Depends Adult Undergarments – There when you need it!

After Zanzibar we took a ferry to Dar Es Salam to take a plane to Livingstone, Zambia. What was weird was that while our bags were checked all the way through, our ticket itinerary said "Lusaka". Okay, that's strange. So we asked the ticket agent about it and she said not to worry, the plane would go straight to Livingstone after unloading some passengers in Lusaka. When we landed in Lusaka, it turned out we had to run through customs, boarder control, etc to make our flight in time and they completely ignored the fact that we had no tickets to get on the next plane, just let us on. Kind of weird. Also randomly cool, Irish citizens don't need to pay for visas in Zambia, awesome!

On the plane we met some really cool ex-Merrill Lynch bankers and we ended up hanging with them most of the nights as we stayed in the same hostel. Stephanie, Pricilla and Alan are taking a half year off to tour the world after five years hiding from it as bankers. In fact, we met more people at the Jollyboys backpacker than through the rest of the trip. We had tons of fun playing yet more games of Taboo and drinking card games, and always had a large crew that wanted to play.

Livingstone is the home of Victoria Falls, one of the largest falls in the world. It is amazingly beautiful, even though we went during the low season (apparently in March the falls have much, much more water). While there is tons of fun activities in the area, most of what we ended up doing involved lots of adrenaline. We ended up skipping the walk with the lions and safaris and horseback riding, too easy thank you. Instead Vass and Mike started off white water rafting. I skipped it because I was still sick and I've been rafting a lot before. After a quick day of rafting (nothing compared to the Upper Gulley apparently), we went on a quick booze cruise. All in all, a pretty laid back day.

The next day we started what I like to refer to as the "pee my pants" tour. As I said in an earlier post, I'm scared of heights, and the pictures coming up will prove it in spades. The first activity of the tour was called gorge-swinging. It started with some repelling down a 60 meter cliff, followed by a zip-line, and finished up with the gorge-swing itself. The swing is absolutely terrifying. You start by getting in the harness, hooking up to a pseudo-bungee cord and walking to the edge of a 100m cliff. The sight alone nearly caused me to puke. You then have to hang your toes over the edge, and take one large step into nothingness. This insanity is followed by a 3.5 second freefall until the slack in the rope is gone, and then you get whipped across the gorge, where you swing back and forth until the guys at the top lower you down to the ground. Completely terrifying. I was trembling for nearly ten minutes afterwards. Random note of interest is that the harness really cuts into you so all of us have some very hard to explain bruises on our legs.

While we were there, we met a really nice Irish family (who were also staying at the Jollyboys hostel). Niles, Connor, Sarah and their mom, who all shouted words of encouragement to me when I had difficulty and was hesitating before the gorge-jump. Some of the nicest people we've met since Africa, and we spent the whole day taking turns jumping down the gorge and screaming support from the ledges.

In case you can't hear it, Mike's saying "Smile for the camera, Joel" "GIMME A SECOND!". I'm a happy camper for all of these things. You can also hear all the Irish children shouting for me, which I still think is funny.

That night I slept maybe two hours. I'm not sure if I had nightmares, but I did wake up a whole lot and I had a hard time getting back to sleep. I think it might have had something to do with the bungee jump the next day too.

Again, the bungee jump was not something I was looking forward to. It more like dreading. I tend to ask questions before the jump like "What's your safety record?" The lady who ran the "office" said they had no complications, ever, and if they did they would be shut down as the government is very strict. Mike told her it would probably be her last day then. Not funny.
Stephanie (one of the Merryl ex-bankers) took a video of the jump. I don't know if you can hear it, but right before I keep on muttering "this is stupid, this is stupid…"

Okay, top nine reasons why I didn't like bungee jumping (I can't believe I'm one short!):

1. The way they hold you up is by wrapping towels (Yeah like I'm about to take a damn dip in the river below) around your ankles, then putting a seatbelt like thing around that. The only way I was able to jump was because they give you a safety harness.
   





2. They explain the towels by saying "the towels are for comfort", twice. I was too scared to complain, but I kept thinking "screw comfort, how 'bout we focus on me not falling to my death?"
   





3. The concept of "don't look down" doesn't work at all because as you're getting your ankles wrapped, which I felt compelled to watch, you can look through the damn floor to the river below.
   





4. The bungee cord itself can hold up to two tons, but the cord appears to be frayed when you look at it from the top, not exactly confidence building.
   





5. The jump. Nothing else needs to be said.
   





6. After you reach the bottom, you bounce back up, and fall all over again. Repeat ad nausium. Literally. It feels like it never ends.
   





7. When you're done bouncing around, waiting for someone to pick you up, your feet feel like they're about to slip out of the towel/harness, so you spend 15 harrowing minutes twisting your ankles in all sorts of directions to prevent yourself from falling.
   





8. After the entire harrowing experience, you have to climb off the bridge. Since the bridge was built for traffic (not bungee jumping), you have to use the catwalks and ladders to get to the top, and you get to see the state of the bridge, which I'm doubtful would pass a US inspection.
   





9. After you get off the bridge, you have to get back on the damn thing to get the stuff you left at the bungee point, which is pretty much the last thing you want to do.
   

All in all, I felt like I needed to throw up for about a half hour to an hour after jumping. If you're afriad of heights like I am, I highly recommend skipping the whole thing and just watching.

After finishing the bungee jump, we went to Livingston Island with our new Merryl friends. It's an island, right off the edge of the falls, and the Royal Livingston Hotel offers trips out to it. It is absolutely breath-taking. What's more, after you get to the island, you can swim out to a pool at the edge of the falls. It's called Devil's Pool, and you can jump into it, and you then sit on the edge; literally less than two feet from a few hundred meter drop. This is where we got the best pictures of the entire trip. The guides at the island are absolutely fearless and walk right up to the edge, lean over it, and then take pictures with your camera. It's awesome and probably the coolest thing we did while in Zambia, possibly all of Africa.
After the quick trip to Livingston Island, we decided to grab a drink at a bar in the hotel, called the Royal Livingston. It's probably the nicest hotel I've ever seen, and it's got an incredible atmosphere. The only reason we weren't staying there is that it costs something like $500 per person per night! So in this elegant of a place, there's only one thing to do after getting your martini: eat your leftover pizza in your takeaway box. Yup, I'm f'ing classy. What's even cooler is the monkeys that hang out at the bar started trying to get our pizza, and the bar employees started chasing them away! So after making a menace of myself and getting ready to get thrown out, the other people at the bar, who can actually afford to stay at the hotel, asked us where we got the pizza. Gotta love Americans!

The next morning, it was off to South Africa!