Having a Blast in Zambia!
I’m in Livingstone, Zambia right now. I decided that I would go to see Victoria Falls up here before continuing with the rest of South Africa. I’ve been here for a couple days now and I am REALLY liking Zambia. Not only is the scenery beautiful (as you could imagine with Victoria Falls), but the people here are wonderful and there are adventure activities everywhere!
Entering the Country
Entering the country was a bit more difficult than I had imagined. After checking the book on a Zambian visa, it said that it was $50 or $25 for less than a 7 day stay. Not only that, it also said that you could pay in South African Rand, Euros, US Dollars, etc. Well as with Tanzania, you must pay in US Dollars and as of a week ago the price is now $135. Oh and there is not an ATM in the airport…
Well, I managed to get a bit of empathy from the immigration officers and assured them that if I left my driver’s license with them that I would be back to get it with the money for the visa. A few officers mulled over the idea and let me in the country. I managed to get to the ATM and converted my Kwacha (local currency) into dollars. This is the second time something like this has happened (similar thing happened to David and I in Tanzania), so I’m sure it won’t happen again – US Dollars will flood my pocket at the border…
Victoria Falls
The falls are incredible! They are massive! It seems like they go on forever. Because I am here when the water is high the spray from the falls literally feels like you are taking a shower. Thankfully the water is quite warm. The surrounding gorge is beautiful and I hiked down to a point called the ‘Boiling Pot’ where water rushes into a turn just after the falls and gets swirled around. On the way back up from the hike down to the bottom of the gorge I noticed rustling in the trees. About 50 feet away I saw some baboons. Then it wasn’t long before I noticed there were baboons EVERYWHERE! Literally walking as close as 2 feet in front of me, baboons and vervet monkeys blanketed the gorge. It was pretty fun to see and I stayed and watched some baby monkeys play around for a while.
Abseil Zambia
I went for a full day of adventure activities yesterday at a place called Abseil Zambia. It has a famous gorge swing, which I suppose was featured in the first season of The Amazing Race. I went abseiling (repelling) down into the gorge (98 meters down), did a zip line over it, went rap jumping (abseiling but facing down – like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible) and gorge swinging. The gorge swing consists of a 58 meter free fall before the rope catches you and swings you back and forth across the gorge. I had a full day so I was allowed to go as many times as I wanted. I did the swing about 5 times, twice as a tandem with a guy I met, twice falling backwards and once jumping forwards. It was SO much fun!
My First Braai (BBQ)
Anyways, the guy I met and did the swing with a couple times is recently engaged to a girl from the states and we got to talking. They turned out to be a REALLY cool couple and invited me to a party last night. There was a South African guy who I guess does braai’s like at least 3 times a week (it’s huge in South Africa) and he cooked up all the food. We had an amazing meal! Then we just sat around and talked and had some beers until about 5 AM. All in all Zambia has been pretty good to me and I’m really enjoying Africa right now. I’m meeting up with the couple again today, it’s nice to have someone to talk to as traveling alone can be pretty lonely at times…
More updates and pictures to come once I get back to South Africa…internet is pretty slow here…
