Africa part 5
Livingstone adventure
AKA Playing with more lions before breakfast than most people see all day.
Livingstone round 2 started with a bang. We were back on the mainland of Africa and boy could you tell. For starters soon after checking into our hostel Erin went on the mycrolight flight that got cancelled 2 weeks before because of bad weather. And wouldn’t you know it… there were elephants on the runway. Yes elephants. Just chilling, walking across the runway. Yup we are back on the mainland kids. The mycrolight for those who cant picture it is basically a hang glider with some chairs and an engine suspended underneath. It is a really neat experience. The ride is not as bumpy and unstable as you would expect and the view is amazing. Probably the best view you can get of vic falls you circle around the falls a few times to see the rainbow and the breathtaking spectacle of water crashing down from over 100m up ( hold on to that stat for a while it will be important later ). The ride on the mycrolight also allows you to see if you are lucky hippos, crocodiles, elephants and buffalo wandering around the river. On our previous foray into livingstone Erin Jamal and I partook in jumping off a bridge. We had the pleasure?? Of bungee jumping from the bridge over the Zambezi river. The view was breathtaking and terrifying. Erin jumped off seemingly unafraid and started to hate the journey once she hit the bottom. Disliking the jolt and the length of time she hung upside down waiting to be rescued. I on the other hand. Nearly had to be forced off the edge for both the bungee jump and the bridge swing but was in love with the feeling once I got off the ground. I loved the bouncy feeling of being weightless. Other then the initial jump the worst part of any of it was about 5 seconds after you jump off on the bridge swing and your brain tells you that the rope should have taken your weight by now… but it hasn’t. A few seconds later it does but those are terrifying seconds. After the jump or the swing just to add insult to injury they make you walk along a narrow catwalk on the underside of the bridge. With 2/4 of the adventures we wanted to undertake in Livingstone completed we set off the next day on adventure #3. Rafting the Zambezi river. Just 3 weeks prior to this the river was rated the best white water rapids in the world. We were in for a treat. The full day adventure consisted of 26 rapids in fairly quick succession. They had comforting names like stairway to heaven, devils toilet bowl and oblivion. In the end we had a great day! We flipped our boat a few times, fell out and swam through at least 1 rapid, each had a solo performance ( falling out while everybody else stays in) and enjoyed the beautiful canyon of the lower Zambezi.
The following morning we set off to have our lion adventure. We got up and were ready to go by 10. We sat in the bar airea waiting for the ALERT people to come and pick us up…. And we waited…. And waited…. By 11 we decided that this was not just Africa time and that we should try to contact somebody. So erin took out her emergency contact card…. The one they said “call the number on the back if anything happens or if they don’t pick you up.” So she called. And got some guy, he did not sound very smart and said he would be there in 15. So we sat down to wait some more. When he arrived he said he didn’t know who we were and that we had not paid and he couldn’t help us despite his name and contact information being on our card. Eventually it was sorted out that the lion people were coming to get us at 12:30 and the staff at the hostel had been told this but had failed to pass the information on to us… oh Africa.
The lion project was 2 weeks of sheer wonder, how can something so dangerous be that cute. It is a mystery. During our time here we got do walk lions babysit lions, make toys for the lions, feed the lions, cut up meat for the lions and generally take care of them. We would take out up to 2 groups of lions at a time on walks through the park where the project was located. The lions walked in 3 groups. Dende and Demara two girls both with a bit of a mischievous streak and both about a year old. Zariah and zemphara, the youngest of the lions at 10 months these 2 are sisters both a bit shy with zemphara being completely unwilling to let any boy touch her. The last group was of 3 lions madoda, manali and Zambezi. Madoda was the only boy of the group and was extremely lazy. Manali and Zambezi liked to stalk things and get into trouble. Manali was probably the naughtiest lion of the whole bunch and she loved to give stalking eyes to people. Her favorite game was trying to stalk our guide Friday. Through the walks we were able to learn how to interact and work with the lions. We got to pet them, first on the back and later on the face and tummy. We were able to let them lick our hands and scratch under the chin. As well we learned to greet them and to discipline them. It was very important to stand your ground and be alert at all times. While friendly they are still lions and would have hurt us if they jumped on anyone. Play full or not they play with claws and teeth and our skin is no match for that. Aside from the occasional bout of being chased by hippoes and having to scare elephants off from trampling the garden it was a relatively peaceful 2 weeks. It was much to hot and much to short but our time in Livingstone was fantastic. we have had 9 weeks total in Africa and I would not trade a single day of it for anything. It is sad to see it go but I am excited for adventures further east.
PS
Adventure 4 was going to the devils pool. Erin and I swam across part of the upper Zambezi river from Livingstone island to the island with the devils pool ( note the edge of the falls as we were swimming was about 10 m away) then we jumped off some rocks into the devils pool and sat on a ledge about half a meter wide at the top of the falls… remember the height from earlier. Then just to make sure we went all the way and lay down on that little ledge so we could look down at the spectacular view and get some pictures. No big deal tho cuz some guy was holding our legs for safety. Oh Africa this kind of stuff doesn’t happen anywhere else…. Mostly because it would be illegal
No comments:
Post a Comment