South Africa - End of the Line

LAST DAYS OF TOUR

We entered South Africa with no issues and immediately treated to a dramatic change in landscape. Gone was the dry and dusty Namibian landscape and in it's place was lush green fields and mountainous backdrops.
The contrast was most welcome and a stunning sight.

Our camp was only 15km over the border so we arrived early and relaxed. The camp was situated on the Orange River and if the desire to know what Mexicans feel like overcame us we could swim over the river and re-enter Namibia without border issues.
As such, I felt no need to change my name to Jesus and contented myself with enjoying the view.
The day was uneventful, aside from the unnecessarily-needed Halloween party. As an Australian, I see no point in celebrating Halloween. It really has nothing to do with us, but being the good sports we are we decided to go with the flow.
I put on my new wetsuit and went as Scuba Steve and Danni went as a Terrorist, using my headscarf I got in the Middle East.
Wasn't too bad considering what we had with us, but then one person decided our "costumes" were not good enough and we didn't try. Coming from a guy who decided it would be funny to dress up as a "coal miner" which was basically his way to get away with colouring his face black.
Very clever thing to do in a predominately black country.

Once he opened his overly opinionated mouth, the idea of any fun was gone and I got changed, also it was freezing cold.

A pretty cool birds nest

The next day, the cleverly costumed people thought it would be a blast to go out in public like that, including the white guy dressed as a black guy. He was proud of the looks he was getting.

It was another driving day, the weather was cold and it was a miserably grey day but we arrived at our new camp mid-afternoon and I was happy to know it would be the last night I would be pumping up that bloody air mattress. It was also another day of Mr. Opinionated to throw out snarky comments to Danni and I.
No idea what we did to him but he was a real dickhole for the last couple of days of the trip, but then again all he wanted to do was control the entire group. Thankfully our tour leaders (who were awesome) didn't let that happen.

It rained that night, a fitting finale to our camping days with the floor becoming semi-flooded. Thankfully no one got too wet or have an items affected.

CAPE TOWN, HERMANUS  & STELLENBOSCH

It was both a pity and a relief that when we arrived in Cape Town. A pity that our tour ended (despite it being on a sour note with certain people) and a relief because Cape Town is one of our favourite cities in the world. It was great seeing table mountain, even though it was covered in clouds due to the overcast conditions.
I immediately left our lodge where we had checked in for the night (the tour technically didn't finish until the next day) and headed to the Two Oceans Aquarium where I had booked a dive with the sharks.
It was a busy dive with 4 others including the Scottish Divemaster who could have make a whale feel skinny. He was a big boy but a really nice guy (and not shy about his weight).
The dive consisted of 5 female jagged-tooth sharks, a couple of sting rays, fish, one huge female loggerhead turtle who decided to make a small appearance before settling back behind her rock.
Sharks generally don't scare me but, as we were told it was near feeding time and since they are hand fed it's not a good idea to extend your hand out least they think you are feeding them, I had the sudden feeling they were watching me, and waiting. One of them even swam past me and I could see her eye following me. Quite unnerving.
The loggerhead was beautiful though and I scored a sharks tooth from the floor of the aquarium.

I see what you doing…boy

After the dive, I caught up with Danni and we explored the Waterfront, and Cape Union Market to buy some more supplies for our trip to Europe. We had dinner at the Greek Tavern, one of our favourite restaurants in Cape Town, before heading back to our lodge.
It was so nice to sleep in a bed again.

We had breakfast with our tour leaders the next day in the Waterfront and then we picked up our hire car and drove 2-hours towards Hermanus.
Hermanus reminded me of the perfect seaside town. It was so peaceful and quiet there, lots of restaurants and it is situated on Walkers Bay. We checked into our Guesthouse and walked across the road to the bay where we were immediately treated to Whale's playing in the bay.
Apparently during this time of the year it is a common sight to behold. We walked along the coastal path and into town where we explored the sites. There isn't a whole lot there which is part of the appeal.

The next morning we woke up insanely early and headed to Gansbaai for our Cage Diving with the Sharks. We thought we were going with the group who we booked with but they palmed us off to another group. Much to our dissatisfaction. The group we booked with are the only company who have a constant air supply so we don't have to breath hold while in the cage.
Anyway we were a packed boat, 19 people in total, and we headed the short ride out to see where we immediately got to see one shark.
I won't go into detail, the video is below, but in the end we saw 10 sharks - 6 females and 4 males, one of them being a young one.
They are such beautiful creatures and didn't at all look threatening.

We finished and returned to our Guesthouse around midday and had a much needed nap. Afterwards we went back to the bay and spent a good hour or so watching 4 or 5 whales playing in the water. They were breaching and splashing their tails about, or just sun baking upside down. It was pretty cool.

Dinner was at the local steakhouse and I had possibly the best steak I've ever had. I've go back just to have another one.

The next day we drove back towards Cape Town but stopping in Stellenbosch, the wine region of the Western Cape. Stellenbosch is the classic country style town. 

The town is only a couple of blocks in size, it's well kept and probably one of those places where all the locals know each other. It also has a European feel to it. The outskirts are lush green fields of vineyards and farmlands (and a golf course).

We didn't do a whole lot there, we explored the town and had lunch and dinner there, spoke to some of the locals who were studying there. Stellenbosch is a really nice place. Peaceful even.

We returned to Cape Town the next day and just relaxed. It was to be our last day in Africa.

Namibia - The most underrated country on Earth

The Namibian border crossing couldn’t have been any easier, quicker or stress free. A quick form to fill out, no entry visa and we were in and out before you could say Windhoek.

I wish other countries could take note, however in saying that there was literally no one else bordering crossing. No cars, no trucks, no people. It was pleasant.

The Namibian landscape is not what I thought it was, it isn’t as deserty (so far) as I thought it would be. The soil is dusty and it looks like they haven’t had a whole lot of rain lately, but there are still a lot of green trees and bushes.

The weather wasn’t too bad today and it was a quick 10km drive from the border – through a small national park (we saw Zebras and Elephants) to our campsite where we had lunch.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, for some reason there was no power so we couldn’t get anything cold until later in the day and everyone was feeling lethargic so there wasn’t a whole lot of interest in doing much.

The campsite does have a little bird sanctuary hosting a few interesting looking parrots. I am not sure if they are native to Africa but I did like the look of some of them, they had some very nice colours.

We were hit by a sudden windstorm right after dinner, so strong it was blowing our tents to-and-fro before it calmed down about an hour later. It was strange how quickly it came and went and we hadn’t a clue. There was lightning and thunder but thankfully no rain.

By the time we fell asleep the wind had died down to a breeze.

We awoke the next morning and began our journey to Etosha National Park. The trip took about 8 hours including 2 stops for food and ATM and then for lunch. We reached Etosha around 3pm.

Etosha is the biggest national park in Namibia and it covers 20,000 square kilometers. So it’s pretty big.

Camp gates closed at 6pm so we had a 90-minute game drive close to the campsite where we saw A LOT of giraffe. More than I have seen anywhere else. We also saw a couple of Oryx, which marks a new animal for me. They are Black and White and quite large with equally large horns. Aside from a lot of Giraffe’s and the Oryx’s we saw some Zebra’s, a couple of Mongoose (including 2 at the campsite who didn’t seem to have any fear of humans) and a male, brown-backed jackal.

A couple of the 3 million Giraffe's we saw in Etosha

The next morning we took another game drive on our way out of Etosha. Today we saw a lot. No lions or leopards or Cheetahs, but a lot of giraffes, elephants, oryx, hyenas, jackals and even the rare Black Rhino. It was a pretty cool drive and I like Etosha a lot, probably one of my favourite National Parks I’ve been too. We also saw the salt plain, a large part of Etosha is a former lake-gone-dry and as such is now a salt plain. The animals largely stay away from it but the sicks ones go there and lay in the salt to try and draw up the minerals to help them get better.

We camped just outside the national park gate.

The next day we arrived at a Cheetah park around midday. The park is a 7000 hectare farmland owned by a family who farm it, and set up a camping ground but also have permits to own Cheetahs. They have 4 tame Cheetahs and 15 wild ones in a large pen.

The day was stifling hot and we spent most of the afternoon in the shade before we were picked up around 4pm to visit the tame Cheetahs at their house.

There were 4 cheetahs, 3 of which we were able to play with, the other didn’t like to be patted.

It was so cool to be able to play with these cats. They are really big, but so skinny. Their fur feels very thick and you can feel the bumps where their spots are. They were very playful, one of the cats took Danni’s hat and kept playing with it, batting it around, holding it in its mouth and running around it. Then when the hat was finally taken away, the Cheetah decided it would attempt to steal Danni’s thong (flip-flop/sandal – whatever you call it) and it wouldn’t let it go. The owner finally managed to get it back but not without a big chunk of it taken out of the back of it.

To my reluctance we had to finish with the tame cheetahs and jump in a trailer where we were taken to the 15 wild ones. These wild ones have been saved/rescued/captured by other farms and given to the park. These Cheetahs have killed cattle or sheep on a farm and instead of killing them, farmers capture them and give them to the park as a way of preventing the destruction of the Cheetahs.

Like lions and leopards, once Cheetahs get the taste of blood for an animal they will continue to hunt them and therefore cannot be let loose.

The wild cheetahs were split into two different pens. The first one held 7 Cheetahs who all knew what to expect when they hear the truck with the trailer coming. Dinner time!

They crowded around waiting for the driver (one of the farmers) to throw some donkey meat up in the air. It was awesome to watch them leap in mid-air to capture the meat, fight over it and then run off with their catch. The good thing was no Cheetah went hungry so they all got a feed.

The second pen had 5 of the roughest, scarred Cheetahs I’ve ever seen. They look like they’ve been in a couple of fights and I get the feeling these ones are more wild than the previous ones. They were fed the same way but we were outside the pen this time, unlike the previous one where we were right amongst the Cheetahs.

I went back to the second pen later that night since it was close where we were camping and they were prowling around the fence line, one of them even hissed at me and feigned an attack. It scared the crap out of me. I didn’t expect that at all.

I…I can explain

The next morning I went back to the Cheetah pens and caught sight of the five wild ones still prowling but at the other pen, there was a since Cheetah, a young one I think, who sat near the fence, facing the other pen and kept meowing, as if trying to call one of them from the other pen.

It was fascinating to see them act like a domestic house cat, s/he even began rolling on the ground like a house cat.

All in all I was very impressed with the Cheetah park and would love to spend some more time there. Cheetahs are one of my favourite animals and as I didn’t really get to see one in the National Parks (from a distance in the Masai only) I was happy to get a close and in depth look at how they act, even if they are confined.

We left the Cheetah Park and arrived at Spitzkoppe during the mid-afternoon. Spitzkoppe is a basic campsite with one distinguishing feature, it has a lot of huge boulders which meant we were able to sleep on them under the stars. No tents.

It was freezing cold and we had to use our sleeping mats for the first time since the first night we started this trip but it was magnificent. A clear sky allowed us to peer into the heart of the universe. Stars scattered the sky like freckles scatter the face of the palest redhead you’ll find, we saw Scorpio and we even saw two shooting stars - a first for me.

I was quite content to fall asleep under such a canopy.

An Oryx walks into a bar... 

The next day we headed to Swakopmund, one of the bigger tourist destinations in Namibia, situated on both the ocean and the desert, with a lot of activities to see and things to do. It’s also very cold.

We spent 3 nights there and naturally with a whole lot of activities at our disposal we decided on one thing - Quad biking in the Namib Desert.

The first night we relaxed and explored the small town, there were a lot of shops and we did a bit of shopping, buying some shoes, a wetsuit and other clothing. It’s very cheap in Namibia.

That night we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant, a last night to say goodbye to the 4 people leaving the group here.

The next day was Quad biking. I’ve never used a quad bike before so I was keen to see how I would go and try not to make an ass of myself. But, like my sandboarding in Dubai, I was awesome at it from the outset…granted I used an automatic and all I had to do was steer and make sure I had enough oomph to get up the steeper dunes.

We departed into the Namib Desert and I was incredibly surprised at our it looked, especially compared to the Middle Eastern Deserts we had visited before Africa. The sand here is a lot finer and the dunes look fake, I felt as if it was merely a background that I would drive through any second, but it was not to be, the airbrushed dunes were smooth with shades of red and black from iron in the air caught on the dunes. We rode through the Desert, riding up and down the dunes, going through what they call the rollercoaster before stopping at the top of a tall dune where we could see both the sea and the rest of the desert.

It was great fun.

We relaxed the next day and got some much needed R&R, it was nice to have a bed for 3 nights before back to camping so we much as much use of it as we could.

Our next destination was Sossusvlei, home of the petrified forest, apparently one of the most photographed places in Namibia and the Southern Hemisphere. It was another stinking hot day and we trudged through the sand for 20 minutes before reaching the plains where the forest is. 65000 years ago a river ran through the desert and the area was green and lush, due to the shifting of the sand the river was cut off and then eventually died out leaving the petrified forest. Upon approach I was a bit underwhelmed by it. It just looked like a couple of dead trees on a plain but when we reached the plains and walked amongst the dead trees I felt a little more better about it all. It is by no means a forest, it’s probably less than 50 trees but it still was pretty cool once we walked amongst them. We rode out the rest of the day at camp, relaxing and trying to stay cool.

The next day we headed towards Fish River Canyon, arriving around 4pm. Fish River Canyon is the second biggest canyon in the world, behind the Grand. We strolled around the edge of the canyon, glimpsing the chasms and the dry river down below. The views were great and it was a relaxing walk, though it is still hot in the afternoon in Namibia.

We relaxed the night in camp and at the bar, it was a cool night and also our last night in Namibia.

Botswana - Elephants have 2 trunks

Glorious day! We woke up at a normal time…well we were meant too, habit has put me in the habit of waking up with the sun. It is still insanely hot at night in Zimbabwe but there wasn’t a hurry to get the tent packed up and be on the road before even God wakes up.

It’s only an hour drive to the border of Botswana and we made a quick exit with the most social of customs officer so far in Africa. We entered Botswana with no fuss and learned they’re a pretty big deal in the diamond industry with a growth rate of 9% year-on-year.

So yeah, they got some money.

It was another hour before we reached our campsite in Kasane. We had lunch and then packed as we were heading for an overnight camp in Chobe National Park, the biggest park in Botswana and second (I think) biggest in Africa.

We were picked up and driven a short distance to the entrance where we began a late afternoon game drive.

That night we saw a good deal of animals, including a Sable – a type of antelope – which is the first time I have ever seen one, hundreds of elephants as Chobe is home to some 65,000 African Elephants and from the distances we saw a leopard on the banks of the Chobe River (which borders Namibia).

Chobe itself was surprisingly desolate in terms of plant-life, it looked dead and clearly ready for the summer rains to come, but it was not to come that night as we camped in the middle of Chobe.

We were told the rules, no fruit in the tents as the elephants can smell it, go to the toilet (a hole in the ground) in pairs and use your torch before getting out of your tent to make sure there are no wild animals around.

Bow-chica-wow-wow

Thankfully the night was uneventful, we did hear some lions roaring and elephants trumpeting but other than that it was safe and good. Except it was so bloody hot Hell would advertise it as a summer getaway. There was little chance of sleeping that night.

The next morning we awoke, packed up and did an early morning game drive. This drive trumped the late afternoon one by a mile. We saw a pride of lions, including 4 lioness and their cubs relaxing in the sand before moving on, crossing the road and passing us nearby. We spotted 4 leopards, though they are still hard to see, we did get a good look at one with her cub and she passed us dragging along her fresh kill (Impala. Oh yeah, there were lots of impala). We also saw the usual Elephants, Buffalo, Giraffe, Crocodiles, an Owl in the tree, some Fish Eagles and a Baboon that looked like he was dying, possibly bitten by a snake.

We arrived back at camp at lunchtime and spent the day relaxing, charging cameras and laptops and just trying to stay cool.

At 3.30 we did a boat cruise on the Chobe River, we were told it was the highlight for a lot of people but I thought it was fine, but no where near the best of anything I have done. I did however spend a lot of time meeting some of the new group, including a nice couple from the USA who have been travelling for the last 6 months around the world. Aside from the social side we saw the elephants crossing the river, elephants doing the nasty in the water and another elephant with his second trunk out and in full view. Also our boat hit a hippo, not sure how the hippo fared after that.

The “party” returned to the campsite where we had dinner and were still up and talking for a couple of hours before we went to bed on a, blessed, cool night.

I woke up refreshed and happy to have slept. We had to take down our tents as we were moving on to Maun, which is the entrance to the Okavango Delta. We are going to spend the next two nights in the Delta living like bushman with no showers and a hole for a toilet.

The drive to Maun took about 8 hours but didn’t feel that long, even though the days are incredibly hot and the trucks don’t have air-conditioning.

We didn’t do much in Maun, just enjoyed the free WiFi until it went offline and had dinner and then packed for the Delta. We went to bed early for an early wake up.

The next day we woke and had a quick breakfast before packing our gear for a 45-minute boat ride to the Poler’s station just outside the entrance to the Delta. Once there we transferred our camping gear to the mokoros. Traditionally Mokoros are canoes dug out from tree trucks however the Botswana people are no longer allowed to dig out the trees for this purpose so they have a fibre-glass boat that looks like it is made of wood. Also the wooden ones leak.

Danni and I packed our gear onto the Mokoro and hopped on with our poler named Manual. We relaxed along the delta as we were poled for 90-minutes to our camping spot. The delta is lovely, the water is shallow and all you can see are reeds or lotus flowers, and the ride to the island is so peaceful, you cannot hear anything but the breaking water from the poler.

There are spots where you can see where the elephants have trampled through but thankfully we did not come across any.

Once we arrived at our campsite we set up and were told the rules (don’t go out at night, go to the toilet in pairs etc.) and were then left to our own devices. Since the weather was stifling we decided to head for the Hippo Pool nearby which is a natural pool that used to be occupied by Hippos before they moved on. Hippos are interesting in that once they have left a pool, no Hippo will ever use it again. I guess it is a territorial thing.

The water was filthy and dirty and probably a good way to get a nice exotic disease, however it was so hot that we didn’t care and the water was so refreshing that it was worth the risk of getting something.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, talking and trying to stay out of the sun before I went on a game walk.

The game walk was a bit boring in that we didn’t see a whole lot, only a couple of elephants from a distance away but it was nice to get out and see the island. There are a lot of palms around thanks tothe elephants. The fruits of the trees they eat take 3 years to plant and grow if they fall of naturally but if 

an elephant eats the fruit, the nut comes out in their poo and, along with the fertilization, it only takes a year for the palm to grow. So while elephants are destructive they do create some vegetation.

Once we returned we had dinner and afterwards, relaxed again trying to cool down. Sleep was hard to come by and the heat didn’t help but I managed to get some sleep. Apparently during the night we have a few elephants very close to the camp and one of the guides says they hear a lion/hyena (the story changes per person).

The next morning there was a nature walk but I did not go. Danni went and walked 4-hours and didn’t see much. I was thankful I didn’t go, happy to try to sleep in. Once they returned we had brunch and then headed back to the Hippo pool to cool down.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, trying to cool down in the shade, as it was another day that would melt plastic. We had dinner at sundown and were treated to a performance from the guides. They sang some songs to us in Setswana, some which included some funny dance styles, before we went back to bed.

The next morning there was another nature walk that I again didn’t partake in, preferring to pack up our gear and get ready to leave. It had been almost 3 days since I’d had a shower and while the Hippo pool was cool, it didn’t clean us at all. I felt some dirty and grimy that I would have walked over my own mother to have a shower.

Thankfully the mokoro ride and subsequent boat ride back was quick and once the tents were up I had the best shower of my life.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, washing out clothes from the Delta and enjoying the time off.

Dinner was had and the weather was cooler so sleep was easier thankfully.

We woke the next day and had breakfast. We packed and left by 7am as we were heading to our penultimate African country (on this tour) – Namibia.

Zimbabwe – Mugabe country.

Ahh Zimbabwe, how I’ve missed you and your corrupted government, lead by Mr Soulpatch himself, Robert Gabriel Mugabe. We were dropped off at the Zambian border and after a quick exit we walked about 2 kilometers through no mans land, over the bridge connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe and over the Zambezi river as well before we were greeted by a customs official who looked about as interested in his job as a gay guy in a lesbian porn video.

$50 later we were granted entry into Zimbabwe, more specifically Victoria Falls. We took a taxi to our campsite and paid for a tent with twin beds.

I found that to be a nice change from the air mattress and it was a comfortable bed as well.

We spent the day relaxing and sussing out the prices for all the different activities to do in Victoria Falls (there’s a lot of them).

Having woken up early, we had an early dinner of which I had the Impala Steak (not very nice) and Danni had the Warthog steak (very nice) before heading to our tent.

The next day we decided on the activities we wanted to do and negotiated the best prices for them before we relaxed, had some lunch (Danni had a Wildebeest hot dog and I had a similar game hot dog but I can’t remember the animal it was. Regardless it was very nice) while we waited for our tour group to arrive.

After they did arrive and we set up our tent, we got some washing done before we were assaulted by some sugared-up baboons who were trying to steal our food (and stole 2 lollypops from our bag). They continued to annoy us, one even charging Danni in an example of alpha maleness. It was actually a bit scary because there was no way of knowing how they were going to act.

The baboons and monkeys are pests in the campsite, the baboons especially because they know to tip the metal container over to get to the bin inside, it’s actually quite fascinating to see them and how they’ve worked it out.

That night most of the group and the tour guide, cook and driver all went to a restaurant called The Boma. That place was awesome.

It’s a buffet restaurant and they cook the food in front of you as you select it. There is a massive variety of foods, including the soups, salads and starters (I had a Guinea Fowl, tastes like a dry chicken) before you get to the pig out menu of mains. There was Boerwors (some kind of sausage), Warthogs steak in some sort of marinade (delicious), Eland Balls (not testes! They were ok, a bit spicy), pork sausage wrapped in bacon, and a whole bunch of different chicken. They also had a challenge where you would get a certificate if you ate a Mopani worm.

I certainly ate it. It really had no taste to it, it was actually dry, like eating beef jerky I guess.

During dinner we were treated to traditional African drumming and even had the customers involved. It was really an amazing experience.

The next day was the one I’d been waiting for: White Water Rafting.

The second time I have done Rafting on the Zambezi and it was just as awesome as I remembered. We went with a different company this time (Shockwave) and it was only the five of us from our tour group who went.

We were picked up and taken to their office and given the down low on safety, putting on helmets and safety jackets and all that fun stuff. We also met our Raft Guide – Wilson.

He was awesome, very funny guy who clearly didn’t take anything seriously, but clearly knew how to raft.

Once we were done with the formalities we jumped in the car and took a short journey to the starting point…well the top of the starting point because you have to walk down the gorge to get to the river and the rafting meeting point.

After about 20 minutes of walking down some suspect ladders and routes we arrived and got in our raft.

We went through the basics, how to get in if you fall out, flipping the boat over, etc. We also got a great view of the waterfalls as well.

The rafting itself is 19 rapids over 25kms, thankfully following the current so not as much actual rafting as there was on the Nile, and it consists of mostly grade 4 and 5 rapids, with one grade 6 that you have to walk around.

As with the Nile rafting, it is hard to go into details about White Water Rafting suffice to say it was amazing, we did not flip at all and only one person in our raft was washed out of the boat. The incredible thing about it was that the rapids were tough, especially the grade 5’s, we were battered every which way and even got airborne and vertical but we still held on and kept the raft upright (I did get thrown around a bit, sitting in the front) and survived some that others didn’t all the while we were told twice to get down, all the others we were expected to keep paddling through the rapids.

Once we hit rapid 19 it was time to finish up and do the worst part of the activity: Climb up the friggin gorge.

Climbing up the gorge of the Zambezi River is what I imagine towing a truck by your balls feels like. It’s tough, it hurts and it feels like you’ll never stop. But we persevered and I was one of the first to make it to the top and had downed 3 drinks by the time the others made it.

Danni and I knew what to expect as we had done this before, but there is no way to prepare anyone else for this experience. You simply cannot describe what it is like in a way to make someone realize how friggin hard it is.

Once we were all up and satisfied we weren’t dead, we had lunch. A simple, but nice fare of barbeque chicken, potato salad and another salad and all we could drink. Once that was done we drove about 45 minutes (35 of which is an African Massage) back to Victoria Falls.

We said goodbye to our tour guide and promptly wished we were dead. Legs were very sore indeed.

That night we met the new tour guide and driver (the cook was visiting family), as well as some of the new people we would be travelling with over the next 3 weeks. There are still 5 of us from the original tour going all the way to Cape Town so it is nice to not have to get to know everyone on the trip.

I haven’t formed a judgment on the new people or the guide and driver, though they are very much the beer-drinking types who want to drink every night. Not that it really bothers me as long as they aren’t annoying or obnoxious about it. Or they don’t take all the space in the cooler for their beer while my drink gets boiling hot.

Yes, the next couple of weeks should be interesting indeed.

Day three of our challenge to Mother Nature was a cage dive with crocodiles. Much like Devil’s Pool and Rafting this was an incredible experience, but in a different way.

We arrived and got into the cage that was suspended above the Croc pool and were lowered down into the cool, green water. (although the croc wanted to lay where we were meant to land so the Divemaster had to poke it with a stick to get it to move).

There we were able to watch the croc watch us, climb on the cage and be fed food on a stick by the divemaster. The croc was a female, about 26 years old, missing some teeth and over 2 meters long, great with kids. It was fascinating to watch her probe and prod the cage and when she climbed on the cage, her foot would fall through and we could touch her. Surprisingly, their feet are really soft. Danni also got to touch her belly.

They had an extension on the cage where you could stick your head through when the croc was on top to get a closer look at them. It was there I realized how scary they look, also how similar they look to dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. She would bite the cage trying to get food and look at me with eyes that are expressionless when she rested on the cage for a little bit.

It is not hard to imagine why they have survived for millions of years. They are big, bad and scary to be around.

That said, and as I said above, it was an incredible thing to do and well worth doing if you are in Victoria Falls.

We relaxed for the rest of the day, it was incredibly hot so we tried to stay in the shade, or find a place with air-conditioning before we had our last dinner as a group (Pizza. So classy) as the next day we would go our separate ways, though most of us going to Chobe National Park in Botswana.