Our Livingstone Adventure.

On the 18^th of August 2020 (Tuesday) we, Stuart, Wendy, Megan, Talia, James, Diana and I set off (at 5:30am) on our Livingstone holiday adventure. The journey was a little squishy but we enjoyed ourselves and were very much looking forwards to where we were going. When we were nearly in Lusaka we stopped off at the Protea Hotel which was very fancy, I was definitely not dressed for the occasion. There were bushbuck and other animals just freely wandering around the area and we got very close to some. One little bushbuck we named Isabelle licked Talia and Megan! Talia was so excited and said that it was the best thing ever! We spent part of the afternoon in Immigration trying to sort out Stu’s, Wendy’s and my permits. We were partially successful. It was only my visa that wasn’t able to be collected. We spent the night in a lovely place called the Flying mission, although I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep.

 

Very early start the next morning. We wanted to be able to arrive and set up the tent in Maramba in Livingstone before dark. Again another day of travel. When we arrived we heard that the elephants had been there for 4 days and had completely trashed the usual campsite, it was all flooded (they had just moved on). Thankfully there was an even better place, close to the toilets and the restaurant and it was overlooking the water. Thankfully we arrived in plenty of time and we were able to get both tents up with very little difficulty and then chilled by the pool. We ordered food from the restaurant and watched the hippos and crocks on the other side of the water. I was so excited about what this holiday had in store for us.

Megan, Diana, Me,
Talia and Wendy in front of the falls.

So it’s now Thursday the 20^th and we excitedly (most of us anyway, James was less thrilled) set off for Victoria Falls. It was so AMAZING! There was so much water! Apparently, it wasn’t loads but to me who hasn’t seen any rain in Zambia since early April, it was sooooo much water. We had lots of fun standing in the spray and getting soaked and taking photos. My favourite part though has to be the floating water droplets. The force was so great coming up from the canyon that the droplets of water went up rather than down. It was so magical but too wet to get photos of. I didn’t want to kill my camera and my phone wouldn’t have coped either. In the afternoon we were making ourselves a late lunch when we were discussing how we had been at Maramba lodge for almost 24 hours and still hadn’t seen any elephants. I would say less than 30 minutes later we got our wish. They were in the camp wandering around. It was so much fun to watch them. In the evening we went to a place called the waterfront and sat watching the sunset over the Zambezi river while having a drink. We also got to see elephants really close there, just outside the gates which was so cool! After supper when more elephants came through the camp, we were told to stay close to our tents or the toilet/shower block and not make too much noise. We later got moved away from our campfire to the restaurant just in case but everything was ok, the elephants moved off without too much trouble. We went back and went straight into our tents because that’s where we were ‘safest’.

I was just dosing off when I heard rustling in the bush area behind our tent, I assumed it was an elephant so I kept listening to try to figure out where it was. Diana was still unaware of it so I quietly let her know. We both listened for a while and then I saw the shadow walk past our tent (there were security lights). We had nowhere to go we just had to stay quiet and hope that it would move on. Then the side of our tent came in down on top of us, I now know that this was the elephant's tusk pushing down because Stu was able to see from their tent but wasn’t able to do anything. Then the elephant stepped on the very edge of our tent. Diana and I couldn’t do anything except stay silent and pray that it would go away. We didn’t scream but the moment it had moved off slightly there were many tears and hysterical laughter. That night we were moved into a chalet because the elephants were still around. We then had Talia staying in with us and had to deal with all the mosquitos inside our nets. It’s pretty safe to say that none of us slept brilliantly that night. Still, we were just so happy to be alive at this point.

First view of Victoria Falls 

It’s Friday and we get up and find that we still have a camp so we are all very relieved. We all got dressed up nicely because we are off to visit the posh hotels. We first visited Avani which I thought was beautiful. The pool looked amazing! There were some antelope just wandering around which was cool. As we then drove over to the Royal Livingstone hotel we came across some Giraffe which was soooo cool. They are so tall and gentle. At the Royal Livingston, even though I was dressed up very smart, I still felt underdressed. It was so fancy and there were zebra on the lawn and you could see the top of the falls. It was just… wow. Oh, but the prices were even more wow but in the wrong way 😂. We then went to the waterfront hotel again to see if we could book some activities and Diana and I nearly had a large fruit thing land on us. This is clearly not a good time for us but again we were fine. I wasn’t feeling to well (lack of sleep and I had a cold) so while the others went shopping I staying in the car and they came back with ice cream. It made me feel much better. We saw some elephants again but at a much safer distance and from inside a car! For the rest of the afternoon we chilled by the pool. We’ve moved things around in the camp now. Diana’s and my small tent is now a store tent and we moved into the big tent with the Wardles, much safer there.

The pool at Avani

Baby Zebra

My Favourie picture of a 
Zebra's Butt! 😁

Megan, Wendy, and Talia in front of the Zebras
at the Royal Livingston Hotel

James, Stu, and Zebras

Megan posing with the Safari vehicle.

Saturday the 22^nd and it was Game drive time. We got up and out at around 7 ready for the drive. It was a little chilly in the vehicle but we were prepared with our blankets. Our tour guide was interesting. He told us lots of different things about the plants and animals around us. Some of which we knew not to be true because it was all voodoo, but it was an interesting cultural/history lesson for all of us. We saw baboons, warthogs, elephants, giraffes, zebras, monitor lizards, crocs, and different birds including vultures. The Giraffes were amazing to see. There was a group of 7 which was amazing, 3 of them were very young! We also drove to see the rhinos. That was AMAZING! I’d never seen rhinos before, and they were so close (and thankfully peaceful). We briefly visited the market which was fun, the people are so talented and make such interesting things. In the afternoon Stu and Megan went off for a 'greet the elephants' experience so the rest of us stayed and enjoyed the pool. Megan said that we wouldn’t have as cool photos as them so I took it as a challenge and we had a fun photoshoot in the pool. It was a lot of fun and really chilled at the same time. We got dressed up again (not quite as much but still) and went to the Royal Livingstone to watch the sunset over the falls. It was so beautiful and I really enjoyed taking photos there. Diana and I also amused ourselves by watching what appeared to be a prom at the hotel, it was fancy whatever it was. We had an amazing time and we met a lovely couple who took some very artistic photos of us for us.

Red-billed Hornbill

Giraffes

PUMBA!

Elephants having a munch.

Hungry Rhinos

Me and Diana chilling with the Rhinos.

Stork in flight

SPLASH!

Sibling affections

And Pose!
Diana and Talia

The Elephant in the sunset

The Moon over the falls

Diana and Me and the Royal Livingstone

Group photo time
Stu, James, Megan, Wendy, Talia, Me, and Diana.

Down at the Boiling Pot

We’ve now made it to Sunday the 23^rd! We walked down to the boiling pot, it was a very steep walk but it was so worth it. I felt like I was walking through the rain forest, it was so tropical. The mist from the falls keeps everything damp there. The walk back up was hard work though and we had to have big sticks with us to scare off the baboons if they went for us. We then went and visited the falls again and we went straight to the floating droplet place, that place is seriously wow! We wandered around the market a bit and then went and walked over the bridge towards Zimbabwe. We had to leave an important document at the immigration and then we were able to enter Zimbabwe briefly without paying the visa price. The view from the bridge was amazing. We could see the falls and the boiling pot as well. The only thing that was slightly frustrating was that we kept being followed by people trying to sell us craft even though we told them we didn’t want anything. We had to be very firm in the end and tell them to leave us alone. We got to see the train come over the bridge which was very loud and very stinky but very exciting to see, especially for James. We also had a lot of fun hopping over the Zambia/Zimbabwe line. When we got back to camp we were getting ready to make lunch when the elephants started to come past our camp very close to cross the river. One of the workers said that we should probably move over to the restaurant just in case they came closer. We didn’t think this was necessary but we went anyway.

Say Cheese Diana

Enjoying listening and watching the sounds of the water.
James, Megan, and Talia.

Wendy and Stu infront of the bridge to Zimbabwe.

The tropical view as we climbed back up to the top.

It was rather steap in places

We made it over to Zimbabwe and back.

The view of the falls from the bridge going over to Zimbabwe.

Oh boy were we glad we went. Three of the bigger elephants came right into our camp and were searching around the tents. One of them was absolutely massive! We were all watching from the restaurant as one of them picked up our little tent (the same one they’d been interested in last time) and tossed it around. It tore the tent apart and played with what was inside, well, what it could get to anyway. I was up by the tables with the three children and staff while Stu, Wendy and Diana had moved a little closer and caught the whole thing on video! It was quite a sight. We could do nothing except pray that they’d leave the big tent alone, which thankfully, they did. Eventually, some rangers came and persuaded the elephants to leave. It was amazing to watch them as they did, they basically just made themselves look bigger by holding their arms out wide and then just spoke to them with authority. Two of the three moved off no problem but the third needed more persuading. Stu, Wendy and I then moved over to assess the damage. Amazingly the chairs and bags that had been in the small tent were unharmed. There was one broken cup and my pan had been destroyed but other than that there was very little damage. Even the plates, which the elephant had definitely played with (in its mouth), were not even cracked. We were very fortunate all things considered and we were all very thankful that we had moved and that no one had been in the tent.

One of the elephants as it passed over the river to the other side.

We had lunch at the restaurant and then had to leave pretty quickly to go off for our sunset cruise. None of us by this point were very motivated to go on the cruise. We just wanted to pack up the big tent (we had been offered chalets for the last night) and be ready for the next day. We went on the cruise, and we saw a very beautiful sunset but very few animals. I did get a photo of a hippo’s mouth though which I was very pleased with. After the cruise, we had crocodile pizzas which was really yummy! Crocodile tastes like very salty chicken I think, and maybe a little tougher but it was very tasty. We tried to pack away as much as possible before we went to bed so that we could start as quickly as possible in the morning. Diana and I then had Megan and Talia in with us overnight and we had fun again trying to kill all the mosquitos inside the nets.

TEETH! Possibly favourite hippo shot.

 

Talia being a little photographer.

Monday the 24^th and it was time to pack down what’s left of the tent and head off. We left marimba sometime after 10 and spent pretty much all day on the road again driving to Lusaka. Talia and I were in the very back and we both had a cold! I tried to sleep on the journey but didn’t manage. Diana, on the other hand, slept most of the way. I was pretty jealous. In the evening we got ourselves some pizza and went to the flight house where we were to stay the night. I posted some photos on Facebook and people had commented about the tent so I suddenly had to make sure to tell my family what had happened. They knew nothing till this time about the elephants. I told them first thing the following morning before we set off again. We stopped at the Fig Tree café for lunch and were back home at Amano before dark on Tuesday 25^th.

 

What a holiday! So much I wouldn’t want to do again but am NOW glad to have the stories to tell. Congratulations if you read the whole thing, I know it was so long.