March 26 "Liwa and Nandi"

So, again, we had an early morning. This time to be up and ready and packed to check out by 6:30 am. Hurray! We did get picked up! A girl from our cruise last night was with us, and we picked up some Germans and a very nice couple from Chicago. They were really interesting to talk to…they were rich doctors who came to Africa for vacation and now want to help out. Plus, their son is a cinematographer in Hollywood who just was on the Price is Right and they all went to the Oscars together. Crazy. Since they wanted to help, it did give me a chance to make a plug for our program. J We exchanged emails in the end, so hopefully it’ll work!

The elephant safari was AWESOME. T and I shared the elephant named Liwa. She was one of the mommies, so three year old Nandi followed along, too. There were 9 elephants in our group. We rode for an hour on these magnificent creatures through the Mosi-O-Tunya National Park, which means, the Smoke that Thunders (aka, the Falls) past hippos and impala and we heard the lions roar. Our elephants walked through the Zambezi and grabbed tree branches along the way to nibble on. After our ride, we were able to feed our elephants and take pictures with them. So fun. J Then, the safari group fed us breakfast and showed us a DVD they had taken of the ride. The safari was definitely worth the money!

T and I got back to the hostel in time to finish packing and check out. After relaxing for a bit, we headed out to lunch at Kilimanjaro and to the bus stop for our 13:30 departure. Good thing we booked tickets yesterday because our bus was PACKED! The return ride seemed longer, especially with the minimal sleeping, no video, and smaller seats. Our bus driver was a speedy one, though, and we made it all the way back to Lusaka in 6 hours. Bags took awhile to gather and guys trying to get us to take their taxis had to be avoided, but we eventually made it to D&D’s vehicle. On the ride home we exchanged stories of the past few days and headed to the B’s house for a party that was happening earlier. SB had tacos and cake—yum! We chatted for a bit, enjoyed our food, watched some Scrabble, and headed back. I was so wiped after the weekend, but I don’t know why! An early night was in order after unpacking. It felt good to be back in “my” bed!