City girls show their true colours

There are a lot of adventure activities available in Livingstone and Gary has decided to take a microlight flight over Victoria Falls this morning while Maria and Uwe are going white water rafting.  Hils and I have shown our true colours as city girls, deciding to go for luxury  and  booking ourselves in for pedicures.  Our whole group gets up early to see an excited Gary off on his flight. 



Raewyn goes with him to photograph this momentous event while the rest of us sit chatting over breakfast and watching the antics of the monkeys swinging through the trees overhead and rifling through the rubbish bins round our camp site.  There are men employed to wander round the camp with sling shots to chase the monkeys away but the monkeys  just scatter and return once the coast is clear.

 Before long the microlight with Gary aboard, comes right over head and we all jump up and wave our arms and shout like a bunch of desert island survivors.







 

This camp site is part of a large complex which includes a beautiful, luxury hotel.  The spa, where we have our pedicures, is located in the hotel.  It includes a large relaxation room where, wrapped in a thick white robe I recline on a lounger and admire the view across the Zambezi.  French doors open wide onto a shady veranda and soft white curtains billow in the breeze.  It is lovely and we simply could not imagine being here a week or two back.  While Hils is having her pedicure I sit in the steam room and get the last remnants of dirt steamed from my pores then take a cool dip in the adjoining pool.  The treatment is pure luxury.  I feel sorry for the therapist who spends an hour working on my manky feet and legs.  They are massaged, oiled, nails trimmed and shaped, feet dipped in hot wax and nails painted bright red.  They look and feel fantastic and I cannot stop looking at them.  Hils and I meet Gary and Raewyn in the restaurant for a leisurely lunch and Gary tells us about his thrilling flight.  We also catch up with Maria and Uwe who enjoyed their rafting experience but found it  to be more intrepid than they had expected. One of their group ended up with a severe gash to his jaw which required stitches, so I'm not sorry I gave that one a miss.
 

We have a lazy afternoon relaxing until 4pm when we meet the rest of our group to go on a sunset cruise.  We are all a bit nervous when we discover the boat we are booked on is the same one that the noisy mob were on last night but fortunately we have nothing to fear, it is a gentle, peaceful four kilometre cruise up the Zambezi and along the border of Zimbabwe.  Our group has the whole downstairs saloon to itself and we have a wonderful time laughing, singing and watching the scenery go by.  As the scarlet sun sets over the river turning the water a burnished gold we feel a sense of sadness as we realise this is the end of our incredible adventure.    We have a light meal aboard the boat before cruising back to the jetty,  grateful to Murray and Laurie for booking this cruise for us, our last activity together and a fitting finale.

Before bed Hils and I go to the bathroom and get chatting to a cleaner.  She is a lovely woman who tells us that she has worked at the camp for ten years to pay for the education of her siblings.  She is very proud that  one is now a teacher and the others have finished their studies so she is hoping that she can now do some training herself.  She tells us that her job is utterly thankless and that she dreads the arrival of the overland trucks with young backpackers aboard. as she knows the bathrooms will be left in a disgusting state.  We witnessed that ourselves; toilets left overflowing, vomit on floors, rubbish and toilet rolls all over the place, and were shocked at the mess. We cannot believe these young people treat the camp sites and their staff with such disrespect and once again, we feel ashamed to be European. What must the Africans think of us?  Hils asks the woman if she would like some clothes for her children and she says she would love them so we go back to camp and gather some of our own clothes and some more from members of our group and take them back to her.  She is absolutely thrilled and we are humbled...they are well worn clothes.  Everyone in our group is tired and turns in early, our thoughts now turning towards home.

Photos: (1) Pesky monkey in our rubbish bin, (2) Zambezi from the hotel spa, (3) Our group enjoying the sunset cruise on the Zambezi, (4) Raewyn, Miriam and Hilary....the three musketeers!, (5) Our last sunset in Africa....or is it?