Holiday!!
on Rachael's VSO experience (Malawi), 30/Jun/2011 09:49, 34 days ago
So I finished work on Friday 17th June for a two week holiday, for 6 days of this holiday I was going on a trip to Victoria Falls. This is possibly going to be a really long blog so I'll break it up by day!17th JuneRosy text me whilst I was at work this morning and told me that they are having a birthday party for her tomorrow (in fact it is five birthdays within a week) and they are going out for dinner in Lilongwe if I want to join them. I was going to stay in Mzuzu for the weekend but the offer of an LL (Lilongwe) party is too exciting so after work I very quickly pack a bag and organise a few bits and pieces. This now means that I will stay in LL until we leave on Thursday 23rd for the holiday!18th JuneThis morning I get up really early to attempt to get to LL around lunchtime. So I get on the 6am bus and arrive in LL around 2pm. I call Rosy to find out where they are and walk down to a restaurant to meet them. I grabbed some lunch and met up with Rosy, Mark, Tom, Kelly, Barbara and Amanda. So Amanda is staying with Mark so they go off to do some shopping so Amanda has some food to eat. Rosy explains that Barbara is staying in her spare room but I'm still welcome to stay and Tom and Kelly point out they have a spare room to save us all being crowded in. Tom and Kelly had some shopping to do so I went back to Rosy's to get ready for the meal out. I decided it would be sensible to stay at Tom and Kelly so text them and asked if that was OK. Sebastian and Serena arrived at about 6pm to drive us to the restaurant (Mama Mia) I shoved my rucksack in their car so I could pop it in a taxi to get to Tom and Kelly's. So there were about 30 people at the meal. Imogen and her family were there and so was ling, which was weird as they both live further North than Mzuzu. Had a lovely meal, it was very strange being somewhere with so much choice. We then went to a nightclub called Zanzi's it was a very European club based over two floors. We eventually left the club at around 1.30am and I headed to Tom and Kelly's to settle in for a few days!!19th JuneSo Sunday morning I get a text around 9 from Amanda saying they are meeting for breakfast around 10am. Kelly is on call so has to go into work to do a ward round so she can't make it. Tom tends to walk Kelly to work as she had her bag snatched when she walked alone, so they walked me from theirs to the road and showed me where to get a bus and went of to work. I met Mark, Rosy, Barbara and Amanda for breakfast, Amanda was going back home as she was back at work on Monday so we said goodbye to her and decided to do a bit of shopping around LL. Kelly rang me and had finished at work so she came and met us and we all had a really nice day. Got back to Tom and Kelly's and chilled out watching some TV programmes20th JuneSo Kelly spent the weekend on call which meant she got Monday off, I had a few things that I needed to do. I had to go to Kiboko and pay the remaining money for my holiday and I needed to go to the VSO office to leave some things that they were asking for. We decided it was easier to head to VSO first and got a text from Rosy saying her and Barbara were having lunch in the restaurant at the VSO office. So we met them for lunch then Kelly and I went into town to pay my money at Kiboko. We then had a nice relaxed evening and Tom and Kelly cooked me some dinner.21st JuneKelly had to go to work today so I asked if she'd mind me joining her so I could have a little look at the hospital and how their paediatric ward works. I spent the morning at the hospital chatting to nurses and getting some ideas to take back to Mzuzu. Luckily today was Rosy's leaving party at work although she doesn't actually leave until tomorrow so I got cake and a drink!! definitely picked the right day to turn up!! I then had lunch with Kelly, Barbara and Rosy then Rosy decided she didn't have any work to do in the afternoon so she came back to Tom and Kelly's with me. We made a little stop on the way for me to buy Tom and Kelly some food as I was helping to eat it!! Rosy and I had a really nice afternoon just chatting and relaxing. Then Barbara, Kelly and Tom arrived when they had finished work and Tom and Kelly cooked us all dinner.22nd JuneSo everyone was working today so Kelly gave me the key to her place and I was left to my own devices. I decided to walk into town and see if I could find anything to buy! I actually wanted to buy some trainers as I didn't bring many shoes out with me and I was getting a bit sick of wearing my walking boots all the time so I bought them and found a pair of jogging bottoms that looked kind of perfect for if I did do White water rafting so I got them too. Took my stuff back to Tom and Kelly then went back into town to meet Rosy to buy some food for our trip. They guys decided they were going out for diner again tonight as Barbara's friend arrived from Senga bay. I left Tom and Kelly's key with their guard and met them at the restaurant. Had a really lovely meal at the Indian restaurant but it was a bit expensive! Oh well hard life in the capital!!23rd JuneRosy and I needed to be at Kiboko at 7.30, I actually arrived at 7am so decided to grab a bit of breakfast before we left. Filled out all the safety and insurance forms then we had a briefing at about 8am. There were two cars leaving Kiboko but only Rosy and I doing Vic falls the others were all doing South Luangwa. We left LL about 8:30 with our driver for the next 6 days Mike. After crossing the border into Zambia we stopped at a bank to get some Zambian Kwacha and then stopped at a campsite for lunch. At this point 3 people who had just finished doing south Luangwa joined our car to make the 5 of us doing our Vic falls trip. It's really well organised by Kiboko, 3 cars met up 2 that had left LL and 1 that had left South Luangwa. The guys that had left South Luangwa then went home, one of our cars went to South Luangwa and we went off on our long journey with our new car now joined by Emily, Sarah and Rob. We eventually arrived at the Bridge camp on the South Luangwa river at around 5pm. Mike helped us put up our tents and then cooked us dinner while we went and checked out the bar! After dinner we chatted for a while and then went to bed as Mike informed us that we needed to cover 750KM on Friday so would need to be up at 5am and leave at 6am!24th JuneSo we were up at 5am and boy was it cold!! We ate breakfast while Mike took down the tents and then we left just after 6am so we could grab a few photos of the sun rise. There isn't really much to say about Friday. We briefly stopped at about 10 at Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, it's amazingly well developed compared to Malawi so we did a little bit of shopping at normal shops! Then we set off again, we stopped on the road side for some lunch then eventually arrived at the waterfront camp at Victoria Falls by about 6pm. When we got there they showed us that for $10 per person per night we could upgrade from our pop up tent to a permanent tent. The permanent tents were set on concrete and had two single beds inside and had two plugs! Rosy and our felt that $30 each would be fine if it meant we had electricity. Mike cooked dinner for about 7pm and we went to the bar after and agreed for breakfast at 8am.25th JuneMike told us that we needed to watch a DVD about the activities you can do at Vic Falls, so we watched that at about 7.30 then went for breakfast to chat about stuff. After breakfast we went to book our activities. Rosy and I decided Saturday we'd do a helicopter flight over the falls and then she was going to do an elephant walk and I was going to a lion sanctuary in the afternoon. We had booked the flight for 10am and had to be back at the hotel at 2.15pm for the walks. The receptionist came to our tent and said two people pulled out of the flight so if we wanted to do it we had to do it at 12. We decided to go with Rob, Sarah and Emily to the falls at 9am and then the hotel agreed they would collect us from the falls to take us to the helicopter ride.The falls were amazing, Mike had given us a packed lunch, mine was sadly stolen by a very aggressive baboon! We just spent the time walking around then checked out the curio market. We then jumped on an open truck, picked up two other people and went for our helicopter ride. Definitely the best way to see Vic falls, obviously expensive but just beautiful. After the helicopter ride they dropped us at the hotel where we had lunch, then got into another mini-bus at 2pm and went off to do our walks.Walking with the three lions was wonderful, they only let you walk with young lions as older lions are being prepared to be released back into the wild. The lions just ran around in front of us and played with each other. To be honest they were quite sleepy and kept stopping in the shade and yawning! You are given a stick on the lion walk to use to distract the lion if it is becoming aggressive, you run it along the floor and the lion plays with it and is distracted from attacking you!We got back to the hotel about 5.30 and went to the bar until dinner at 7pm. We caught up with Emily, Rob and Sarah and chatted about what they had done, Rob and Emily did a bungy jump and a gorge swing sounded like hell but they both did it! We agreed with Mike for breakfast at 7.30 on Sunday as Rosy and I had to meet for white water rafting at 8.30, we also told Mike we were thinking of going out for dinner Sunday night and would like him to join us.26th JuneSo today we got up early ate breakfast then went and got ready for white water rafting. I put on my newly purchased jogging bottoms as they were quite tight and figured they would be the best to wear! Ah hindsight is a wonderful thing!!! We were then fitted with a life jacket and helmet and given a paddle. We were told to only take a change of clothes with us so that's all I took along with my walking shoes as there was a 'bit of a walk' before the rafting. Took about 45 mins to drive then we all got out and put on wet suit tops. They then split us into two groups and took group photos and lead us to the top of the gorge which we now had to walk down. It was a really steep route mainly of loose rocks and gravel, I was really scared that I was going to die doing this walk!! Anyway I eventually made it down about 5-10 mins after everyone else. During the walk I realised that my trousers were not a good choice as they were basically hipsters and were showing off a lot of arse and kept slipping down.So we were given a safety briefing told how to position ourselves if we end up in the water and what to grab and how, we were also told how to rescue people out of the water. So there were 7 of us in our boat including our guide Steve and there were 6 in the other boat including their guide Tembo. There were also 3 rescue canoes with us just in case we needed them. Rafting was amazing the other group capsized on the second rapid but we were too far ahead of them to help and they were all 'short swimmers' which means they were close enough to the raft to grab on to it. So then we hit rapid 18 and Steve screams“Get down” as this massive wave hits the raft, luckily we stayed up but everyone was soaked and I had given up worrying how much arse I was showing (sadly I forgot they were taking photos!!) So we kept on going and hit rapid 19. A huge wave which looked about 8ft high came out of nowhere again Steve screamed get down so we are all on the bottom of the raft holding on to the rope around the side then I felt the boat capsize and felt like my arm was being ripped off so I let go of the boat. I was being dragged down by the rapid for a while then the life jacket dragged my up to the surface where I could see a canoe, when I attempted to grab the handle I could reach it and got pulled away by the current and ended up being dragged underneath the other raft. I remembered Tembo talking during the safety briefing and said if you go under a raft don't panic and just keep going one way so thatit what I did. Eventually I popped out and Tembo grabbed my arms and hauled me on to their boat. Sadly my trousers got caught on the side of the boat so I had to get a bit of help to get my trousers back on!! Only slightly embarrassing but to be honest I was so happy to be alive and out of the water that I didn't really care! Towards the end we hit another rapid and Rosy and Renee both slipped off the side of the boat but we managed to get them back in very quickly. The whole thing was amazing and I'd definitely do it again but I'd probably wear my swimming costume next time! We eventually got back to the hotel at about 2.30 and had a bit of lunch and then looked at the photos, ours were slightly ruined by the fact that I have a beautiful builders bum in every photo! They are still very cool, Rosy and I split the cost of the CD. She is getting a copy of the photos first then leaving thedisk in Malawi for me. So it'll take a while before I get the photos up but they will be there!!Having had such an exciting morning we decided we'd have a chilled out evening and did a sunset cruise which was beautiful and we saw some hippos on the side of the lake. We then took Mike out for dinner and probably got back about 10pm. The guys wanted to leave later on Monday so we had breakfast agreed for 8am27th JuneToday we left Victoria Falls about 9am and stopped at the road side for lunch and arrived in Lusaka abut 3pm. Sadly it was the former prime ministers funeral today so all the shops in the mall were closed, Rosy and I grabbed a coffee and then we drove the remaining 15km to the camp site we were staying. Tonight Mike made us our last dinner and we went to the bar to watch a bit of tennis. Mike had a long day driving on the Tuesday so wanted us up by 5am so we could leave at 6am. I cannot explain to you how cold it was at the camp site, it dropped to 4degrees!! At one point I was seriously contemplating getting up and sleeping in the car.28th JuneNo one slept well last night so the car journey was very quite, we had our last breakfast and stopped around 12.30 for another road side picnic. We arrived back in Lilongwe about 4.30pm. Rosy said if I wanted to stay at hers I could and she'd go and stay with Sebastian and Serena for the night. I decided rather than making Rosy move out of her own house I'd see if Kiboko had a room at their hotel. I was then invited out for dinner on Wednesday night but decided that I had been living in the same outfits for so long I really needed to go back to Mzuzu. I agreed to meet Rosy for breakfast to say goodbye and then had an amazing night's sleep in a hotel room.29th JuneMet up with Rosy in the Kiboko restaurant and had some breakfast then I went to buy some food for my journey back to Mzuzu and said a final goodbye to Rosy. I got on the bus around 11.30 and arrived at my home at 7.30pm. Such a ridiculously long journey but at least we arrived alive as the driver almost crashed a few times!!So I have to stop the update here as it is now Thursday and I don't really know what I'm going to do for the rest of my holiday. I'm probably going to spend the day around Mzuzu today then check out how my finances are doing and possibly go to the lake tomorrow. I'll probably spend the weekend cleaning and tidying up a bit before going back to work on Monday.It's been an incredible holiday so far and I'm so grateful Rosy invited me to Zambia with her.