Africa Celebration Week: Day Three

If you read yesterday's post you know we're backtracking to the end of our safari during our first week in Botswana. Thus, we ended with our standoff with the elephants as we headed out of Moremi Game Reserve.

Our fearless leader got heat stroke whilst driving from sitting in the 115 degree sun the ENTIRE time and while it sucked for him, he did manage to get us back to Okavango River Lodge in one piece. Do you know what it feels like to go swimming after being caked in dirt for four days in a row? The answer is heaven. It feels (and felt) like heaven.

Staying there was what we called glamping (glamourous camping). Each tent had lights, cots and a little bedside table, complete with turn down service (a major plus in my humble opinion!). To get an idea for our accommodations, take a looksy here:

You know you're not in Kansas when you can take glass bottles of booze into the pool.

I couldn't miss an opportunity to post a skinny photo of myself.

Gurs loves a good lady fan.

Feast your eyes on sexpot Gareth, everyone. He's the guy in blue at the end of the table
(not to be mistaken for the guy in the purple hat).
We thought the baboons had stolen all photos of him, but we were wrong, thankfully.

With a full bar at our fingertips for the first time in days, you know we partied like rock stars. Mixmaster KayKrayKray kept the tunes bouncing all night with her fabulous iPod, thus the gals took advantage and taught a few of the local femmes how to dance like complete American idiots. I think they appreciated it. And there may have been a somewhat heavy conversation about racism in there as well, but the highlight came after the bar closed for the night and many of our (possibly very inebriated) crew went swimming in the river next to camp.

After a hippo got in the water.

Luckily, everyone's alive and shockingly has all their limbs, but I was asleep and thus didn't see my husband run wholeheartedly into the treacherous water. This is a good thing.

Next day's adventure took us to the the local grocery store before our drive to Kasane (most definitely more treacherous than swimming in a river with hippos). You know what makes for a great hangover cure?

Ass pies.

 Africa's got that one figured out, apparently.

In regards to the road from Maun to Kasane, let me say we had a pilot (you know, the kind that fly planes) driving our car, and even he was scared shitless of the terrain and hideous driving skills of the locals. It did allow for some rousing conversation however, and we did spot the only ostriches of our trip.

Kasane was a one day stop, but provided one of the most memorable sunsets of my life. We went on a boat cruise along the Chobe river, and since it was low water season, the amount of game we saw in a square mile area was completely insane.

Gives new meaning to Baby Monkey (Going Backwards) on a Pig, doesn't it?

Special.

Not so cute suddenly, right?

Right.

[insert Hungry, Hungry Hippo joke here]

Little guy was stuck in the mud!

But his brother helped him out. Beyond adorable family dynamic.

Dusk is my favorite time of day no matter where I am in the world. This is going to sound completely contrived, but when I have the chance to enjoy that moment where the sun eclipses over the side of the world, I feel like it gives meaning to my day and allows me to reflect on what I did and what I'll be doing the next day. When I was in Africa, during sunset I would feel completely at peace. There's this calm that seems to settle over everything and everyone, and I found myself staring at the sky in silence until the colors would start to shift from yellows and reds to blues and purples.

Phenomenal stuff.

The next day marked our journey by car, boat and foot into Zambia from Botswana. The border crossing consisted of the following gems:

It was a Sunday and everyone was donning their most colorful clothing; I appreciate reasons to dress up.

Once our border crossing was done, we hired a taxi to take us to Jolly Boys. This seems to be the current trend of this post, but I'll let the photos do the talking:

Nothing says ADHD like drawing raunchy tattoos on each other in a taxi bus.

"I feel kind of bad about spraying water on him.
Wait, is he breathing? Yeah, he's breathing. Sooo... wanna do it again?"

I was a cat for Halloween, btdub.

On our first night in Zambia, we partook in a booze cruise. You know, a luxurious trip down the Zambezi river with a completely open bar. I think the people that run this normally make money off their customers, but we made it a mission to make back our cash in booze. They clearly didn't know who they were dealing with.

The man in a purple hat.

Unintentionally completely matching.

It's ok to be envious of our matching t-shirts. And if you can read you'll realize that no, we're not Christian missionaries.

Groggy and hungover, but always up for a good time, white water rafting down the Zambezi was on the books for the next day. Unfortunately, the people that took the photos of us haven't gotten back to me, so there's no photo evidence we did it. Having said that, I feel I should mention I've never been on a vacation with a group of people where I've been the sissy. You know, the person who's clearly the most afraid of any somewhat "dangerous" activity. I like to think I fall in the category of being somewhere in the middle: up for an adventure, but cautious to a point.

I was the sissy by a mile, there's just no denying it.

In my defense though, we did do death defying things, and I stuck to the following MO: "Guys, I love a good adventure, I'm just really afraid of dying." I feel it's a logical assessment of where I stand.

But peer pressure. Good ole peer pressure. While I was vocal about my fear, I did end up doing almost everything my friends did.

Which is how I ended up in Devil's Pools. However, I have a spectacular baby shower to get hopping on, so we shall start with that on Day Four of our African celebration.

Happy weekend and try to make every moment count!