DAY 7 - BREAK UP DAY

Wow. What a day. Kitty and I woke up on the floor again. We've been having mattress problems since Windhoek so we are feeling very sorry for ourselves. Africa has thorns. Thorns puncture blow up mattresses. Imagine that. Manda's mattress is still in tact so she finally got our Asses into gear and we headed to reception to plan the day.

There is plenty mad wild Africa stuff to do in Livingstone. And after much debate and confusion we all decided to do our own thing. Hence "Break Up Day". Kitty was to ride the elephants, Manda was to walk with lions, and Dani felt like splashing about in the Zambezi with some white water rafting. Manda and Kitty might as well have gone white water rafting anyway after getting soaking wet at the Vic Falls. The girls will have to fill you in on the epicness of their day, but here are a few pics from their adventure:

White water rafting was insane! Teamed up with the guys from Wasted Potential and Risk Africa, and with Chongo, our guide, we formed a brand new super team - The Pirates! Argghh! Drew a couple skulls on our arms and we were set. The 20-minute trek down 

to the river was intense. Loose rocks and clever "steps" made from tree branches. 

We had a brief briefing and we were off. Fifteen rapids awaited. I fell off twice.
It was awesome. Pics to follow!

Other events from today: Kitty and Manda almost got stuck in a riot. They also shared
a meal with some nice local ladies. Manda bought a tiger blankie from Pep. Dani helped sand down and paint a nearby secondary school, and Kitty and Manda watched the sun
go down on a River Cruise down the Zambezi. Pics to follow!

Plan for tomorrow: Dani to head through to the falls tomorrow morning when the girls get wild with ellies and lions. Then, big excitement for the shoe drop tomorrow,
a River Cruise for Dani and finally Checkpoint Party 2. Most of the teams have already arrived at the Checkpoint today and yesterday, so the place is buzzing and making a ton of new friends. The people on this trip are amazing. And if you ask nicely, they will make you breakfast. (Provided they get a lil Motherland Coffee in exchange.)

Sjoe. It's impossible to say there are highlights when every day is one. Can’t believe we are half way there. Keep an eye on the Put Foot website for videos and pics. Apparently they are awesome.

We don't want to come back.

DAY 6 - DRIVING / POTHOLES / BORDERS

Day 6 was a driving day. A driving / pothole / cross borders kinda day. We literally "put foot" and zoomed through what felt like a gazillion km through potholes from Popa falls in Namibia to Livingstone, Zambia.

Caprivi Strip, for all its worth, was underwhelming. We'd heard so much. Or perhaps expected too much. But Caprivi was nowhere near to the lush exotic jungle we had all imagined. There were no monkeys. There were no sweeping palm trees or beautiful woman carrying plump fruit in baskets made of reed. And although the road signs were telling us to watch out for ellies we didn’t even see one. Only a couple villages, schools, locals on bikes and the usual goat-to-cow ratio. Really should have read the "brochure".

Border crossing was an interesting one. A long one. A costly one. A disorganised dusty mess. One broken trailer to the next. Stamp here. Check there. Pay up here. Pay up more there. Sign this. Name here. Passport please. Go there. Fill that in. Pay more here. And we were finally out. Feeling only slightly abused we headed out with the other teams across into Zambia. Hooray! Hello Zambia! Hello potholes! Hello blue taxicabs. Hello weird language on the main roads of flashing lights and indicating left or right at oncoming traffic at random times. Still need to work that one out.

We arrived in Livingstone late and set up home at Waterfront Campsite on the banks
of the Zambezi. This will be home for the next 3 days. A welcome break from driving, the car, and setting up camp every day.

Tired from the day, dinner was a Special K bar and a packet of Nik Naks. 

K.O.

DAY 5 – TIGERFISH HIT & MISS

Today started as most days do. Wake up. Shower. Tea. Rusk. Road. Along the way we stopped for petrol and lunch and were subtly coaxed into purchasing our first touristy items; three personalised, hand carved tree nuts, which are now dangling with glee from our rear view mirror. Nice.

We arrived at our destination, Popa Falls, and set up camp in record speed. Nice little campsite. Met up with Doctor and the Doolittles and watched them cast some lines into the river as the sun sank into the Okavango. Manda tried her hand but no fish for dinner so we made do with some local veggies and boiled eggs with Aromat.

It is not nearly as cold as it has been the past few nights, but we’re not using that as an excuse not to cuddle. Fell asleep to a dying fire and sounds from the river.

DAY 4 – PASS THE SALT

Woke up and munched on an egg & bacon roll in the morning sun. Best ever. 

A warm cuppa tea was welcome too. Excited for the day ahead we packed up Tertius, waved goodbye to Check Point 2, and headed off to Etosha Nature Reserve. It would serve as a thoroughfare up to Caprivi Strip. And we were looking forward to seeing some wild things and driving around in the dust a bit.

Not even a kilometer into the park we found 5 lions and their lunch. Yum! Great start. Our list of animals we wanted to see was pretty detailed, but we ticked off several herds of ellies, gemsbok, zebras, black back jackal, giraffe, ostrich, kudu and
a couple hundred springbok. Springbok are the Kruger Park impala of Etosha. They are everywhere. They get under your tires and into your ears. No wait. That was the sand. The sand got under the tires and into our ears. 

Tertius is one hellava dirty b*stard now.

Arriving at the saltpan was definitely a highlight. Stretching for miles you literally can’t see where the land ends or sky begins. Vast and white and dry and endless. Contrary to popular belief, saltpans are not made to be licked. We did that anyway. Also, we were the only fortunate females for at least a 5km radius to witness 9 Put Foot boys strip down to their manly bits and take a leisurely stroll across the pan. 

We filmed it of course.

Roughly 40km out of the park and just as the sun had gone down, we arrived at Some-German-Name Campsite; home for a night. We’re getting pretty good at the whole set-up-camp thing. Everything is starting to find a place, and being three girls road-tripping through Southern Africa we’re starting to develop an over-inflated sense of self-importance. We don’t need no man. Pass us that spanner and we’ll fry you some eggs.

On the menu for dinner was Two Minute noodles and tuna. Evening’s entertainment were ominous bleats and moos coming from somewhere in the dark and Wasted Potential’s dry humor. Dinner and a show.

Bedtime. It’s cold.