Livingstone

The staff at Good Hope had organized for us to spend a day in Livingstone, going on an elephant ride and then to the falls. I rode an elephant back in India so was happy to do so again. They are incredible animals and lovely and slow to ride! It was a really beautiful walk. We went through a private conservatory for about an hour, before getting the opportunity to feed them. This was the part I was dreading! Although I am much more comfortable now with animals I still don't like touching them too much, especially near their mouths! Our friends laughed so much at me, how quickly I retracted my hand after dropping pellets into the elephant's mouth! I couldn't bring myself to let them suck the pellets from my mouth with their trunks! Lame!

Literally hand in mouth!

We then headed to see Victoria Falls. I've been fortunate enough to have visited Niagara and Iguaçu so was looking forward to seeing how these ones compared. I was surprised at how small the area around them was. We could see the falls after about a minute of entering the park though had heard them for a while before. They were so loud! It was great to spend a couple of hours walking around, crossing the knife edge bridge and heading down to the boiling point. The spray was unbelievable and much of the falls were shrouded in mist. We got absolutely drenched! It was like walking in heavy rain. Fortunately it was really hot so we dried off quickly and our electronics were hardy enough to cope with the drowning! They are beautiful. Much bigger than Niagara and completely different in shape to Iguaçu, which is probably still my favourite!

 

Drenched!

Neither of us were brave enough to bungee off!

 

After finishing our work in Kalomo, Dora and I returned to Livingstone for some serious relaxation and reflection. We were both completely exhausted. Our time in Good Hope was amazing, but it was intense and hard going. We spent the weekend sleeping, sunbathing and not eating chicken! We actually went to an Italian restaurant every evening haha on Sunday afternoon we went to Mosi-al-Tunya national park for a game drive. I haven't been on a safari since living in Kenya so it was great to be back in a big vehicle and driving along some dirt tracks in search of some animals. I saw my first ever drinking giraffe which was so sweet and special! The countryside was beautiful and each animal sighting was so lovely and exciting. It was a fantastic way to end our time in Zambia. However we were definitely thinking differently. Every time we spent money we thought, ahh but we could buy 4 text books with that! Our sense of money has definitely altered, though sadly with our return to Europe I wonder how long it will last.

So ugly they are cute!

The Zambezi River