SPRING BREAK!

Spring [or according to the UCT schedule Fall…] Break:

I went through a student travel agency to Botswana. Zambia and Zimbabwe and basically drove through every corner of Botswana in a safari bus and then went to Victoria Falls with a group of 20 or so other students. Instead of writing every single thing in detail I’d rather just breeze through my trip in a sort of stream-of-conscience like fashion, enjoy!

I woke up super early to catch a flight to Joburg, got to Joburg airport and found our safari jeep, was shocked at how huge our bus was for the trip, met all the people I’d be spending the next ten days with, drove countless hours to get to Botswana, learned how to pitch a tent so I could camped out at Palapye, thought it was cool to have outdoor showers and bathrooms, took a shower the next morning at 5AM under the stars, drove forever to get to Maun, did a scenic flight over the Okavango delta…saw lots of animals along with the layout of the land (it was absolutely beautiful yet terrifying because we were in a 5 person plain and our driver was no older than 17?) stayed at camp there for another night, drove to the Okavango delta, took a mkoro with Suzanne to an island in the delta (most relaxing thing I’ve experienced in my life), chatted with our driver Galaxy throughout the ride and also took a nice long nap while sunbathing…bush camped in the delta for two nights (didn’t shower for 3 days, used a hole in the ground as a toilet, got attacked by countless mosquitoes, shared a tent with 3 other people so it was basically a sauna) went swimming in the delta and made a headband out of reeds…wore my headband as a crown and pretended to be an African princess, ate “delta sushi” (basically I swallowed a small fish live from the delta) went on countless walks throughout the bush and saw lots of animals, got really dehydrated on one of these bush walks and couldn’t walk in a straight line and started to hallucinate, saw countless shooting stars in the clearest of skies…fell asleep the last night somehow not sweating a ton because our tent was somehow cool, woke up to pouring rain (this is why it was cool) and packed up my tent in the mud, took the mkoro back to camp (about a 90 minute ride in the rain) everything was soaked within 10 minutes including all my clothes and my sleeping bag, got back to mainland and after a few minutes realized two of the mkoro boats were missing…found out one of the women drivers thought the rain meant evil spirits were coming and decided not to sail home, instead she left her boat in the delta and ran away to another island, waited an hour in the rain for her boat and the missing group members to be found, drove back to camp and took the most incredible hot shower in my life (after 3 days of bush camping and then hours in the mud and rain and cold). Drove to Nata…saw giraffes and elephants on the road (much like deer) on our drive, got to Nata unpacked everything and helped cook dinner while most of my group went to the bar and swam, sulked with my cooking group about spending 3 hours preparing dinner while everyone relaxed…then killed that mood with a bottle of red wine split between our crew-we recruited our group leader to cook with us and even shared wine with our amazing chef, basically our group bonded a lot over this dinner and I learned some interesting stuff about or Zimbabwean chef. After dinner had a little more wine so I would be buzzed to fall asleep in my tent on a muddy sleeping mat with no sleeping bag (still soaked) passed out for 4 hours, woke up in the dark to shower under the stars (this was becoming a tradition) packed up camp and drove to Chobe. Got to Chobe and camp was flooded, set up tents anyway, went on a night cruise along a river through Chobe national park (drank delicious wine and enjoyed a great dinner with my group while spotting countless animals) went back to camp and passed out early. Woke up the next morning at 4:30 to go on a game drive of the national park, saw lots of animals, got stung by a random huge/gross insect (I still have a scar from this sting!) came back to find camp already packed up (thank you bus driver) and left for the Zambian Border…

Crossed over to Zambia via wading into the Zambezi river to catch a ride on a gigantic/old fishing boat [convinced this was really shady and is probably why lots of people smuggle themselves into the country] also stood at the intersection of 4 countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, made it safely across to Zambia, drove to our camp in Livingston [outside Victoria Falls] got soaked at the falls and danced on a bridge that we turned into a super long slip-and-slide, decided if I ever get married I want my honey moon in Victoria Falls because it’s the most beautiful place in the world, never wanted to leave Zambia’s side of the falls, wandered into the Zambian market-decided it would be better to speak Spanish while trading so people don’t try to talk to me so much, the next morning woke up to abseil and do other crazy extreme sports over a gorge in the falls, got a crazy adrenaline rush free falling 155 meters solo off a cliff then did it again tandem with a partner and got even more of a rush…traded at a market in Zambia, returned to camp and realized my shorts that were drying outside my tent were stolen by baboons and were now really high up in a tree (wanted to cry they’re my favorite running shorts) sucked it up and went to sleep, woke up to the loudest thunderstorm of my life and realized camp was completely flooded but somehow my tent was one of the only ones to stay dry (my sleeping bag just couldn’t get wet twice) roughed it in the rain and tried to clean up a little so we could all go to Zimbabwe, crossed the border of Zambia/Zim to see Vic falls from the Zim side, decided its 100 times more beautiful from Zim, made a pact with my friends that we’d return in 70 years to go river rafting down the falls and if we died so be it…walked to the markets in Zimbabwe, traded countless old t-shirts, dirty socks, empty water bottles, pens and hair ties, and a wet towel for some great African souvenirs, hiked back across the border and returned to camp, did a “booze cruise” with my entire group (in which I did not actually consume a ton of alcohol, boxed wine no thank you) but saw some animals, ate a delicious meal and enjoyed my last night with my group, stayed up late dancing with friends at the camp and running around being crazy, woke up the next morning super early to pack up camp, realized I got about a million bug bites from ants the night before, said good bye to our gross and muddy safari truck, and our amazing chef and driver, went to Livingston airport which was incredibly small and had a few shops and a bar, sat in the airport for 5 hours while our flight was continually delayed, finally boarded the flight, got to Joburg and had to run to catch our next flight, finally landed in Cape Town and was able to eat a meal for the first time since 6:30 AM (it was now 8:30 PM) said goodbye to all my new friends and came home to enjoy an incredibly long, hot shower and clean room that I had all to myself.

In conclusion, there was no way to make that short; it was a ten day trip and I traveled all around Botswana and to Victoria Falls, my favorite part by far was running around the falls getting soaked and laughing and dancing with friends in the water…it was the most liberating experience of my life and words can’t describe how beautiful it was. The ride to the delta in the mkoro’s was also incredible because it was so peaceful and beautiful, and it was really interesting chatting with our mkoro paddler. Although the trip was really busy and I woke up most days before the sun rose I also had a lot of time to relax during the hottest hours of the day and really enjoyed getting to know the people I was traveling with. I now have twenty-some new friends who are all pretty incredible people. There were some not-so-great parts to the trip (like getting rained on in the Delta, bug bites, constantly being dirty…sleeping in muddy tents and not being able to run for 10 days) and the trip was definitely a very high or very low type of deal but it was so much fun and definitely worth it.

Sorry this post is so long but seriously best experience of my life. Oh and new goal to see the rest of 7 natural world wonders now that I’ve crossed two of them off the list ☺

Now I have Easter weekend in Cape Town (finally a weekend at home) and a half-marathon to run on Saturday to look forward to…wish me luck!

Cheers,
Haleigh Duggan

Oh and ill be posting a very much overdue post about joburg belowe this sooon…