Appearances can be deceptive
Trip Start
Nov 07, 2005
1
65
75
Trip End
Nov 04, 2006
Victoria Falls,
Zimbabwe
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Our 5 days at Vic Falls marked the end of the trip for some of my favourite people on the truck but also 5 days of partying and adrenaline activities such as gorge swings, abseiling, and white water rafting.
I've come to realised that I don't have any adrenaline, so I opted for the slightly less adventurous choices of horse riding and a helicopter flight over the falls. The latter was actually quite scary. AP, Alisha, Jules, Mel and I chose the 30min ride as it included flynig down into a gorge rather than just the standard cruise over the falls. It started off quite sedately - gliding over the ground, taking in the scenery, then the pilot announced that we were about to head down into the gorge. It was like a scene from a movie - you could see the edge of the cliff and then the ground just vanished and we plunged straight down into the gorge amidst much screaming from the 5 of us and much laughter from the pilot. He stopped barely inches from the ground then swept through the gorge, tilting us from left to right, provoking more screams. When we emerged to higher ground, Alisha was looking a bit pale and I noticed her reach for a sick bag so I quickly tried to concentrate on not feeling sick and took in the view. Vic Falls was amazing from grounf level but even more stunning from the air. The rainbows I had seen on foot in the National Park were even more spectacular from an aerial view. As we flew over a game park we could see elephants in the distance.
But after 30 mins we were all feeling the effects of motion sickness so we were glad when we landed. Jules immediately ran off to be sick and Alisha still looked pale. Surprisingly Mel and I were ok, even though we usually suffer the worst. But we were all still buzzing from the flight. Maybe I do have an ounce of adrenaline after all.
If I'd ever needed to use the word exhilarating it would be now.
We didn't have long to recover before Alisha, Jules, Kiri and I were picked up for our horse ride. We'd scarily opted for intermediate to advanced and I was hoping no galloping would be involved. When we arrived at the stables and I was introduced to my horse, Whisky, I was even more apprehensive. They were polo cross horses and reacted to every slight movement you made. And whisky didn't even need a kick start, just making a clicking noise was enough to start him off trotting, regardless of whether or not it was me who was giving the order. After scrambling through the bushes we came to a stream crossing. The horses in front calmly waded through it, but Whisky had other ideas and decided he'd have a go at jumping it without warning me, almost causing me to go flying head first into an acacia tree. Luckily I kept my balance and next time we came to a crossing, or log, or anything jumpable, I was ready.
Despite his friskiness, it was a great ride, finished off by us chasing warthogs round the polo field.
I returned to the casino for the second night ni a row, won considerably more money than the previous night (I thought I'd been doing really well when I realised I was confusing the exchange rate with another country's) but it was still only equivalent to a few British Pounds and anyway once I left Zimbabwe the currency would be worthless so there was no point in trying to make a fortune.
The next day we all trekked down to the bridge between the Zimbabwe and Zambian borders to watch Dustin and Ribo crazily fling themselves off via an elastic band. Looking over the edge of the bridge made me feel queasy, and the thought of anyone bunji jumping off it turned the queasiness into shaking. Dustin, a bunji virgin, went first, jumping without a look of fear and appeared to be loving it when he bounced around hundreds of metres below us. Ribo had been before and knew what to expect but still screamed like a girl on the way down, but wanted to do another one as soon as he was back up on the bridge and after being told the second time was free he booked in to do one after lunch.
We acquired 2 new passengers - Emma and Lindsay from Scotland - who joined the majority of us on a booze cruise that night. 2 and a half hours to drink as much as we could with the only snacks being a tiny piece of chicken and Len's birthday cake sounds as disastrous as it was. Bart burst into song at every opportunity, Morgan puked over the side of the boat (due to off beer, not overconsumption on this occasion) and Michelle smeared cake all over Len's face. The poor German family who'd been on board with a small child were less than impressed and fled to shore as soon as the boat docked, whilst we all downed a few more drinks and continued our raucous singing all the way back to the bus, and in the bus back to the campsite. We returned to bewildered looks from other travellers at the bar, as we were all off our heads at only 6.30pm and it soon became obvious that not having eaten was a big mistake. It turned into a complete disaster of arguments, tears and full on fist fights.
The few people who hadn't been on the booze cruise returned with 3 more new people in tow (Kiwis - Andrea, Alice and Brent) to total chaos, wondering how things had gone so wrong in the space of 3 hours. People ended up vomiting and pissing in their tents (I'll save them some dignity by not naming names, but everyone who was there knows who the culprits are!) and others just ended up being complete assholes. Appearances can be deceptive. but something good comes out of every bad situation.
Needless to say the following day was a bit of a mess, mostly filled with people sleeping in various parts of the campsite, or avoiding each other.
It was a bit of a shame since it was some people's last day, but we all got together for a group dinenr in a game restaruant, where Ruth thought the fish shaped table numbers were pepper mills, but no one was really up for a big night out afterwards.
The next morning we said a sad goodbye to Damo, Alisha, Marcus and Jo, as they all headed back to London. They'd all been such big characters they'd be sorely missed.
Except for Marcus's farts.
