Three Volunteers, Two Nations and One Giant Waterfall

After Sossusvlei, it was time to leave Namibia for the first time and head off to Victoria Falls. For the trip, Caitlin and I met up with Lorna, another Project Trust volunteer, who has a cracking sense of humour and an even better Yorkshire accent. After several hours waiting in a Wimpy restaurant, 17 hours on a coach (including an hour of gospel television as entertainment : I kid you not, it’s as weird as it sounds), we had arrived in Zambia.

Our first day was spent in Livingstone, getting to grips with Zambia and relaxing after our bus journey . We did decide to take a trip to the local orphanage that our hostel seems to have a link with that afternoon. Bit of a mistake. Listing a trip to a children’s home next to safaris and rafting trips under the guise of volunteering set my ‘volun-touirsm' alarm bells ringing. Sadly, I was right. Whilst it was interesting to see the home, I just didn’t feel like our presence contributed anything valuable or that we were providing anything worthwhile. A controversial point of view, perhaps, but the distinction between goodwill and mere gawping is one that I feel is worth considering. (Please note: all views published on this blog are solely my own, and do not represent the opinions of Project Trust or any other organisation I represent here in Namibia).

Zambia, however, certainly did not disappoint: it was a truly incredible trip to a fantastic country. The Falls themselves are simply magnificent.  You can see the spray from the falls for kilometres around, and the noise hits you as soon as you step out of the bus – they don’t call it Mosi-Oa-Tunya, The Smoke That Thunders, for nothing. Walking around the trails, it’s impossible not to be overwhelmed by the force of the water, the enveloping spray and the density of the rainforest. They do rent out ponchos for visitors walking around the Falls, but waterproofs are for sissies: we were determined to get absolutely drenched. Crossing Knife Edge Bridge in the pouring rain (? spray? not totally sure which direction the water was coming from, but there was lots of it) was invigorating, and although we were pointed at and conspicuously laughed at by a group of Asian tourists for being so soaked, we had a fantastic time. There’s going to Victoria Falls, and there’s wearing Victoria Falls; we had a great laugh doing both. After exploring the park and drying off a little on a walk through the craft markets, we headed to the Victoria Falls Bridge where Caitlin and I did a zip slide across the river, temporarily ending up in Zimbabwe for all of 5 minutes, and Lorna did a bungee jump of 111m over the Zambezi. Turns out Lorna is an absolute scream in more ways than one, but exceptionally brave.

"Is it really that wet?...."

"....yep, definitely soaking."

After an early morning elephant back safari with Caitlin and yet more time in Livingstone’s craft markets on Tuesday, we finished our time in Zambia with a sunset cruise on the river. Some labelled it as a booze cruise, which sounds a little more debauched-6^th-year-holiday-in-Malia/Zante/some-other-Godforsaken-Greek-island than Central-African-Wonder-of-the-World, but it turned out to be more like a floating barbeque, and a lovely evening as the sun went down over the Zambezi: simply stunning.

Me?! Carried away with Zambian souvenirs?! Never.....