Bungee jumping at Victoria Falls is one thing I can add to my list of new experiences. It is something I never thought I’d do, I’m glad I did, and don’t know if I’ll ever do again. Sophie, Jen, Dalton, and I took a three day trip to Victoria Falls, Zambia and it was definitely a highlight of my time here in Africa. We boarded a bus Thursday at 7pm, and arrived at the Botswana-Zambia border about 12 hours later. Let me just say that the ride did not go by uneventful...Dalton got into a little scuffle with a woman who we picked up in Francistown, Botswana. Since the bus was full, she had brought along a bucket and pillow to act as her seat. Out of the 20 aisles on the bus, she decided on ours and was very stubborn and reluctant to move, despite Dalton’s initial and persistent argumentation. After three hours of her wide behind pushing against Dalton on one side of the aisle and Jen on the other, Dalton decided he wasn’t going to take it anymore. After a quick bathroom break, we loaded the bus again and, without hesitation, the woman places her bucket back in the aisle of our row. When she went to move Dalton’s armrest up, so her backside could fit across the aisle, Dalton resisted her, and kept the armrest down. This started a physical battle over the position of the armrest. It went on for a little while, with her trying to push it up, and him trying to keep it down, and soon surrounding rows took notice. I saw some hands from the row behind us that were trying to push the woman’s hand away...they were fighting for Dalton, but with all the Setswana that started going back and forth between other passengers, Jen and Sophie had the idea that the bus was fighting against Dalton. The bus coordinator, after seeing this conflict, came back to our row and then began about 10 minutes of argumentation, mostly in English now, between him and the other passengers, who were so kind and were passionately arguing for Dalton. Mostly thanks to these other passengers, the coordinator had the woman move to the front on the bus, I think to sit on the steps that lead out of bus. It was quite an ordeal...it got pretty intense, pretty fast. We were lucky, though, that it did go our way, because the thought of us four being kicked out of the bus for disrespecting an elder did not sound like something we wanted to experience.
A few hours later, we reached the Botswana-Zambia border and, once there, we took a ferry across the Zambezi River and got a second bus that took us to Livingstone, Zambia. We arrived there around 9am. We had reservations in the city of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (which is just across the falls from Zambia), but when we got to Livingstone, we realized we should have just made reservations in that country, so we didn’t have to pay for another visa to get into Zimbabwe. So, we headed to the Jollyboys Hostel, a place we had read and heard about. It was about a five-minute walk from the bus stop, and they had a four-person dorm room available...it worked out perfectly, and for $10 a night, it was a really great deal!
After taking a little afternoon nap, we did a sunset “booze cruise,” dinner and drinks for $40...and don’t let me forget the included hippos, too!! Seeing wild hippos was one of the coolest parts of the trip! They were so neat...we saw maybe six in the water, and two on land. They are large creatures! And very round! We also saw some vervet monkeys and a plethora of birds...my favorite was probably the Egyptian goose (the Tulsa Zoo has one) and also the trumpeter hornbill (which oddly sounds just like a crying baby!!!).
The next day, Saturday, was our trip to the famous Victoria Falls...and boy, did we make it a trip! We started going to see the falls, which required a raincoat rental, if you didn’t want to get drenched. The falls caused so much mist and rain, that even with raincoats, we got pretty soaked because it was just constant rain while we were walking through the trails. I was able to take some pictures, but it was hard because I didn’t want to get my camera wet! We got to view the bridge from which we would soon bungee jump, too. We saw a few people actually jump...it looked pretty awesome, and I don’t think at the time I wanted to admit to myself that I was actually about to do it! The falls were just beautiful...very magnificent and also so loud. You could hear the large volumes of water that plummeted over the edge and hit the river below...I said it was a sound I could fall asleep to every night.
We then ate lunch at a very nice hotel called the Zambezi Sun, and after that we made our way to the bungee bridge. We payed and signed a waiver (which included the word ‘fatal’ as a possible outcome), and then went to do the zip line across the gorge to bridge from which we were about to jump. The zip line wasn’t too scary…there was tension on the rope the whole time…and NO freefall. Once I get across and to the bridge where the bungee jump is, I start to get a little nervous, but it wasn’t until I was strapped up and standing over the ledge for the next activity, the bridge swing, that I started to freak out a bit more. The whole setup happened so fast that before I knew it, they were counting “three, two, one” and I jumped over the ledge! I stepped feet first off the ledge and it was about a 3.5 second freefall…pretty scary. I was attached to a rope across the gorge a ways so once that tension hit, I said “Thank you, Jesus,” out loud and laughed. It was amazing once the swing part started. I swung back and forth across the gorge over a river…just a breath-taking view…so beautiful. After swinging back and forth for several minutes, a guys repelled down to get me, hooked my straps up to his and then we were hauled back up to the bridge. I watched my three friends do their bridge swings, so happy that I had already done mine (I requested to go first), and then it was time for the bungee jump. They strapped me up one last time, once again a very quick ordeal…so quick I was a little worried they had forgotten something. They gave some quick instructions as I stood on the ledge (Dive outwards, keep your hands up) and abruptly started the countdown, from five this time. I dove off the ledge, face-first, and instinct had me close my eyes for most of the free-fall. Once the tension hit the rope I bounced almost all the way back to the bridge and kept doing so until I slowly came to a stop and was just hanging upside down over the gorge. Again I thanked God for keeping me alive and laughed out loud, so shocked at what I had just done! A guy repelled down to get me and we were hoisted back up to the bridge. I then watched my friends do it, so relieved that I was done with everything! I am so, so happy that I did it…I think I’d do it again, but I’m not 100% sure about that. It was a pretty amazing thing, and sort of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The bridge swing was definitely the scariest out of all three activities…but for sure the most enjoyable (after the free-fall part, of course).
We made it back home that night, ate dinner at the hostel restaurant an prepared to be at the bus station at 4:30 in the morning to try and get on the bus going to the Zambia-Botswana border. We get there only to find out that the bus is full…so the bus employees help us to get a taxi to the border, ensuring that some of the bus passengers will be getting off at the border, and we could take their seats. So, we get in this taxi, go to some house that was apparently a “gas station,” fill up, and start driving. We’re driving basically in the middle of nowhere, it’s still dark out, my three friends are sleeping…and I hear this loud noise, coming from the back left tire. I hit Sophie and Jen next to me to wake them up and whisper to them that I’m pretty sure we had gotten a flat tire. The driver pulls over, checks out the tire, but then returns to his seat and continues to drive. The tire is not sounding very good…and the driver is forced to go about 25 mph…the sound of the tire gets louder and the driver gets out one more time to check on the tire. He once again returns to the driver seat and continues to drive on. We end up making it to the border, who knows how, though, because when we get there and check out the tire, we were stunned to see that we had been driving on a rim for the last 30km. We got very lucky that we made it there. We took a ferry across the Zambezi River and did end up finding the bus that we needed to get on. We asked if they had four seats, they said yes and much relief came over us because up until that point, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to get home. Although we were very fortunate to get on that bus, the drive back was a cramped and very hot one. (However, I did see TWO wild elephants out the window…very neat!!!) We made it back to Gabs around 7:30pm, and I was so happy everything worked out in our favor for the trip home. Overall, the weekend trip was a great experience, definitely a highlight of my time here. Traveling is something that I love so much, but it’s so hard to do during school. Our next trip will be to Mozambique over our semester-break. I’m looking forward to the beach!!!
