Victoria Falls, Kasane and Chobe National Park

I just returned from a brilliant holiday weekend with Ali and Julie in the north of Botswana and Zimbabwe. We had the luck of two national holidays on both of Monday and Tuesday of this week, so we could plan to enjoy the weekend pretty liberally.

We left Friday evening on an overnight bus to Kasane from Gabarone, about a 12 hour trip which seemed to be on a straight-long highway with no street lights. I'm always a bit hesitant about long bus trips, not only because of the space issue with fitting in those small seats (I can't imagine how people taller than me survive!), but also because craziness seems to follow me on bus trips. This time was no different. We left at around 7pm and our bus was pulled over by the police about 45 minutes into the trip. Without explanation, we were all shuttled off the bus and stood around as policemen and women sifted through people's bags. Soon a tense conversation ensued between a police officer and one woman about something in her bag. People whispered that she may have had a firearm in her bag. After about 10 minutes we got back on the bus, and people said she was arrested. Ten more minutes later she entered the bus, with a small smirk on her face. I'm still unsure what happened there.

Anyway, we kept going on the bus, and there were about four people standing the entire bus ride. Unfortunately, one man decided to use my seat as an arm rest. So for the next couple of hours as I fell in and out of sleep, I would nudge his arm away with my bald head. He would move it and then when I fell asleep, sneak his arm back on my chair. As I engaged in a silent battle with this man for my chair, a creepy noise came from the radio, which I imagine could only be played to torture soldiers in war. It was literally like someone scratching a chalkboard with long fingernails. When that inappropriately long "song" ended, the people around us were talking incredibly loudly. I looked up and it was about 3am when the talking reached a ridiculous crescendo. There was a man and a woman between Julie and I talking in the aisle. The lady was continually bending over looking out the window for her stop, so when I would open my eyes her ear would literally be two inches from my face (presumably her butt was in Julie's face). This same woman leaned so heavily on Julie's shoulder that she was pretty much on the seat. Poor Julie and I tried to sleep through it, but eventually we had to say something - I don't think she understood anything I said, so I laughed a bit to myself and attempted to go back to sleep (lucky Ali slept through this entire ordeal). This whole time the man sitting to my left invaded my personal space over and over again, at one point literally nestling in my armpit. I was so overwhelmed by all this violation of personal space, there was nothing to do but laugh...

We arrived in Kasane and crossed the border to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, a sleepy yet quite touristy town with fancy hotels and hostels on every corner, all leading to the magnificent falls. Vic Falls is the largest waterfall in the world, a World Heritage Site, and when we got there we could see why. Rainbows seemed to be all around us as the mist from the falls moved in different directions. There was the constant low rumble of water hitting the rocks below, the chirp of exotic birds landing on trees. It was truly amazing. After that we had a great meal with local food at a restaurant named Mama Africa and returned to our hostel to find music blaring and people everywhere. We apparently stayed at a party hostel, and I'm so glad we did. This group from South Africa led by Jeremy Loops gave a small concert which was awesome - he played guitar, harmonica, and beat-boxed, backed up by a rapper and a saxophone player, building compelling rhythms for the audience.

Julie and I woke up early in the morning to go to an elephant park and ride elephants! It was breathtaking. We rode the matron of the group, an elephant named Coco who they said was a lesbian because she had no children and wouldn't let any male elephants mate with her. She was quite sassy, and even stopped for awhile to fart, despite her trainer's calls to move. It was fascinating though, the trainer had worked with her for over 16 years since she was young. When we got back from our walk, we got to feed the elephants, and I watched the three year old elephant cling to her mother as we fed them. I'm really obsessed with elephants now.

The three of us then went back to Kasane and stayed at a beautiful place in town. We took a wonderful boat cruise, where we saw elephants, hippos, crocodiles, baboons, impalas. It was just the three of us, with the awesome guide who was so knowledgeable. And then we all watched the sunset in awe, as the sky was a fiery red and the sun looked as if it was falling into the water. It was one of those moments where you realize only some divine power could create something so beautiful.

We landed back in Gabarone feeling grateful for seeing and experiencing so much in one weekend. I've now been to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Southern Africa is gorgeous - hopefully one day I'll get to Mozambique...