Here’s a brief update before Camille, Giulia, and I head off on the journey to end all journeys, on which we hope to discover the real National Geographic-type Africa. That’s right, out into the bush where you bury your shit and it’s every man for himself. You know what I’m talking about - lions, elephants, hippos, serene sunsets, endless blue skies, midnight light show with millions of stars, and that one giant tree amidst a lush expanse of grasses and bush. With 10 days of travel, one backpack each, and the slight uncertainty of transportation through Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, this treacherous expedition will sure to be full of surprise and most likely mishap. Lucky for us, however, we’re on a mission from God.
The itinerary goes as follows: Tomorrow at 7am, we’re flying to Livingstone, Zambia and staying in a dorm-style hostel. We’ll spend roughly two days doing activities (not sure which yet) at Victoria Falls, the world’s largest waterfall – could potentially walk with lions, bungee jump, ride an elephant, white water rafting, among other options. From Zambia we’ll take a public bus, first over the border to Kasane then to Maun, both in Botswana. Maun is essentially the tourist headquarters of the Okavanga Delta, the world’s largest inland river delta, which is a maze of lagoons, channels, and islands.
The Delta attracts an enormous concentration of animals, as it is an oasis of vegetation and water surrounded by sparse, dry areas, especially the Kalahari Desert to the south. Animals here are really anything you could imagine: Elephant, giraffe, hippo, buffalo, lion, and the wild African dog, to name a small sample. According to Camille’s friend who had done a similar trip, the hostel in Maun is beautiful and well managed. But we will be staying little time at the hostel, instead taking a guided three-day mokoro (traditional dug-out canoe) trip into the delta where we will camp. It’ll probably be nuts, berries, and water for three days straight because we chose the cheaper self-catered option. Time to get REAL Stone Age if you know what I’m saying. Trying to get real in touch with nature, maybe covering my body in mud like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator or perhaps doing a little Patrick Swayze Roadhouse-style tai chi, but most likely doing something realistic like raising a lion cub on some mountainous outcrop with Elton John singing in the background. Sorry readers if I overwhelm you with creativity, I even amaze myself sometimes.
The next leg of the trip will take us to Kasane and the Chobe River, again via some sort of sketch Botswana bus, where we hope to camp right on the river, although it’s first come, first serve. I joked with Giulia earlier that all the cheap accommodations would be filled when we get there and we’ll be forced to splurge on some ultra luxurious riverside chalet that is the only vacancy. Things are bound to go wrong, as most camping trips usually do, but I guess this potential calamity wouldn’t be too bad. Chobe River houses massive herds of elephants, and according to Lonely Planet, “you are almost guaranteed a close up encounter” and “being surrounded by a large herd is an awe-inspiring (and somewhat terrifying) experience”. Land rover drives and motorboat game excursions are the typical mode of elephant encounters. #winning.
Coming full circle, we’ll bus back to Livingstone for one last night and fly back the next day, hopefully with all our possessions, sanity, and life-changing stories. Oh yea, maybe a few “trippy” stories to tell about our anti-malarial drug use whose potential side effects include something like minor hallucinations and slight mania. For those looking forward to pics, rest assured that the three of us will take plenty, and I will definitely have some video footage (that I currently am unable to upload to the web) that I can show when back in the States. Again, for the worrisome, sleep easy knowing that we’re on a mission from God (and lucky for Camille and Giulia, Jesus happens to be my homeboy).
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