25 February 2010
I managed to get a sleep in today, not that I slept in much, body clock is now set to daybreak. I actually sat on the internet for most of the day, catching up on my blog, checking my dangerously low bank account and of course, talking to my Ben.
At about 2:45pm it was time to catch a taxi to the Royal Livingstone and go off for high tea at Livingstone Island, where the famous Dr. David Livingstone, the adventurer had seen the falls for the first time. We were taken to one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever seen and then put in a tiny boat with two outboard motors, needed to fight the current off the falls. We got to the island and immediately told to strip down to our bathers.
We clambered through the jungle and over the rocks in almost nothing but our skin and bare feet. We got to the vantage point, which I hadn’t realised until now was right on the edge of the massive falls. I walked right out to the edge assisted by a guide. The volume of water flowing down into the abyss in front of me was overwhelming, it was right at my feet. The mist soaked me and created a rainbow over the chasm below. I held out both my arms and closed my eyes, feeling like I would never live through a moment like this again. The feeling took me, saturated me like the mist that soaked me and I felt intoxicated.
We clambered back of the rocks to the very edge of the falls, to my surprise there was a pool you could sit in right at the very edge. I say sit and not swim because that was all you could do, the power of the water rushing over your was so intense you had to hold on or go over. After we got out of the pool, we went back up to the island and had our high tea and each of us went through our favourite things on the trip.
We went back to the Royal Livingstone and then got our taxi back to camp to get ready for dinner to welcome the new arrivals joining us. This restaurant was much better than last night, I had an amazing steak wrapped in bacon and then a cigar and a Jack Daniels afterward. Our new people are nice, we have Jasper and George who are 18 from the UK and Geoff and Rita from the US, who are an older couple, but very experienced travellers. Tomorrow, we start the leg that goes off to Dar es Salaam and the next part of the adventure begins.
