I’ll begin with a picture from the ending – here’s a picture of my traveling companions on our last night together in Livingstone, Zambia. Our group almost looked like a family – 11 out of the 14 travelers had blond hair and blue eyes. We had two couples and a mother-daughter from Holland, two friends and a couple from Denmark, an Australian teaching in Azerbaijan, an American working in Congo, a German girl studying to be a vet, and me. Great group led by two great guides – Manni (short for Emmanuel) and Matthew, both Namibian (and Ovambo – I was proud of myself for recognizing they were speaking Oshivambo to each other).
Each day was an adventure, but here are a few of my favorite moments of the entire trip:
- spotting a grouchy male elephant while riding in a mokoro (dug-out canoe) - - terrifying but awesome
- waking up in the middle of the night to hear a hippo munching the grass in our campsite
- getting stopped on the road by a Zambian policeman with an AK-47 to ‘request’ donations for local church
- being serenaded by a Botswana immigration / border agent for being an ‘American Girl’
- enjoying a creatively prepared “Bush Apple Pie” for desert over the campfire – our guides were wonderful cooks
- sipping an amarula martini while watching the sunset over the mist from Victoria Falls with a Dutch television star
- breaking in to a spontaneous rap about fifty dollar bills with Ellen after a failed attempt to exchange our Zambian kwacha
- ignoring my fear of heights and braving a micro-flight over Victoria Falls
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