Botswana & Zambia

Great trip! It was a long long drive through Botswana but nonetheless an exciting one. We finally stopped after about ten hours straight in a town called Nata. We definetely stood out and managed to find a little hut to live in for a few short hours before hitting the road again. The place had a butcher shop where you literally bought your meat, marinated it and then through it on the Braai just outside. We met a lot of locals as well as quite a few Zambians there. Getting a job in Zambia is next to impossible because of corruption so many Zambians make the trek up to a few times each month to Botswana in order to pick up goods for re-sale in order to make a living. The next day we entered Zambia at the Kazungula border post. This is possibly the most irritating border post in the entire world. For future reference, make sure to have more than a few dollars on you and papers from wherever you might have rented a car otherwise you will spend a couple hours sweating profusely trying to figure out what to do. Anyways we didn't have the papers so we took a taxi into Livingstone Zambia which might have been what we ended up doing anyways since Zambia requires you pay insurance to take your own car there. We ended up at a place called Jollyboys which Stefan couldn't seem to remember the name of and constantly called Jollyballs or Jollyfellows! Nice place with two cats creepily resembling mine other than an enourmous size difference between their orange one and mine - mine being the larger of course! The rest of the day we just lounged around, walked through the main street markets and enjoyed the pool. Next day was a good day. We were up and on a bus at 7:30am to go riverrafting down the Zambezi river at Victoria Falls. I'd never rafted before but I have to say that it was not nearly as scary as I thought. I ended up even asking if I could get in a different raft that was a little more frightening - but this all depends on the time of year and how much water there is. Overall, still a good experience and seeing small crocodiles on the sides of the river definetely got the adrenaline pumping a little more. After rafting we enjoyed a couple of cold drinks before heading out on the sunset cruise. They served free drinks as well as dinner and we cruised up and down the Zambezi river over about 3 hours in total. The river was flooded with giant hippos too which was nice because we hadn't seen any yet. That reminds me of the drive through the last part of Botswana where we would have to slow down for elephants crossing the road and also saw a giraffe just off to the one side. Day two was even more exciting. We met a tour guide named Omega at the backpackers pub the night before and he agreed to meet us the following day along with two Australian guys we'd become friends with. We headed out at 10am and walked through the top of the river above the falls for about half an hour before getting to a place called the Devil's Pot. This was basically a mini pool literally right above a chunk of the falls. There were spots for cliff jumping and you could swim (very carefully) up to the edge and lean over looking down hundreds of feet over the rushing water. This all sounds very crazy and really is but it was amazing that we got to do it. Later Omega and I traded a sea shell that I'd picked up along the coast of South Africa for a miniature carved Zambezi river God which all the tour guides wear for protection. Vic Falls was breath taking and it is extremely obvious why it is one of the world's seven wonders! So... we left after 4 nights to head back to Johannesburg. I have to tell you about my bad luck when Stefan drives. He seems to be a professional at hitting very large bugs which splatter just perfectly around into my window where their guts end up on my face and shirt. This, of course, was followed my Stefan laughing at me and me pouting about how disgusting it was that bug guts were once again all over me. Oh yes that reminds me also (speaking of the car) about my speeding ticket in Botswana. The speed limit on the roads around here is 120 km/h at least on the highways but once we got into Botswana all of a sudden 120 would turn into 60 with no warning. Anyhow the police work on a 'pay on the spot' basis so they took 250 Pula and I was angry but I do have a Botswana speeding ticket that I kept because there was something interesting about it. The funny thing... if you call it funny... was that on the trip back to Jo'burg Stefan was driving through the exact same spot and got pulled over as well but we talked our way out of it this time. Anyhow, back in Johannesburg we spent a few days of not much at all other than relaxing before Stefan left...... and I'm sad that he did of course but will see him again soon. Much sooner than later!