we start by taking a miserable 17-hr bus ride to Livingstone, Zambia. A very touristy but nice town. 15 of us were on the trip and we all stay at a fun backpackers lodge.
a few things about zambia:
it is beautiful - very different landscape than Namibia, it is very wet and lush and green, and while I still think Namibia is breathtaking, it was nice to get a little change of scenery and see some greenery.
it is definitely less developed than Namibia, overall, certain parts are better or worse in both countries but overall Zambia is a few steps behind Namibia. for example, the roads were horrible, to get somewhere 20km away takes 45 minutes.
the city is quite touristy and strange. men are everywhere, I hardly saw any women out, and they all try to get you to come over and "talk" with them which means let me sucker you in so I can try to sell you something. sometimes it was really overwhelming, we went to a couple markets a few times and all these men try and tell you stories about their products and make you feel really guilty for not buying anything, I'm not sure if they were really desperate or it was the scheme to sell more.
despite that, the people are very friendly and kind, I am continuously blown away by how people are so welcoming everywhere I go, Zambia as well.
So some highlights of the trip:
Crossing from Namibia into Zambia over the mighty Zambezi River - one of the most powerful and large rivers in Africa, and the world. It is the only place in the world where 4 countries meet - Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, we were only in the spot where 3 met though.
Here is the Zambezi again, we took a sunset dinner cruise, lots of fun, beautiful sunset and good company.
Victoria Falls!!!! the main reason we went to Zambia - it is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world - I've now been to 2. There was lots of places to hike around and see the falls from different areas. It was impossible to really see all of it, no matter where you see them from you can't see it all. and if you are close the mist is so strong that it is hard to see, but if you stand and watch every so often the mist is blow away and you can see them and it is spectacular. standing that close to something so powerful is quite an experience.
This is us hiking down to the boiling pot - we hiked through water and mud and climbed over rocks and it was the "african jungle" - it was a lot of fun - at the bottom we were next to the river and it was spectacular
here are the falls from one angle - I wish I could have captured the true beauty of the falls. we went the first day and the last day because it was so amazing. you walk across a bridge fairly close to the falls and get completely soaked - completely - not a dry inch on the whole body.
well hello mr. monkey! we saw a lot of monkeys at the falls - they were quite used so humans and the second time I went I even got in a little fight with one about the trash. another monkey experience was on the canoe trip and I fed a wild monkey from my hand - pretty cool.
The next day we went to a village (not putting pics on here) which was strange but interesting - felt a little exploitative but talked to some locals about it and they said it was strange at first but then they saw the benefits of it and were happy about it, it was still awkward though. anyways, then we did some extreme spots (above). 6 of us did a fully day of repelling (frontwards and backwards), zip lining, and gorge swinging (below). it was incredible, a lot of fun.
here is my doing the gorge swing, you jump off and free fall for a few seconds then it catches you into a swing - I went 3 times and it was extremely scary each time but then when you start swinging and look at the view it was amazing.
so then 7 of us took a 2 day canoe trip on the Zambezi. we left early one morning and came back in the evening the next day. the whole trip we are cameoing between Zambia and Zimbabwe which was cool - close to another country but not quite there. It was an absolute blast though. I of course was the person who fell out during the rapids the most, but it was fun. Sometimes it was relaxing and other times it was hard work. Our 2 guides were a lot of fun and took care of us. It was a little exciting and scary because there are a lot of crocodiles and hippos in the river so we could only jump out during the rapids and we had to constantly do hippo checks and bang on the side of the canoes (inflatable canoes). It was a great trip.
here is where we got off from our canoe trip - those are the falls. Overall Zambia was amazing and I am so glad I went. met some nice people, saw amazing things and saw another part of the world - I'm a happy person.
Was sad to leave but when we entered Windhoek I was joyful to be home again for a while and enjoy everything Namibia.
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