Livingstone – Day 2 (pt 4)

We had to get up extra early as we had an early pick up for our Horseback Safari. I was a little leery about going as I’m not exactly an avid horse lover or rider. For reasons unknown to myself, despite my telling them I was not an experienced rider, they put me on one of the younger horses, named Contemptuous. This horse obviously was named well as he took a disliking to me riding him and started acting up about twenty minutes into the ride. By that time I was pretty much ready to pack in the ride as well, those saddles were NOT built for comfort! The hotel that owned the stables also has some giraffe and zebra which we got to photograph (or as much as you can when riding a horse). As my horse was getting beyond my control, I traded with one of the guides’ for a horse who was more interested in eating then in going anywhere, but he was a little more my speed. We then proceeded to enter the Mosi-au-Tunya Game Park where we rode for the next 3 and ½ hours. We had been told that we might spot elephants, a multitude of deer-type animals, buffalo and perhaps even a rhino… we saw nothing. Nothing but trees and dead grass and the horses we were riding. I was really not impressed… and neither was my backside and my knees! By the time we got back to the stables after our 4 hr ride I was barely able to stand! Thankfully I didn’t have to as they had a nice lunch (cold meats and veggies) prepared for us in a cute little garden. The other 3 girls that had been riding with us were Swiss and we all got to know each other a bit. They had tons of questions when they found out I was out here essentially as a volunteer for several years. Instead of being dropped off back at our lodge (which would have been a better idea as we were so tired and dehydrated) we got dropped off at the Falls. We started down the path to the Boiling Pot, but after 10-15 minutes of descent we realized that it was a LONG way down and we were WAAAY too tired to climb up again afterwards, so we (very slowly) made our way back up and found a path closer to the falls to follow. I have to admit I was a little disappointed by the falls as there was barely any water in some parts, but then it is the end of the dry season. After many photo ops we dragged ourselves through the craft market (way more expensive there then in Lusaka) and headed ‘home’ for much needed showers. The night we dressed up a bit and went out for supper. We were both so tired and probably on our way to suffering from heat-stroke that we didn’t really enjoy our meal all that much. As we had an early morning and another one the next day we decided to turn in early. Unfortunately some young guys decided to keep the neighbourhood up with their drunken antics in the middle of the night so we didn’t get any sleep.