Trip to Livingston!

BIG AIR

Sunday after church and lunch we drove to the Zambezi River and went through customs (since the bridge is half way in Zambia and half way in Zimbabwe). When we got through to the building they asked us all to sign a release form (OF COURSE) and then as we did they numbered us and called random numbers to go to different stations. Most of us signed up for Big Air, which means we’d bungee jump, gorge swing, and zip line. They called some numbers to go zip line and next they said #25 to the bridge (that was me?!) so I walked onto the bridge and right away he asked if I was #25 I said “yes?” and he started suiting me up with harnesses and chords…I couldn’t believe I was going to jump off the bridge first!! Next thing I know there’s a man videotaping me asking if I have any last words…I was sooo nervous that all I could say was “Well I hope it’s worth it?” then they prepped me and told me to go to the edge. “3, 2, 1” & I was in the air flying!! It was AMAZING! My heart was pounding out of my chest and I had no clue where I was but as I was hanging there all I could think of is I Did It! After they got me back up next thing I know they were getting Hanna Boyd and me ready for Tandem Swinging. It was also a lot of fun, even though I was still scared. The swing was probably scarier than bungee jumping so I’m glad I got to do it with someone! After that the hard parts were over and all we had left was tandem zip lining, which was a piece of cake and not scary AT ALL compared to the others.

It definitely helped being the first to go (even though it was scary) I didn’t have time to psych myself out or think about what I was about to do too much. I’d definitely recommend you all do this at one point in life, maybe never again but at least once!!!

Rafting

The next day we went rafting on the Zambezi River. I was really nervous since I’ve never rafted before and my first experience would be on a river that’s rated a 5! But once we got there they prepped us on what to do if you fall out or if someone else does, just random info you need to know before you try it, then we picked groups. I was in an all-girls group of 7 and our raft guide was Tim who was the head guide for the day. After we got into our rafts and Tim prepped us some more we went through our first rapid. He said “everyone forward” then “right forward left back” and next thing I know there are huge waves and I see people getting down so we all followed and got in the “get down” position. When we got to calmer water Tim said “back in position” and then gave us a talk on how he never said “get down” but we weren’t listening and did…Oops?! The rest of the trip we paid closer attention because we didn’t want to fall out, Luckily our raft NEVER flipped, I think all the others did and if not their guide purposely flipped them before the day was over but our guide knew since we were girls not to flip us!  We did get out into the water to swim when the river was calmer and then also we swam through rapid 23 which is only rated a class 2 (that was scary enough for me) I felt like I was going to drowned because I kept getting huge mouthfuls of water and couldn’t breathe!

Safari

Tues. we went to Chobe game park in Botswana for a safari. It began with a boat ride that morning where we saw lots of elephants, hippos, and crocs. Then after lunch we all got into jeeps and drove around…it reminded me of Yellowstone, except with a guide. We saw more elephants plus zebras, giraffes, baboons, and other animals that I don’t know the name of. My favorite parts of the day were when we saw a baby elephant that was about 2 weeks old, a croc catch a fish and eat it, and when an elephant charged at our car!