Greetings Everybody!
It feels like I haven't been home in forever, but that's because I haven't been! After this second vacation I finally felt refreshed and ready to enter 'reality' again. I had one day after we returned to do things like catch up on laundry and go grocery shopping. Today was back to work though!
For those of you I specifically wrote or who wrote to me, I am sorry I haven't had a chance to respond to you. Please know that I appreciate your encouragement and love and I will be writing probably this weekend!
I guess I need to start with the first vacation though since I never got the chance to write to you about it. To say that it is awesome at Victoria Falls is a major understatement! We did so many things aside from just going to the falls that I really felt like I needed a vacation to recover from the vacation! In the net few days I will try to write the next installment about out second journey to Etosha and our missionary conference.
Carole, David and I arrived in Linvingstone, Zambia on the 7th in the late afternoon to Jollyboys, a really cool backpackers hostel that we heard about from friends. We did a little grocery shopping that afternoon and then just rested that evening. The next morning we awoke earlier than anyone should have to on their vacation so that we could take a day trip down into Botswana to Chobe (Cho-bee) National Park. Chobe has basically all the same animals as Etosha except that it is on the Chobe River and has crocodiles, hippos, and more elephants. We saw plenty of the first two, but were a little disappointed in the lack of elephants that we saw. That was until that afternoon when we went on the riverboat tour of the Chobe River. We got within about 20 feet of three elephants crossing the river! After they crossed the river they happily played in the mud, covering themselves in a protective layer of muck and mire. It was beautiful! On this river cruise I also got to see Cape Buffalo!
There is something called the 'Big 5' here in Africa. Back in the olden days when hunting was still done by bow and arrow, they put together this list of 5 animals containing the lion, leopard, elephant, Cape Buffalo, and the rhino. They were considered the hardest to kill as well as the ones that you were at risk for turning on you and attacking you while you were hunting them! So, it was on this trip that I saw the 4th in my list of the 'Big 5'! For those of you that are curious I only have the leopard left! However, since they are nocturnal and highly elusive my hopes aren't that high of actually seeing one outside a private ranch (which I think is kind of like cheating).
That night we had a real dilemma on our hands! Elvis was playing at a local pub and he had brought along Abba! How many people get to say that they were traveling in Africa and got to see Elvis?!?!?! However, we decided that since we had a full day ahead of us the next day that we needed the sleep. Not to worry, we did actually get to see him!
We were very glad we got the rest because we definitely needed it! We got up earlier than necessary on vacation, but this time it was so we could spend the day as dare devils! We went to the Fifth Gorge (located on the Zambezi River) to do the gorge swing, repelling, and something called the Flying Fox. The Gorge Swing was the best of the three! Basically, they had a wire (ok, so it was 2 or 3 and it could hold 4 tons of weight, but it was basically a wire) that stretched from one side of the gorge to the other with a rope attached in the middle of it. After being strapped into two harnesses, they attach the rope to you. You walk to the edge of the cliff and just step off! You free fall for 54 meters, which only takes about 3 1/2 seconds, until the rope tenses and pulls you into swinging arc over the gorge. I did this crazy thing twice! I would have done it more but there was a catch to it all. Once you were finished swinging, they lowered you to the ground. This means they lower you into the bottom of the gorge and you have to climb back out! With the repelling you also have to walk out, so after 4 trips out of the gorge I decided I was too tired to go again. The Flying Fox was also cool and it was my second favorite. Basically they have another set of wires like the first I described, but this time, instead of dropping off of it, you run off the platform and jump into the sky so that you can fly like a bird! This one was cool because they used the rope attached to you to pull you back in (no effort required on my part! Wahoo!).
I told you that we had an Elvis sighting... well, he came to the Gorge Swing! In full costume (I have a picture) he and his girlfriend (one of the singers from Abba) actually did the swing! It was great that we had a chance to see them, even if they were screaming instead of singing! Ha! Ha!
The 10th was a full day since we basically had three activities. In the morning we went to another national park (this one much much smaller than any of the others) and went on a walking safari! This particular park is the home to the only 2 white rhinos in Zambia, and we got to stand within 20 feet of them! It was awesome and SCARY!!! We walked through a large portion of the park and learned many interesting animal facts from our guide, Chinga (cheen-gah), such as how to distinguish different animal tracks as well as being able to tell the difference between male and female giraffe droppings! It was really neat to have a real tour guide along that could share interesting little trivia pieces like that! Finally we came to the area where the rhinos hang out and they were happily lounging around! Rhinos have awful eye sight so for the most part we were safe because they couldn't see us. However they have excellent hearing and smell and they did eventually run us out of the area because they were tired of us.
That afternoon we finally went to see Victoria Falls itself. Words cannot describe nor pictures do justice to how amazing and beautiful the falls actually are! We walked everywhere you could go and still be on the Zambia side of the falls, except for the bridge that crosses over. This is the bridge you can bungee from and I didn't want to be tempted, so we just looked at it from afar. :-) I could have stayed there forever! I said that we basically had 3 activities. Well, we found out that we planned our trip coinciding with the full moon. We didn't know it, but it turned out to be a huge blessing! During the day there is a beautiful rainbow that can be seen in the mist of the falls. During a full moon there is enough light from the moon that there is a rainbow at night! This lunar rainbow was our 3rd activity for the day. We went late enough in the day that we could just stay until we could see it. So we watched the sunset from the top of the falls, over the river and had a little picnic. Then we watched the dark until we could finally see this thin little arc in the air. We couldn't actually see the colors of the rainbow with our eyes, but the pictures I took with a long exposure show it beautifully!
The 11th was Carole's birthday so we spent the morning just relaxing. That evening though we took a sunset cruise on the Zambezi! It was cool to be cruising along and have hippos pop out of the water next to you. In Chobe we never saw any hippos in the water so it was cool to get to see it here. And we got a picture of the hippo with it's mouth open! (just what we wanted) We spent the next day lounging and playing Scrabble (my idea of fun!!!) and packing up. We left Sunday afternoon and arrived safely in Rundu that evening.
If you asked me I don't think that I could choose just one thing that was my favorite! It was all so much fun!
PICTURES
I have chosen only 7 that I thought you would want to see at this point. I will of course add more, but there are so many that it will take me a while to get to them! I hope you enjoy the ones I chose!
I love you guys and appreciate your love and your prayers! I honestly couldn't be here without them! Keep up the good work! :-)
kimmie
Posted by thekimmieconnection
at 3:05 PM BST
Updated: Sunday, 17 September 2006 3:33 PM BST
