guide. That water was moving pretty swiftly. If you lost your grip, the ropes in the background are to grab onto to save yourself

We spent the next few hours lounging around the very ritzy Royal Livingstone Inn (where we clearly didn’t fit in despite our change of clothes) waiting around for High Tea time. And boy was it worth it! They served all you can eat pastries and cakes, quiches and cookies for 2 hours with pots of delicious teas. And we got our money’s worth, let me tell you.

Lauren and I trying to look like we fit in at high tea

 The next day we packed up and made the exhausting, lengthy trip back to Tanzania. The trip was everything I hoped it would be and more, but I’m happy to be back at site and getting back into the swing of teaching. I’m just starting the topic of Reproduction… whoopee!