Back in Cape Town

Hello friends(especially Sally!)

We arrived back in Cape Town yesterday after 5 amazing nights in Livingstone, Zambia, which will definitely go down as one of the highlights of the trip.  Livingstone is an amazing city with friendly people, a great nightlife, and natural wonder all around.  We first arrived last Wednesday, and had a nice little walk around the city.  Our hostel, the oasis that is Fawlty Towers, served as a great spot from which to walk around the city and see a few of the sights.  We had a nice braai and booked our bus to Victoria Falls for the next day, something which we were very excited about, with good reason because....

It was incredibly awesome.  The falls are handling a huge amount of water right now(around 3 million litres per second), so as we flew in, we could see the spray that such a huge volume generates.  Even from some parts of town, which is several kilometers away from the falls, you can see the spray and hear the sound of the falls, it's just that big of a natural wonder. 

Adam has been before when the spray is not as large, which allows you to see more of the falls, but from everything he says, they are two unique yet equally awe-inspiring experiences.  When it's dry, you can see the entire expanse of the falls and even walk across the Zambezi, just above them, and when it's very wet, you can walk through the mist and get soaked by the huge spray from the falls.  While raincoat rentals were only $1, we turned them down in favor of walking through the spray, which turned out to be a good idea, even though we were completely soaked. 

Following that we walked downriver a bit, to the area called the boiling pot, where the water from the falls rushes through the gorge and creates a whirlpool effect.  From there we had a great view of the bridge, and wished really badly that we had been able to bunjee from there as well as Soweto.  We hiked back up to the bridge, briefly crossing into Zimbabwe, and had an even better view from the spectacular bunjee jump that many of the visitors took advantage of. 

Friday was a bit of a quiet day, but on Saturday we went on a nice cruise of the river and saw some hippos as well as a pretty amazing sunset, and Saturday was our day to do the gorge swing.  We stayed out in Livingstone until around 3 am both Friday and Saturday nights, so by the time 8 am Sunday morning rolled around, it was a struggle to get out of bed.  But we made our 8:30 shuttle and performed adequately on the zip line and the abseil (rappelling) but after that it was time for the gorge swing.  I thought that bunjee jumping in Soweto had been scary but in actual fact the gorge swing was more frightening.  The gorge, which was over 100 meters wide, had a line stretched across it with a rope that hung down in the middle.  That rope was just long enough to reach the edge where we stood, and once we were attached to it, it was our job to take one big step off the edge of the cliff. 

I went first and by the time I had my toes over the edge the last thing I wanted to do was step off the cliff.  But once Kulu (the massive Zambia jump master) starts the countdown, there's really no turning back, and I stepped off the cliff.  After a 50 meter free fall, the rope kicked in and I swung across the gorge, soon followed by Adam and Paul.  Paul's jump was technically perfect, save for a tiny smidge of profanity, and we each did the swing twice.  While my neck doesn't agree (even 3 days later), it was a good time had by all.

Paul and Adam did a lot of trading and bartering down at the market that afternoon but Monday saw us head back to South Africa, and we are now back in the hands of the very capable hands of Blue Mountain Backpackers and our great Cape Town friends.  Zambia really is a truly amazing place, I only wish we'd been able to stay longer.  And if anyone needs 100,000 Kwatcha when I get back home, I can hook you up.

In the next couple of days we'll try and fill in some of the gaps from our time in Grahamstown/Kleinmonde/East London, so keep looking out for that, and we'll be posting some pics soon as well.