Who knew malaria could bring so many benefits?!
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I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed the time we spent in Zimbabwe (sorry Ange!).
Before coming on this tour, I would never in a million years have planned to go there on holiday as I didn't know anything about what the country had to offer tourists.
Before now, when I thought about Zimbabwe, I thought of Victoria Falls, how inhospitable it was supposed to be for visitors and how bad its international reputation was - mostly due to what I've seen and heard about the Mugabe regime. As soon as he's gone, I really hope the country's reputation improves and tourism takes off as Zim has so, so much more to offer than Vic Falls.
That said, Victoria Falls was amazing and should be on everyone's list of places to visit as far as I'm concerned. We could hear the roar of the raging water from miles way and see the thick clouds of mist above it from at least ten miles away which was impressive enough, but seeing it in person gave me goose bumps and for once made me speechless - not a easy feat.
It was such an odd feeling standing there looking at one of the natural wonders of the world whilst getting drenched from its mist.
And when I say drenched, I mean we left there with our clothes dripping as if someone had thrown buckets and buckets of water directly at us.
It was worth it though as it really was spectacular sight to see the falls in their full rainy season glory - as was seeing a herd of elephants hanging out outside the town's Barclays bank cashpoint!
(I've never been so keen to borrow money!)
Since she booked to meet me in Africa, Anwen said time after time that she wouldn't, under any circumstances, do any adrenaline activities. I thought I'd be able to persuade her when she arrived but there was no chance.
"Like hell. I've bungeed once before and it was the worst thing I've done in my life. No way, no chance, dim gobaith caneri. NA!"
Most of us on the truck signed up for the Full Adrenaline day, which gave us an unlimited number of jumps off the Flying Fox (straight zip line), Zipline (zipline that drops at a ridiculous angle) and the Gorge Swing (same as a bungee only with the harness around your waist instead of your ankles) as well as abseiling forwards and backwards off one of the cliffs.
http://www.afrizim.com/activities/victoria_falls/High_Wire.asp
I'd been looking forward to this since for months and was adamant I'd get my money's worth somehow - even if I wussed some of the activities, I figured I'd eat as near to $150 worth of food as possible from the buffet!
Four gorge swings, four ziplines, few flying foxes later a couple of bruised ribs and some significant bruising later, I was satisfied I'd justified my spend!
Loads of people have asked how I could have done it so many times. The only thing I can answer is that the adrenaline rush it gives you is addictive and weirdly, I wasn't nervous at all.
When the instructor was strapping me into my harness for my first jump at the gorge swing, he asked me how many times I'd done it. When I replied never, he said, "So why are you so relaxed? You look like you're walking into a restaurant!"
So after all of my big talk about doing the Vic Falls bungee ... I didn't do it!
As I enjoyed the other throwing myself off stuff the falls had to offer, I've decided to spend my money (which is rapidly running out!) on bungeeing in Cape Town - the biggest bungee in the world with a free fall twice as much as the Vic Falls jump!
In for a penny, in for a pound, eh?!
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I would have put some decent photos of me doing the gorge swing on here but Anwen didn't take any! Her excuse?
"I thought you'd be faffing around for ages before you jumped so I wasn't ready. To be honest, I thought you would bottle it. Da iawn ti!"
Luckily some of the others took some or I'd have had no evidence of my bravery / stupidity*
* Delete as applicable!
Ps - Rachel's getting married in the morning!!!!!!!!!
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