Feb. 26th, 2012: Today I had a lazy day, it was wonderful. I spent the day by the pool hanging out with some new friends that I have met while staying here at Jollyboys. The pool is really nice and very needed in the blazing hot 40 degree weather! I had a rather blonde moment when I hard boiled my eggs in the morning. I started them and then forgot about them until an hour later and had to explain to the person in the kitchen why my eggs were STILL there. They actually tasted pretty good!
Feb. 27th, 2012: Today I visited the Chobe National Park in Botswana! My day started out with a 45 minute bus ride to Botswana, where I had to go through immigration and got some new exciting stamps on my passport. I thought it was really funny how I had to walk on this little cement block with a towel on it which was supposed to help to prevent foot and mouth disease. I was confused on how that worked but walked on it anyways seeing as I didn’t have a choice. Botswana is very beautiful. It is a very nice place, with the most interesting part in my opinion being the animals that wander wherever they wish. This includes the roads. Cars have to stop for elephants and cows and many more animals to cross. There are no fences to keep the animals in one area! I was greeted with a very yummy little breakfast of muffins, coffee/tea and fruit. I then boarded the boat which we would be cruising down the Zambezi on for the first part of the safari. It was nice, I sat on the top floor to get a better view and some sunshine. I saw hippos, an elephant, lots of birds and a crocodile (in the water). It was really peaceful to just sit on the boat, listen to the waves, rock gently and every once and a while look up to see the gorgeous view. I stopped back at the chalet for a delicious lunch before heading out on the game drive. The lunch was so yummy. I had salad, like at home, for the first time since leaving home. I never realized how good salad was before! After lunch I boarded a little speed boat which brought me over the river to where we would be boarding the cars to go on the land safari. I couldn’t help but notice how the huge trucks were transported across the river. It looked like big pieces of a bridge had been detached and made to float. It was easy to see how all the trucks lined up waiting could wait a VERY long time to get across. It was rather creepy, hearing about the stories of human trafficking and why the new rule to check all the trucks cargo was put in place at the border. It was really cool because standing on the speed boat, I was at a 4 country corner with Botswana, Zambia, Nimibya and Zimbabwe around me. They say there is only one other place you can do this in the world!
I then began my game drive! I saw so many amazing animals very close up. I saw a LOT of elephants. There are 40000-60000 in total in the park. At one point, we were surrounded by about 10 elephants and had a chance to see them very up close. They were so close that they could have touched the front of the car. They are a chocolate colour with very wrinkly skin. Considering they are born at 90-120 kg, you can imagine how large they are fully grown. They can grow to be 60-80 years old. The oldest one that the guide thought we saw today was 55 years-he was massive! I saw one scratch itself on a tree and understood how they can rip their ears so easily when they scratch like that. I watched one have a mud bath and have a clear water bath in the river. I watched them eat and drink up close and flap their ears when they wanted to cool themselves. At one point, one little elephant started to play with us. It mock charged, flapping its ears and shaking its trunk at us. Then, when we stopped to take pictures of it and look at it, the elephant gave a large grunt of disapproval and hid behind a tree, all bashful about his recent behaviour! It was really cute. I saw a 2 week old elephant hiding behind it’s mom and I really wanted to take it home. I saw many hippos. Looking out at the river from afar, there were so many hippos it looked as though they were just rocks in the grass! At one point we ran into a big herd of them (called a pod) and got to see them all yawning, showing us their huge teeth, as a warning to back off. So we did and pretty fast because those teeth were pretty huge, haha. I saw a lioness in the heart of the jungle walking around, apparently looking for a place to rest after her hunt. She was beautiful. I saw a lot of impala and was surprised to learn that for every year that a male lives, he gets another twist in his horns. They can live up to 15 years old and I can’t even picture the horns at that point, how their heads would stay on I have no idea! They have little black boots on it looks like and white lines on their bodies. My favorite animal that I saw was the giraffes. I had been waiting to see them as they were not at the last safari we were at! They are amazing. So tall and graceful. They are brown and yellow in colour and I learned that the darker they are the older they are. Like many of the animals that I have described, little birds love to sit on the giraffe and eat little bugs off of it, in return for safety.
I got home from the safari at 7 pm. As tired as I was from my long day, I didn’t want to cook so I went with some friends to an Italian place called Olgas. Together with a friend I shared a pizza and a pasta. It was delicious. I am now just learning how to braid using hemp! I am looking forward to another lazy day tomorrow. I can’t believe I only have a few more days here in Livingstone, it is rather sad but also nice to know i'm on the home stretch here. Will be seeing everyone in a few days, or talking with you if you are out of Kelowna as usual!
Feb. 27th, 2012: Today I visited the Chobe National Park in Botswana! My day started out with a 45 minute bus ride to Botswana, where I had to go through immigration and got some new exciting stamps on my passport. I thought it was really funny how I had to walk on this little cement block with a towel on it which was supposed to help to prevent foot and mouth disease. I was confused on how that worked but walked on it anyways seeing as I didn’t have a choice. Botswana is very beautiful. It is a very nice place, with the most interesting part in my opinion being the animals that wander wherever they wish. This includes the roads. Cars have to stop for elephants and cows and many more animals to cross. There are no fences to keep the animals in one area! I was greeted with a very yummy little breakfast of muffins, coffee/tea and fruit. I then boarded the boat which we would be cruising down the Zambezi on for the first part of the safari. It was nice, I sat on the top floor to get a better view and some sunshine. I saw hippos, an elephant, lots of birds and a crocodile (in the water). It was really peaceful to just sit on the boat, listen to the waves, rock gently and every once and a while look up to see the gorgeous view. I stopped back at the chalet for a delicious lunch before heading out on the game drive. The lunch was so yummy. I had salad, like at home, for the first time since leaving home. I never realized how good salad was before! After lunch I boarded a little speed boat which brought me over the river to where we would be boarding the cars to go on the land safari. I couldn’t help but notice how the huge trucks were transported across the river. It looked like big pieces of a bridge had been detached and made to float. It was easy to see how all the trucks lined up waiting could wait a VERY long time to get across. It was rather creepy, hearing about the stories of human trafficking and why the new rule to check all the trucks cargo was put in place at the border. It was really cool because standing on the speed boat, I was at a 4 country corner with Botswana, Zambia, Nimibya and Zimbabwe around me. They say there is only one other place you can do this in the world!
I then began my game drive! I saw so many amazing animals very close up. I saw a LOT of elephants. There are 40000-60000 in total in the park. At one point, we were surrounded by about 10 elephants and had a chance to see them very up close. They were so close that they could have touched the front of the car. They are a chocolate colour with very wrinkly skin. Considering they are born at 90-120 kg, you can imagine how large they are fully grown. They can grow to be 60-80 years old. The oldest one that the guide thought we saw today was 55 years-he was massive! I saw one scratch itself on a tree and understood how they can rip their ears so easily when they scratch like that. I watched one have a mud bath and have a clear water bath in the river. I watched them eat and drink up close and flap their ears when they wanted to cool themselves. At one point, one little elephant started to play with us. It mock charged, flapping its ears and shaking its trunk at us. Then, when we stopped to take pictures of it and look at it, the elephant gave a large grunt of disapproval and hid behind a tree, all bashful about his recent behaviour! It was really cute. I saw a 2 week old elephant hiding behind it’s mom and I really wanted to take it home. I saw many hippos. Looking out at the river from afar, there were so many hippos it looked as though they were just rocks in the grass! At one point we ran into a big herd of them (called a pod) and got to see them all yawning, showing us their huge teeth, as a warning to back off. So we did and pretty fast because those teeth were pretty huge, haha. I saw a lioness in the heart of the jungle walking around, apparently looking for a place to rest after her hunt. She was beautiful. I saw a lot of impala and was surprised to learn that for every year that a male lives, he gets another twist in his horns. They can live up to 15 years old and I can’t even picture the horns at that point, how their heads would stay on I have no idea! They have little black boots on it looks like and white lines on their bodies. My favorite animal that I saw was the giraffes. I had been waiting to see them as they were not at the last safari we were at! They are amazing. So tall and graceful. They are brown and yellow in colour and I learned that the darker they are the older they are. Like many of the animals that I have described, little birds love to sit on the giraffe and eat little bugs off of it, in return for safety.
I got home from the safari at 7 pm. As tired as I was from my long day, I didn’t want to cook so I went with some friends to an Italian place called Olgas. Together with a friend I shared a pizza and a pasta. It was delicious. I am now just learning how to braid using hemp! I am looking forward to another lazy day tomorrow. I can’t believe I only have a few more days here in Livingstone, it is rather sad but also nice to know i'm on the home stretch here. Will be seeing everyone in a few days, or talking with you if you are out of Kelowna as usual!
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