Wake up call at 5:45, but no ellie ride. L The hostel that our hostel booked the elephant safari through forgot to put the hostel we were being picked up at, so we weren’t picked. L And there was no hostel staff at our hostel until 7 am, 15 minutes after we were supposed to leave, so they couldn’t rectify the situation in time. All other rides were booked for the day, so we were lucky to be able to rebook for the next day! This safari goes fast! So Instead, T and I watched some BBC news (I know little of what’s going on in the world and whenever I see BBC international news on, I watch because I think it’s good) with a UK couple before going back to bed for awhile. With no more plans for the day until 4 pm, T and I snoozed and restarted our day at 10.
Take two. T and I walked around town, back and forth for 2 hours. Good thing it’s not a big town because the places we wanted to go to always seemed in the opposite direction, so we walked past the same buildings numerous times. The theatre was closed down, the other market didn’t exist or had moved, and we didn’t feel like going to the museum. So walking it was. We got bus tickets for tomorrow. And telling the same taxi drivers that we walked past 4 times that no, we still didn’t need a taxi! We did end up at a gift shop to browse before going to VJ’s for lunch. We both had yummy French toast and smoothies. Nutella and banana toast with peach smoothie for me and chocolate chip smoothie (yuck?) and cinnamon sugar toast for T. We chatted a bit with the barman before walking back to our hostel.
We planned on laying out by the pool for a few hours to catch some rays, but it decided to downpour on our walk home. So laying out was not an option. Thankfully, I borrowed a beloved childhood book from the H’s house and read it instead. We also met B and T, from the UK and chatted with them for a bit. Awkward moment: I was reading in my room with my window open. There are no screens. B came to hang up his shirt on the line outside which happened to be right outside my room. So he awkwardly watched me while I laid on my bed and read in a not very flattering position! And later, the wind blew his shorts off the line and into my window! It definitely made me jump! And laugh! Well, T joined me in our room too as the downpour continued ( had had braved the weather outside to read for a bit) and we BOTH JUMPED out of our skin at the loudest thunderclap ever! It just so happened that a telephone pole on the hostel grounds was struck by lightning! I saw it happen! Creepy. We were hoping the weather would cooperate for our cruise at 4 pm, but we weren’t too optimistic….
Well, the weather did end up cooperating very nicely for our sunset cruise. J T and I fancied ourselves up a bit and joined 20 other people our age for a wonderful cruise of drinks, food, chitchatting and a gorgeous sunset. We saw hippos hiding in the water and opening their mouths at us for food. J We were a very international bunch: Americans, Brits, Germans, Canadians, Dutch, Polish, South Africans, Swedes, Asians, and Nigerians. I met a guy whose name is surprisingly like mine, except it starts with an E. And I learned about the group African Impact which volunteers in the area, too. And I just got to hang out with some people my age, which doesn’t happen often. J By the end of our cruise, we were all best friends. J After the sunset cruise, we headed back in town to VJ’s to keep up the merriment where we talked with some more locals. They invited us out, but with the ellie ride for real in the morning, we again opted out. It would have been fun though! On our short walk back to our hostel, a man stopped us and chatted with us about American for 15 minutes. Strange, but very common in Zambia. He was enjoying himself, but T and I excused ourselves for bed, which is where I went!
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