Hey guys, Holly T here, and welcome to potentially the most exciting blog post of the trip. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be writing much since all we really did today was drive around in various vehicles, but what was looking to be a fairly relaxing day has turned into quite the adventure.
Disclaimer: I am 100% exaggerating events for the sake of the blog, and everyone is safe and sound (so don’t worry mum) but strap in folks, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
Our morning started with a fairly regular 7.45 departure from Backpackers with our hand luggage packed for our few days in R&R, and I found myself squished between Michael and Ashley on the minibus for 6 hours. (I’ve definitely had better seating arrangements). The first half of our journey went fairly normally. We listened to music and chatted and did puzzles and managed to nap a little - until we went off road. We pretty much bounced our way through Kafue National Park for several dozen kilometres, but it was all fun and games really as we had some Westlife bus-aoke courtesy of Ashley.
Then, literally out of nowhere, we hit a MASSIVE bump of some description in the road and the four of us eejits in the back went flying about a foot into the air. Thankfully we were all okay (though i’m convinced my organs moved about in my tummy), and sleeping Holly B’s hair proved a useful rope for Ashley to steady himself on. She wasn’t so amused.
We laughed it off and continued on for another few kilometres, until the fun really started.
Something (we still don’t know what) hit the back window and shattered it above Ashley and Alice’s heads. We were all incredibly shocked and the driver pulled over to take a look at it. There was a massive hole in the middle, and you could see and hear the pane continuing to crack. We figured the best thing to do would be to just smash the rest in so it wouldn’t fall on any more people, but in true African fashion, the driver insisted on just sticking a shopping bag over it and continuing on our way, claiming we were very close to the lodge (we were not). Since the glass was all over the seats, Ashley ended up sitting on the floor with Alice moving to a spare seat at the front of the bus, and we listened to the sound of cracking and the intermittent tinkle of a piece dropping off the window for the rest of the way there.
Maybe the bus wasn’t quite in one piece, but thankfully we all were as we pulled up to Musungwe Safari Lodge at around 2 o’clock. After a brief exploration of the wonderful pool and incredible scenery, we were allocated rooms, before grabbing a quick cold buffet for lunch. Then, half of us headed off on a land safari while the others went on a water one.
I’ll leave Jenny to tell you about the water safari tomorrow, but today the land safari led to our second (or is it third? I’ve lost count) near death experience.
Again, our journey started out amazingly. It was incredible to take in the African landscape and really appreciate God’s creation in this beautiful place. We drove around a while and saw animals such as monkeys, zebras, impalas and kudus, as well as - most excitingly - elephants!!
We were lucky enough to see several herds, and then while we were driving up a small path a few adults and a baby elephant were crossing in front of us! Of course, we all freaked out seeing these huge creatures so close.
We may have freaked out slightly too loudly though, because the next thing we knew the biggest elephant was charging right at us. And to make matters worse, the safari truck wouldn’t reverse.
Safe to say, we were terrified.
I think the elephant just wanted to scare us though, because it backed off soon enough and we were able to continue our trip, finishing with a spectacular view of the sunset before returning to our lodge for dinner.
We finished our evening with Archie’s entertainment and devotional night, and I’m pleased to report that we have had 0 nosebleeds for 2 days running.
(Holly T)
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