WEATHER: Hot and 28C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting my clothes machine washed for the first since arriving in Africa
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Saying good-bye to the gang
BUYS OF THE DAY: Getting 2 skirts made for $25
WORD OF THE DAY: internet
CAMP SITE RANKING: Same as last night 5 out of 5 stars
Well a great night was had last night for our farewell dinner. I was one of the lucky ones that didn’t have to get up early this morning. There were a bunch of the guys going white water rafting and were getting collected at 7.30am. Sucks to be them and what a blessing it was that the bar actually closed at midnight! I was feeling okay actually, it was just the socks on the teeth and thirsty as hell, and the winning formula again was beer. I tell you beer is like the angel drink and vodka is the devil drink.
I got up at 7.30am anyway. Murphy’s Law, you have an opportunity to sleep in and your body clock just wakes up at the same time it has for the last 3 weeks. So after a shower, feeling half human again, I went and had breakfast with the twins, Christina and Emily. They were doing the gorge swing at 9am and then saying goodbye to us and heading to Livingstone for the night before flying out tomorrow. I’m going to miss those girls and all their nursey work related stories. But being Brissy gals, I know I will definitely be seeing them when I get home.
I had a few duties on my list today I wanted to do before my helicopter flight at 3pm. One of those was to get some washing done. Dave had also left his washing with me, so I trudged up to the laundry they have on site here and it was only 3USD a kilo to get it done. I pretty much wasn’t going to let a machine wash pass me by, so bar the clothes I was wearing and a few shirts, everything went in for the wash. I haven’t done too much of my own washing on the trip, as it is so cheap to get the camp sites to do it for me. But being in the smaller communities it is all still hand washed and left outside on the grass and over shrubs for it to dry. I don’t have a problem with this, but the last few times I have had it done, the weather hasn’t been the best and I get the clothes back with a little dampness and it is so hard to try and get them dry to try and avoid that ‘left in the machine too long’ smell. I hate that smell. Anyways, washing was dropped off and I could come back any time after 3pm for collection. Woo Hoo
Next on the list was a visit to an ATM. As the official currency is USD, the ATM’s disperse USD. Which is great news as I will be able to get the kitty amount out for the next portion of the trip and top up my own USD stash, so I have some spare for the next leg and also for the Madagascar, Reunion, Seychelles and Ethiopia portions. Very handy indeed not having to do a double conversion. Woo Hoo.
From there I went to the post office to send my last 5 weeks of shopping home. This also includes the raped items we bought at the Nairobi markets nearly 3 weeks ago. Bastards, that still leaves a bad taste in our mouths. I went to the window and showed her my bag of goodies and she asked if I had a box? Um no, don’t you have one I can buy? So she went out and came back with a so called box in her hand. I would call it a broken piece of cardboard that ‘used’ to be a box. I asked if she had tape to which the reply was no, and that I would have to go to the supermarket to get that and then bring the finished product back to her when I was done. Not the best system. So I walked out of the post office with my ‘box’ and the curio man selling wood products approached me and asked if I wanted some help with the packing, he does that for people as well. Who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth, and though it would be worth every penny for him to do it all for me. So he went and fetched a better box and then he had to run to the supermarket to buy tape (saves me having to do it) and then he was back. I wanted to settle on a price before he started though, which he wasn’t keen on but after a bit of to and fro-ing we agreed on 10USD and I have to say it was worth it. He packed, wrapped and padded the whole box and I have full confidence that nothing will break in this package back home. It took around an hour from start to finish, which worked in his favor as I ended up buying to stone statues and a necklace in my wait, so he got a pretty good sale out of me all round. The funny thing when I was waiting was I could hear inside the sorting room some-one with packing tape doing stuff. I knew they would have some in there; they just didn’t want to share. But after seeing how much tape Kevin actually used to seal my box, I can understand why. There were 2 rolls wrapped around my 1mx.5m package, I just have this image of customs trying to get into the sucker and then having to re-seal it. Yeah good luck with that boys! So thanks Kevin you were awesome. Now I retuned back to the window proud as punch with my wrapped package and in the end for 8kg it cost me 120USD to send this baby home. I haven’t sent anything for 6 weeks, so I think 120USD is quite good and I was happy to pay it. Another job done! Woo Hoo.
I had to head back to camp, as George was getting his hair re-fro-ed and the hairdresser works next to a tailor. My black shorts had a blow out in Jinja and I haven’t been able to wear them, as they need the tear to be sewn back up and then my skirt got a massive rip in it back at Mtopo, when we were setting up the tent, so the 50cm tear also needed to be re-sewn as well. So Tess took them up and was back within the hour and they had both been fixed for the grand total of 5USD!!! I couldn’t believe it and they had done an awesome job. So then it dawned on me, maybe I should get some more of my ‘Morocco’ skirts made here. So George checked the price and we ran the skirt up for them to have a look and they quoted 25USD for 2 skirts, but I would have to supply the material. How cheap is that! So Tess took me to the material shop and I chose 2 patterns (there wasn’t much choose) and then we went to the tailor for them to measure me and drop off the material. They also had some African print stuff, so I decided to get a third done while I was at it! So I go back tomorrow to try them on and pick them up and wallah I have some new clothes in the wardrobe! Awesome and Woo Hoo!!!
So with all that out the way, it was time to finally get onto some internet and get back in touch with the world. The girls visited what looked to be a new internet café on the main street. It looks like something out of a Sci-fi movie, and the internet speed is, I would have to say maybe even faster than back home. It was AMAZING. So I spent an hour on Facebook and Hotmail just trying to get things under control all for the grand price of 2USD!! I have decided that I will go back in the afternoon after the helicopter flight and load some Africa photos, that’s how fast we are talking!!! Woo Hoo.
Back to camp, picking up a pizza on the way, where over my meatlovers, I transferred my pictures onto my external hard drive, culled the crap ones and edited and turned them all so when I went back to the internet café they were just ready to go straight up. Am I smart or what?
The white water rafting people were back at 2.30pm and Dave, Sadia and I were picked up at 3pm for our ride to the helicopter pad. There seemed to be a lot of people milling around, but after paying for the National Park fee of 8USD, we only had to wait around 20 minutes, before getting weighted and then boarding the helicopter. This must be a BIG business. All you can hear all day is the helicopters overhead, all day. In their defence there is a fuel shortage at the moment, so I guess they have the worry of getting fuel to keep their business running. We paid for a 12 minute flight and it was 130USD which with the fuel shortage and what you get I think is pretty good value. I did a helicopter in New York last year and that was 15 minutes and was 175USD, so I thought the price was quite reasonable. The helicopter fit 6 people and there were only 5 windows. We gleaned this information when we all got weighed and he said you can sit anywhere on the helicopter, so first in best dressed, so we waited at the gate like vultures at a kill and when given the nod we made pace to get to the heli first so we had a pick of seats. Dave was lucky enough to get the front seat and Sadia and I got windows that faced each other and then a family of 3 also joined us that had a little boy of around 8, which sat next to me, so I was able to see over his tiny little head and got double views the whole time. I have to say it was worth every penny. To see the falls from the air was truly magical and the 12 minutes seemed to go longer, but Dave said he had a timer in the cockpit, so no chance of longer or shorter I spose, but if you are ever here make sure you do the heli – it was purely magic. The bonus of doing it here is that there is only the falls to look at, so you get the full 10 minutes just circling them, where New York had so much to see in such a short time, you didn’t get much time at the sights. So back on land, they shuffle you into a room to show you a video that was made as with us in and some photos, they had done a good job, but we said a no to that and we were then shuttled back to town 3km away. I was dropped back at camp, Dave and Sadia we then off to bungee. Good-luck guys……
So I had the afternoon free. I went and picked up the washing and boy it smells like…. Well clean washing! I will never get tired of telling you how great it is to have machine washed clothes. AWESOME!!! Since I had organized my Rwanda and Uganda photos, I went back to the internet and uploaded what I could in the 2 hours I paid for. I ended up getting 4 albums up, which is great and I plan on coming back tomorrow. The internet did go down at 6.15pm though so I couldn’t get back onto log myself out, I hope that it automatically does it for you? The internet café closes at 7pm anyway, so I will just come back tomorrow and load some more. Do I feel guilty that I am spending so much time on the computer? No way. This can count as some down time and I have been to Vic Falls before and done some of the activities, so I am just making use of civilization before we head bush again in a few day’s time. Nothing wrong with that is there?
Today was officially the last day of tour. We said our goodbye to the twins this morning, who also came over to the internet café to say goodbye and when I got back to my tent were also sweet enough to leave a hand written note for Lisa and I. I am going to miss you gals. Nancy also left but unfortunately I didn’t get to say goodbye to her and then my drinking partner in crime James left at 7pm for his trek home tomorrow. I am going to miss you guys a stack and wish you all safe journey’s home. So this means we pick up our new crew and they had their meeting at 6pm. We didn’t have to be there, so we only saw them briefly and I personally haven’t met them officially yet, but my care factor on this is quite low at the moment and there will be plenty of time for that in the next 23 days.
Farewell to new friends made and in no particular order a MASSIVE hugs and kisses to you all:
Lisa – New Zealand – see you tomorrow for another 23 days
Dave - Ireland - see you tomorrow for another 23 days
Sean - see you tomorrow for another 23 days
Manu - see you tomorrow for another 23 days
Meyouki - see you tomorrow for another 23 days
Pam - see you tomorrow for another 23 days
James – Australia (we’re going to miss you buddy)
Twins aka Christina and Emily – BRISBANE, Australia
Bobby – Canada
Maxine – Canada
Margaret and Dennis – Brisbane, Australia
Sadia – UK
Simbob - UK
Sarah - UK
Nancy - Canada
So another farewell to a good group as the second leg of my Africa component comes to an end and the last part starts tomorrow. I have 23 days left of my 60 day epic journey across the continent and then some R &R for approx. 3 weeks before heading on tour again to Ethiopia.
forgotten already... :_(
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