It’s
not everyday that your bestie comes halfway across the world to visit you.
That’s why December 14th was one of the best days ever!!! It had
been so long in the making that it almost seemed impossible when the day
arrived.
I
had been in Windhoek for a VSN (Volunteer Support Network) training &
meeting and I dipped out early that day to go and rent a car and pick Leah up
at the airport. The car rental was a bit of a process, so I was slightly late
for getting Leah. But when we found each other, both peeking our heads around a
corner in search of the other, it all got so real! We exchanged a tear-filled
bear hug and quickly jumped into the car to start our road trip to Etosha
National Park! (Yes, I’m that cruel of a host. After 36 hours of traveling, I
made Leah get into the car to start a road trip!)
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| Some roadtrip scenery |
After
we were about halfway to the gate of Etosha, we came to realize that we weren’t
going to make it to the gate before the sun went down, which is synonymous with
the gate closing time. And since we had prepaid our hotel that was inside the gate, we decided to speed a
bit. I, ehem, won’t say how fast, but the good news is that we didn’t hit a
warthog and we made it in time to get in! This was the first of Leah and I’s
many misadventures.
When
we arrived at the gate, it was actually already closed. However, I pulled our
little Polo Vivo up really close and waited; I could see figures on the other
side of the gate. Quickly, a man cracked the gate and asked, “Yes?” to which I
replied with a very friendly greeting in Namlish (Namibian English) with a lot
of respect markers. I also snuck a bit of Oshiwambo in there and he and another
colleague decided to make an exception and let us in. Phew! As we were pulling
away, they shouted that we still had to make it inside of the gate of our camp,
which also closed at sundown. My internal monologue at that point was something
along the lines of: Are freaking you
kidding me? There’s another gosh darn gate? I have to speed again, this time while in a national park with lions
and elephants and antelope galore? And if we don’t make it in the next gate,
we’re stuck out here all night?!?!?!?!!??! (Note: the actual dialogue may
have had a bit more “French” in it.)
But
alas, my dear blog readers, we made it safely. And I continued to schmooze a
bit and use Oshiwambo with the check in staff and somehow it resulted in Leah
and I being upgraded to a private bungalow. Thus began our “honeymoon”!
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| Our honeymoon bed |
We
had average luck with animal sightings in Etosha and spent the day cruising
around. Leah learned how to drive a manual and killed it! We saw loads of zebra
and lots of other fun stuff. After the day in Etosha, we headed back north
towards the village. We had another…
misadventure
on the way. We were low on gas when leaving the park, but decided to make it to
the first town to fill up since it would be cheaper than filling up in Etosha.
Well, we made it to the first town, but the electricity was out so the pumps
weren’t working. We did the only thing we could do… continued on and crossed
our fingers! Leah and I learned on this trip that we panic the same way. When
there’s a bad situation, we both just keep quiet and don’t talk about it until
it’s over. No reason to insight panic in the other… there’s enough panic in
each of our own internal monologues! Luckily enough, we (barely) made it to the
following town. We both breathed a deep sigh of relief.
After
a few days of village life, it was time for us to start (yet another) road
trip. Next destination: Victoria Falls! We decided to go to the Zambian side in
Livingstone. Our first step was returning the rental car in Ondangwa, followed
by hitchhiking to Eenhana (another town on the easternmost side of the region
where I live) in order to find another hitchhike to Katima Mulilo, the last
town at the tip of the panhandle in Namibia. In theme with the rest of the
trip, we were bound to have at least one misadventure; we hoped it wouldn’t be
before our coffee kicked in, but hey, you can’t win them all. The sun was
barely up and we were driving on the highway to turn the car in and all of a
sudden I realized that I was driving on the rim. I pulled off and we both got
out to check the tire. We had a rear blowout! Again, Leah and I panic the same
way. Our reaction was to keep quiet and get stuff done! We pulled out the
spare, jacked up the car, loosened the bolts (seasoned tire changers will
realize that this is in the wrong order… we now know that!), pulled off the
literally burning hot tire, and popped the new one on. And then, of course,
took a selfie! It was both of our first times changing a flat and I’m proud to
say that we did it in 11 minutes!
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| A celebratory cider upon our arrival in Livingstone |
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| Traffic Signs in Zambezi |
We
continued on our way and luckily didn’t have any other hiccups. We made it to
Katima safely with someone who was driving that way. We crossed the border and
started our journey in Zambia! It’s only 120 kilometers from the border to
Livingstone, but there are so many awful potholes that the journey takes 3-4
hours. 3-4 hours in the back seat of a shared taxi with no AC isn’t the most
comfortable thing in the world, but Leah and I were going for cheap!
Our
first full day in Livingstone was spent white water rafting. We had SO MUCH
FUN! There were a few times that we were both legitimately terrified, but
that’s also what made it so much fun!! It was so so so worth it. The rapids
were classes 1-4 and there were 27 in total. We were allowed to float a couple
of the smaller rapids just swimming in the water, which was a blast.
The
next day, we decided to swim at the top of the falls at Devil’s pool. It
involved a ~1.5 hike through riverbeds and grassland to get to the island where
you can swim. It was great to be so active for our time in Zambia, since we did
so much sitting on the rest of the trip! Devil’s pool was crazy. And
terrifying. And very cool. The good news was that we got to see the falls near
the pool, so at least we didn’t leave Livingstone without actually seeing
Victoria Falls… something we thought possible! Haha.
We
headed out that afternoon to go back to Katima Mulilo, Namibia. Unfortunately,
our taxi was stopped at nearly every police checkpoint and asked for a lot of
money since it didn’t have the proper taxi paperwork. The process of
negotiating the amount of money our driver had to pay the police took FOREVER,
so the journey took about 5 hours this time. Gotta love corruption! As a
result, the border post closed before we reached there, so we accidentally got
stuck in Zambia. Gotta love misadventures! It wasn’t too big of a deal, though,
as someone in our taxi helped us find a cheap place for the night.
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| A beautiful Zambian sunset |
The
next day, we continued our journey to Katima and then hitchhiked to Windhoek.
It took a while to cross the border in the morning, so we worried that all the
cars to Windhoek had already left… so it was a bit of a stressful time looking
for a hike! Low and behold, we found one and all worked out.
The
following day was our last day together. Single tear. (Let’s be real… many
tears.) Leah’s boyfriend Albert was flying in to Windhoek to meet up with her
for some travels and I was flying out of Windhoek to Johannesburg to meet up
with my family for some travels. Our continued travel plans helped us to stay
cheery on our departing day. We picked up lunch for an airport picnic with
Albert. It was such a nice way to say goodbye to Leah and also a treat to get
to visit with Albert as well!
All
in all, we had such a memorable trip together. We got lots of time in the car
to catch up and have life talks as well as many hilarious misadventures and planned
adventures. Thank you so much, Leah, for coming to visit. I’ll never forget our
trip together!
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| Miss you already! |
Stay
tuned for my next post about travels with my family in South Africa!
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