Colourful is definitely a word I’d use to describe my last week in Africa. And I’m referring to colourful in the most high-definition, technicoloured sense possible! As I sat on the plane waiting to depart for Zambia I could hardly contain my excitement: I was finally going to see the Victoria Falls! Despite being exhausted from having to get up at 3am to catch the flight I didn’t sleep a wink while we flew. My head was glued to the window & I was admiring the astounding scenery of this vast & spectacular continent. Mountains jutting up from the ground, enormous lakes & fragmented shore lines: wide, meandering rivers that brightly reflected the sun & great, dusty plains desperately awaiting the rains. 

We touched down & I jumped in a taxi to take me to the bus terminal where I would catch a coach to Livingstone. Zambia was hot! The bus terminal was hectic, full of people trying to sell me tickets to this place or that. I made a beeline straight for the ticket office of the bus company that had been recommended to me. Thankfully the bus was air conditioned – but (and those of you who know me well are going to laugh at this) throughout the entire duration of my 7 hour ride, they played terrible, terrible music – and they played it loud! I was subjected to Celine Dion, Westlife and awful, cheaply produced RnB. I put my earphones in & turned up the volume on my ipod, listening to the noisiest music I had on there to drown out the torturous cacophony of music that really should be banned. “No hope of catching up on any sleep on this bus ride then” I laughed to myself. Ah Africa.

It was around 7pm when I arrived in Livingstone – and still 38 degrees. After asking a few people directions I found my way to the hostel I had planned on staying at. Get this – it’s called Fawlty Towers. I kid you not – the place exists – in Zambia! I checked in & was greeted by another guest of the hostel: a portly middle-aged South African guy who laughed out loud when I told him I was camping. “In this heat?!” he scoffed. “Yea” I said with a grin “I’ll be fine”. He then turned to the receptionist & told him to give me a double room & to charge it to his tab. Of course I turned to him and refused, saying I couldn’t possibly accept such generosity from a complete stranger, but he insisted, assuring me that everyone around the place called him Uncle John because of his generous nature, and that absolutely no strings were attached. My instincts told me not to worry, so I gratefully accepted & was shown to a lovely room with a double four poster bed, a private bathroom – and a fan - what a result! A huge wave of gratitude swept over me.

By luck it just so happened that a couple of friends I had made at the Lake Of Stars Festival were also in Livingstone at the same time as me: two brothers, Jonathan & Alex who were on a road trip together – and Nacho – a lovely Spanish guy who has been living in Malawi for a few months & who knows Tanya’s friends in Nkhata Bay. They were all staying at a hostel up the road & after a wonderful night’s sleep in my princess bed (smile) I made my way to them to have breakfast. The previous evening we had all agreed to do a full day’s white water rafting, so we all eagerly booked ourselves in & awaited the truck to pick us up. I cannot express to you how much fun the rafting was! We went through 25 rapids in total and yep, we flipped the boat! We went hurtling into the gushing rapids, paddles flying. The water swept us along with mighty force – it was scary but so exhilarating! As we came to calmer waters we slowly gathered around the boat, making sure we were all ok and grinning from ear to ear. We were allowed to get out & swim in the river between rapids, which provided a welcome relief from the hot sun. After lunch the paddling was tough. We were all sleepy from food and the sun was absolutely scorching (we later found out it hit 42 degrees that day). “Forward” our guide, Choongo would shout. We paddled and then stopped. “Forward, forward!” with groans and moans we half-heartedly paddled until we reached another long-awaited rapid, which would give us another burst of energy. We hit a rapid and the back of the boat jerked upwards suddenly. I went flying off the boat backwards, legs up in the air and let out a little girly yelp as I splashed into the water. I enjoyed the powerful motion of the water pushing me like a little ragdoll and waited for the boat to catch me up. The guys were all grinning at me as they pulled me back into the boat, making sure I was alright, then laughing at my magnificent tumble. It was such a privilege to see the Zambezi from this angle. The gorge that it runs through is high and dramatic – looking like scenery from The Land Before Time. Enormous black rock walls surrounded us, towering meters above our heads – on several occasions we stopped to gaze in awe at the mighty feat of nature that encapsulated us.

The next day was to be my special day at the falls before I departed Livingstone to head to Bovu Island - a little island in the middle of the Zambezi - for a couple of days relaxation. I had booked myself in for an early morning micro light flight around the falls, then a trip to the Devil’s Pool…oo-er…

Since I had done rafting with the guys the day before, I had not yet had a chance to see the actual falls. My heart was almost in my mouth as I crept onto the micro light craft, knowing this was going to be my introduction to the falls. I was grinning like a little girl as we took off, almost overcome with excitement. The pilot could see how gleeful I was and assured me that no matter how many times he had done this, seeing the falls always sent shivers down his spine. We flew along the Zambezi towards the falls and I could see the smoke rising up from the falling water. As the craft turned, we faced the falls & at last I saw them. The white waters looked like the wings of angels from this height as they tumbled over edge of the river and even though the waters were low due to it being the dry season, it still took my breath away and made me burst into tears. It was such an overwhelming beauty to behold. The falls are 1.4km long and 100m high – pretty spectacular. I’m definitely going to re-visit them during the rainy season one year to see them in their full glory. The pilot told me that when the falls are full the mist rises to the height of where we were flying. No wonder then that the locals fondly refer to the falls as the Mosi-oa-Tunya - the Smoke that Thunders. I came away from the flight with such an incredible feeling of elation. I will hold that memory in my heart for ever.

I had one last adventure at these magnificent falls – the Devil’s Pool. We were picked up by speed boat and taken down the Zambezi to the falls. There a guide greeted us & walked us to the rocks literally at the edge of the falls. During the wet season these rocks would be submerged beneath tumbling torrents of water, but now, during the dry season you can walk right up to the edge and stand next to the active parts of the falls. It’s mesmerizing. We took a short stroll along the edge of the falls until we reached a little pool…the Devil’s Pool. Here, a wall of rock forms a barrier so that a deep pool is created. Water gushes over the top of this wall, but because the pool is deep, when the water is low enough you can jump into this pool and literally swim to the edge of the falls without getting swept over the edge. The guide then holds your ankles while you lay on top of the wall & look straight down into the waterfall as the water runs over you and plunges down into the river below. It was one of the most awesome experiences of my life.

After my utterly fabulous morning I headed back to town to hang out with Jonathan, Alex & Nacho for a while and await my lift to Bovu Island. I had been discussing my plans with the guys & Nacho had been toying with the idea of joining me on Bovu Island and then coming on safari with me. Now it was decided – he was definitely going to join me. This was a wonderful surprise as I had been fully intending to do this leg of my trip totally alone - now I had a travel companion, hurrah! Our lift arrived & within an hour we had arrived at the banks of the river to be paddled over to the island. It’s a beautiful remote island nestled in the Zambezi, just west of the falls. It really was a little piece of paradise: sand so fine it feels like flour (and squeaks beneath your feet as you walk over it), open air showers and the river Zambezi gently lapping against the shores. The perfect place to decompress. Again, I fully intended to camp here, but upon arriving the owner decided to put Nacho & I in a fisherman’s hut over-looking the river for the same price as a camping spot. It seems Zambia is my lucky country! I was only intending on staying here for 2 nights but we had such a lovely time here we ended up staying for 3. There were 4 other people staying on the island with us and we all had so much fun together: lazing around in the hammocks, paddling out to the other little islands on the river to watch the sunrise and the sunset and dunking ourselves in the river at the ‘swimming spot’ – a little croc-free zone a little way upstream where the waters are shallow and rocky. We played around in the uber soft sand like little children, throwing each other around and skidding on the sand banks, getting sand well and truly in our pants! Fun times.

Nacho & I then headed back up to the capital, Lusaka, to go onwards to South Luangua National Park for a safari. Sounds simple enough right? Ah no…this is Africa, and this came with its own little adventure. Getting the bus from Livingstone to Lusaka was fine. Another air conditioned bus (yes, with very bad music once again) delivered us to the bus station in Lusaka by 6pm that day. We then needed to get to Chipata and then from there, we needed to get to South Luangua. We had hoped that we would be able to catch an evening bus to Chipata from Lusaka, but no such luck. We had to wait until 4:30am to get the bus. We were running low on local currency and the banks had shut so we couldn’t change our dollars up – we didn’t even have enough for the bus ride, but we somehow managed to charm the bus conductor into giving us tickets for the money we had. That was that sorted, but now we had no more currency and we had to wait until 4:30am to get on the bus. We headed to the nearest open establishment, which just so happened to be a casino, to ask if they would change some dollars to local currency. No such luck. We then headed to a diner where we approached a local guy standing at the counter. He agreed to change up $20 at an appalling rate, so we persuaded him to buy us two beers for compensation. 6 beers each later we were sitting with him in one of his favourite clubs getting very hammered very quickly. By this time Nacho & I had made up a story about how we were married and lived in Malawi with our 2 children (believe me, it was simpler to tell locals we were married than to explain to them that we were friends who, on a whim, decided to travel together). It was getting a little late & our friend needed to get home, so he dropped us off back at the bus station. We still had some time to wait for our bus and heard music emanating from a party somewhere close. We asked where the music was coming from & were told it was a college party. We decided to go check it out. We had no idea how to get into the party, so naturally we jumped over a wall and walked across a field to find our way there. We hung out at the party and entertained the locals for a couple of hours until we couldn’t stomach the music any longer & we decided to head back to the bus station in perfect time to grab a couple of bottles of water and catch our bus.

We were told the ride would take 5 hours & that we’d be in Chipata by 10am. At midday we were still on the bus – and this time there was no air conditioning and people’s belongings were everywhere…there were boxes in the isles, bags on top of the boxes, crates of drinks on top of the boxes and bags – it was a tad chaotic. Add a sprinkling of very loud, unrelenting gospel music to the equation and there you have our bus journey. On no sleep and quite a severe beer hangover it was a little challenging to say the least. We eventually arrived in Chipata, almost at our wit’s end – and then had to figure out how to get from Chipata to South Luangua. After a few failed attempts at hitch hiking we eventually conceded to taking a minibus to the camp, which was another 4 hours away. This minibus was ridiculously packed and as hot as a sauna. I gritted my teeth, laughed at the situation at hand, and squeezed myself into my teeny tiny little space. By around 8pm we finally arrived at the national park and at our camp site. We were shown around by the camp owner who explained to us that elephants & hippos regularly come into the camp to feed – and sometimes the odd lion might roam in – and every now & then a leopard will come & drink from the pool. We were told to just let the animals get on with it & were assured they wouldn’t bother us. He informed us that we could pitch our tent up anywhere in the campsite, so we decided to put up the tent behind a bush, well sheltered from the morning sun.

At 3 am we were awoken by a loud rustling coming from our little bush. We had left the cover off the tent so could see outside…and what was it that we saw? An enormous elephant literally standing next to our tent, having her early morning breakfast. We lay there, totally silent, in complete awe. The elephant turned towards our tent, gave it a little sniff with her trunk and then turned back to her breakfast. She walked around the bush and carefully stepped over our little tent, totally avoiding standing on even the tiniest part of it, and headed off to join the rest of her heard. We were both left speechless…what a completely fantastic (if slightly scary) experience!

We got up at 5:30am to get ready for our morning safari. This was absolutely awesome. We saw hippos, lions feeding on kills, elephants, zebras, monkeys, baboons, giraffes playing with each other, graceful impalas, pukus, and even a pumba! It was incredible to see these animals in their natural habitat, doing what they do, seemingly unaffected by the presence of humans. What an utter priviliage. We spent the rest of the day lounging on hammocks, laughing at the cheeky monkeys stealing people’s food (this saying has taken on a completely different meaning for me now!)

The next day we had to find our way back to Chipata to get back into Malawi. We had arranged to catch a ride with a truck of English tourists but at the last minute the driver decided against this plan and in a nutshell, left us pretty stranded. He stretched his generosity as far as giving us a lift to the nearest little town, but then we were on our own. After 3 hours trying to hitch a ride we had almost given up hope, when Nacho managed to flag down a big lorry. He agreed to let us jump in the back and within 5 hours we were finally in Chipata. From here we made our way to the border town and eventually into Malawi. We then managed to hitch a ride in another truck back into Lilongwe, where I would reunite with Tanya and spend my last night with her before getting on my flight back to London. And it is here that my African adventure ends. Over this past month I have seen and experienced many things that have changed the way I think on so many levels. I feel so privileged to have been given this opportunity – an opportunity to grow and discover. Africa is truly an amazing continent – I would strongly suggest that everyone explores it. I’m definitely planning on returning to explore it properly.