My African Safari
by Freyja Stott
Namibia Botswana Zambia
Zimbabwe Zambezi River
Victoria Falls Etosha Park
This is me jumping out of a plane at 9500 feet in tandem with our Instructor Craig.
These are snapshots from the video they made to the song "I come from a land down under"
WOW !!! Thumbs up I can fly !!!
" It's like falling in your sleep ... only 10 times worse "
We all did it ... awesome !!! My skydiving friends
Etosha Park Ancient Ruins Elephant Tracks
The rock carvings near here are 2000 - 3000 years old
I climbed the oldest (80 million years) sand dunes in the world - they took an hour to climb
Rach and me in camp New Years Eve (Sydney time)
The last sunset for 2000 The Gang - hi guys !!!
Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River Sharing camp with the elephants
My quad-biking friends Yep ... that's me
White Water Rafting
on the
Zambezi River
More photos below
We flipped several times ... COOL !!!
Here we go ... Hang on ... Lets do it again !!!
My Safari Story
We got into Johannesburg on 2/12/00 at
5 pm which was
2 am Hobart time on the 3/12/00. So we have been up since 4.30 am 2/12/00 Hobart time, which if you can work out is nearly over
24 hrs awake and we have seen no night at all.
When we got to the airport, some blokes approached us to try and get us to go in their
taxis! We eventually found a bus we were to go on, after a guy showed us, so Rach gave him a tip. We ended up at the wrong hotel and had to
catch another bus ... typical !!
The hotel was great and breakfast was fanatasic. We saw all these black FIFA players but
weren't sure who they played for.
We flew from Johannesburg to Windhoek and met two people, Ken from Canada and Anita from Victoria, so we all caught a taxi together. Ken was sitting
in the front and jumped in the drivers seat!!. I'm thinking this guy is very confident doing that but he was thinking about driving rules in Canada, very
funny. He also goes "Look at that 10 yr old kid driving that car" ... hello not
again !!!
When we touched down into Windhoek all you could see was land and nothing else. We couldn't even see the airport so I'm thinking where the hell are we,
in some isolated area or what ?? After driving a bit we started to see houses, I'm thinking who the hell would live here in no where
land, but we came over a hill and there's this city which is huge ... amazing hey.
Rach and I went for a swim and then a thunderstorm started which was great to watch.
Later we met everyone else and went out for tea. We have on our tour 1 male German, 1 male
Canadian, 1 female Singaporian, 2 UK chicks, and 4 Australians. There are two more but they have not showed.
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We had to get up at
4.30 am a couple of nights ago to go to the oldest sand dunes in the world. It took
roughly an hour to walk up the dune ... it was that massive. Only a few of us made it to the top and I was one, of
course !!!
We have been swimming and doing lots of driving, as well as seeing small sights like sunsets etc.
We left Windhoek and drove to Swakopmund. It took 5 hrs.
I have been sky diving!!! It was the best thing I have ever done. I had no idea what to expect.
You know when you fall in your sleep, well it's ten times worse than that. Craig, the
instructor got me to close my eyes and feel myself falling. It was great. I also got to control
cords on the way down. A few of the guys came to watch me jump and gave me big hugs at the
end. They video'd the whole thing plus took photos.
Straight after that we went quad biking, which is 4WD bikes, and drove over sand dunes for
2 hrs. It was great doing jumps and skidding everywhere. We had to ride up very steep hills and back down again. A
German girl, Evette clipped a guy's bike and went airborne and flipped her bike over. She was
alright but I saw the whole thing ... great stuff.
We went out for Susanah's 30th birthday and had to wear hats so we all went to town to design our hats. I made a pink princess hat and we ended up
getting a free drink from a barman as he was sooo impressed!!
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I have not been near an internet place or able to phone anyone for the past
week, but the trip is awesome. We went back to Windhock to stay at a backpackers accommodation and we all
had a very funny night, playing games, etc.
We have a 5am start every morning as we travel on average 4 hrs per day. One trip we travelled for
12 hrs, but that passed quickly !!!
We have been to Etosha Park, which is a game reserve where we drive around to see wildlife. We were very lucky to see lions from
2 metres and black rhinos. Apparently there are only 3000 rhinos in the world and we saw 5 in the park.
Also to see lions that close happens 1 in every 10 trips. There is a waterhole near the campsite where you can sit and relax and wait for animals
to come, so 15 elephants came to drink and swim, young and old ... amazing!!
Every place we stay they pools and bars, which is very strange as we travel through endless land for hours and then pops out these amazing
resorts .... unbelievable.
We went to the Delta where we have to canoe in and camp for 3 days in the wild. No help for several hours, so we all were
a bit scared. We walked for 4 hrs and looked for wildlife where we saw giraffes and were about 100m away.
It's weird being around animals knowing we have no protection at all. We also saw zebras, hippos and crocs.
The highlight though was three male elephants came to our campsite (see photo
above) and we were 10 metres away. Apparently they are very aggressive so we had to be very
careful ... awesome to see.
We could not take any soaps or toothpaste into the Delta so we roughed it big time and got sooo dirty. It was sooo hot during the day so we went
swimming in this muddy river and came out dirtier than we went in, but it was worth it still.
I have seen so many animals and have got it all on camera. Lots of funny things happened, like Rach slipping over in mud and I got it on camera, its a
funniest home video shot for sure !!!
I have not had much sleep but am being rewarded at the moment at this beautiful resort in Chobe. We no longer have to tent anymore and are in
bungalos.
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I had the best day yesterday. We went White Water Rafting down Victoria Falls.
There were seven of us in the raft plus our guide Doc. They prepared us before we went out and they kept stressing when we flip to
really hold onto the raft, so I'm thinking that's not too bad !!!
The rafting is over 5 hrs and we raft for 24 km and the rapids are graded from 1 to 6, the highest for us being 5.
Well we went out and the rapids were a bit scary to start with but not too bad. But that was short lived when we over rapid 4, graded 3. This was
unexpected, even Doc said so, and I lost my paddle and let go. Well it was very
scary as the raft was on top of us all and we couldn't get out. Once I
found my way out I found it hard to breath and had the shakes. It really stirred me up and this was a grade
3 !!!
I was very cautious for the next couple of rapids but sailed through them ok and started to get my confidence up. Until we came to rapid No 8. We had
two options, to take the easy way out or the hard way which guarantees a flip. This was called Star Trek, so we decided to go for the flip. I was petrified
but thought I had to do it. All I remember was thinking I have to hang on !! Well we flipped and I did hang on and came up with the raft no worries. It
was sooo much better and was not scared at all, it was awesome. This was graded 5.
We cruised through the next rapids and did really well on one which Doc said we would probably flip but didn't.
He was giving us the instructions, like forward fast, then hard left, then hard right, get down and hold on. You
really had to concentrate as if you didn't you're gone.
One of the last rapids we also decided to flip as well, graded 4. We all swashed into the back of the raft and went
for this big surf and went up and over, excellent again.
It was the best fun. Half way down it started to thunder and rain so it was very relaxing.
We had to do this massive walk up a 250 metre steep hill and basically was walking up a ladder. We
did not walk on solid ground, only on little sticks and had to carry our paddle and helmet, plus balance on the sticks as there was
no hand rail. Absolutely killed but there was a treat at the
end ... beers !!!
I am very stiff and sore today and have bruises every where but worth every bit. Have it on video
too!!!!
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The weather has been hot in the morning,
unbeareable at times, then it usually thunders at night. I've never seen such awesome lighting
strikes in ages.
We left Victoria Falls on the 21st and headed to the Zambezi River for a 3 day canoe safari. We now have 6 Aussie's on tour and the rest everywhere else so
when we play games it's always Australia vs the Rest of the World. We win of
course !!!
Valentine, our guide gave us a run down on the dangers of the river and of course hippos came up. We were all
a bit scared but they have to warn you I guess. They said if a hippo charges at you to jump out of the canoe and swim
for you life, as the hippo goes for the biggest thing they see, the canoe. But if a croc comes at you you have to stay with the canoe so it could be a
lose-lose situation. Anyway we canoed down the river and it was fantastic. Very hot and had heaps of sunscreen on and still got burnt. My hands were
the worst. All my fingers were swollen and sore and are still red and todays the
27th !!!
One hippo went to charge at Valentine our guide and we were behind him, but he stood up on the canoe and slapped the oar on
the water so the hippo stopped. They get really high out of the water, you can see how easy it is to die but that was the only
scary bit.
We canoes to an island for lunch and these elephants swam from the mainland to our island. It was amazing seeing them swim and they actually swam for
probably 500 metres. They came to the island so we went up as close as we could.
Within 200 metres, but behind bushes. One elephant charged at another and everyone
ran. The guide laughed at us and told us to stop or else the elephant will charge. Cool stuff.
Where we camped was on a beach island, very nice and at night you could hear lions and hippos around us. The hippos were on the campsite but the
lions were in the distance, but their roars was enough to keep you in the tent
!!
We set off again and came to another campsite where again elephants were roaming around. Aaron was in the loo when they walked past so he couldn't
move for ages. They were soooo close but ignored us, it's great to be sooo close to wild animals.
For Xmas we were on a House Boat in Kariba. This was fantastic. They spoilt us with
delicious foods and we had presents to open Xmas morning. Very relaxing. There was a spa on board and we got to jump off the top of
the riverboat, which was very high up ... cool.
I am in Zimbabwe now, Harare, the capital. Have bought heaps of stuff. They will take anything to trade so Rach and I have traded films, mosquito nets,
pens etc. They want the clothes we were wearing so when we go to Victoria Falls again we will swap
clothes.