To be honest, we didn't think that we would truly feel like we were missing Christmas because we just couldn't get into the mood... We were pleasantly surprised with how well our Christmas turned out.
We left on Christmas eve from Lilongwe, Malawi crossed the border into Zambia and listened to one of the worst Christmas CD's ever while trudging on to our campsite called "Flat Dogs"! Why was it called Flat Dogs? There were crocs in the river that ran along side the campsite, hence the term 'Flat Dogs'. And to top it all off there were also a dozen or more hippos in the river who also liked to come up on land through the night. Our minds were wandering with these ideas of being dragged off in the middle of the night by some blood thirsty hippo/croc when camp security came over and verified our thoughts. He stated word for word, "Please do not leave the campsite for any reason it is not safe. There are animals everywhere. When walking to the bathrooms/showers at night please take a flashlight and walk in pairs. Usually there are visitors in the night, elephants, hippos, whatever so please use common sense." Well, suffice it to say, that made us feel a whole lot safer!
We had about an hour to erect our tent and get ready for the carolling that was taking place on the bridge that enters into the South Luangwa National Park in which Flat Dogs butts up against (only a three minute drive from our campsite). We didn't know what to expect but we were excited. The trucks that took us to the bridge were the same ones for our morning game safari. The trucks were quite unique. They were Land Cruisers with the tops and sides cut off so they could put in three rows of seating like in a theatre with no roof on the vehicles. Now picture these trucks, remembering that we could possibly see a pride of lions or a leopard hunting prey, and not really having any protection from either if they decided to have Mzungu for dinner. We definitely enjoyed these trucks, as you could see all around you and apparently they were supposed to be completely safe!
Anyways, back to the carolling on the bridge... We drive up and there must have been over 30 trucks already there and people everywhere mingling on the bridge. There was a local Zambian choir practicing as we approached the middle of the bridge, as well as little kids handing out sheets of carols with the words to help us sing along. Also, unbeknownst to us, there was a table with food and drinks set up for us that I'm sure you can imagine Jilly and I delved into. There were little pieces of pizza, cheese balls, chips, cheesies, pork shishkabobs, coke, sprite and champagne! We were in heaven considering we hadn't eaten anything for five hours. The music started by having these two local choirs walking onto the bridge singing in their native language. They were fantastic! Not only did we have this beautiful music to listen to and great food to eat, but we also had a magnificent sunset to watch over the river while gazing at the hippos and the croc in the water directly below us. I'm sure they were just hoping for the bridge to collapse and to have an international buffet of tourists!
While on the bridge a friend in our group, Allison, asked one of our drivers if there was anywhere we could go to a midnight mass? Some of us were interested. It ended up that she organized him to meet up at 11pm back at the campsite to drive us to his church (Anglican) where they were having an all night service. We were pretty excited but really didn't know what to expect.
Allen, our driver, showed up at 11pm in his own vehicle and seven of us jumped into the back of his pick-up truck. We were a little nervous at first but quickly realized that he was a very safe and cautious driver as the road out of the campsite was very bumpy and full of potholes and he took it quite slowly. We turn on to the main highway (like a secondary road in Canada) and what do we see 100 metres in the distance crossing the road... a huge hippo! It was unbelievable the size of it. It must have been the size of the pick-up truck we were in. Too dark for a pic though unfortunately. The drive took us about 10 minutes to get to the church. Along the way we drove through a village with people everywhere celebrating the eve of the birth of Jesus, or at least that's what they say they were celebrating. Once we got to the turn off to the church, our minds started wandering because we just drove for the past five minutes through hordes of people and passed three other churches and this turnoff was in complete and utter darkness. There may have been one candle on in the church and it was just this one eery looking building in the middle of nowhere. We honestly thought this couldn't be good. We had thoughts of Freddy and Jason in our minds and then realizing there's no way anyone will find our bodies... but it actually turned out to be one of the most memorable Christmas eves of our entire lives!
We jump out of the back of the truck and walk into the church and there's were approximately 60 people or so just sitting there quietly, or so we thought. It turned out it was mostly the youth of the congregation (babies to around 30 yrs old) who had decided to spend Christmas eve, from 11pm to early morn, together in the church. When we walked in they put half of us on one side and the other half on the other side because they were having a biblical quiz and they wanted the teams to be even. Two guys were up front asking the questions to one side at a time and if they were unable to answer then the other side had a chance to steal the question. It was so neat to witness this. The questions were very difficult - none of us Mzungus got any right. I know my 10 years of Sunday school weren't helping me! And when one side got a question right it sounded like we were in the Sky Dome when Joe Carter hit the game winning home run to win the World Series, it was unbelievable!
After about a half hour of watching and listening to this Q & A of how Christianity was formed they decided to interupt their game on our behalf and started to sing and dance for us. It was surreal! The conductor was leading them into song after song in English until Pierrette asked if they could sing us a couple of songs in their language. We had such a great time! But it didn't stop there. Next they asked us all up to the front so we could introduce ourselves. This caught us off guard but we all went up to the front of the church, introduced ourselves and then answered questions that some people asked us. Once we sat down, each person in the entire congregation introduced themselves! It was so neat. They sang us a couple of more songs then Jill got their address so that we could send them some of the pics that we took of them. It was a magical night! We told the driver before we left that we would only need an hour and a half but once 12:30am arrived we all wanted to stay, but we didn't think that was fair to the driver, not to mention we had to get up at 5:30am to go on our early game drive.
It was a little difficult falling asleep at first considering the noises that the hippos were making but once we had our imaginations under control, sleep came easily. The sun came up very quickly that morning, but we were pumped for our game drive. It actually started sooner than we thought. Twenty seconds after leaving our tents, we turn the corner to leave the campsite and there were three elephants to greet us. Pretty good start we thought and it only got better. Though we were a little nervous at first because it was the beginning of the wet season and supposedly there may be very little game for us to see. Well it didn't take very long to prove that theory wrong. As soon as we entered the game park there were babboons, hippos, crocs, zebra, gazelles, impalas, kudus, warthogs and many birds. Then we had our first highlight of the day. A group of 11 elephants walked within 30 metres of our truck, it was awesome! A couple of little babies and then all sizes. Not a good time for Jill to end her roll of film, but luckily I had the digital camera as well! (and we'll try and get some of our pics up soon!).
We ate lunch along side the river and Jill was able to capture a hippo in the water with its head straight back and mout fully opened on film! We can't wait to see how that pic turned out. Then the second highlight of the day, we came across a leopard. She was just walking along the track we were driving on and we must have followed her for a good 10 minutes. We couldn't believe how close we were, considering there was nothing between she and us as far as protection was concerned. We got some good shots! Then, about 20 minutes later we came across another group of elephants that were bathing in a mud puddle. It was amazing, they were using their trunks and blowing mud all over themselves as well as their little baby. They got a little over protective and began to charge our vehicle. It was a mock charge at first but then once we left the baby had moved to the other side of the road and we drove between she and her mother and that provoked another charge! What a sight to see!
After the game drive we had a huge Christmas dinner and I must admit the turkey was great! It was nice to have turkey again but the fruit salad was ok for dessert. It was a poor replacement for my Mom's pumpkin pie! Then we had a gift exchange within our group. Everyone bought something for $3 and then wrapped it up and threw them into a pile. We drew names to see who picked first and then the next person picked, etc... but the last person who picked had the choice of keeping theirs or taking anybody elses that they liked better. (most of you have played a game similar to this so I won't go on explaining the game). It was a lot of fun and we got some pretty nice stuff, considering it was only worth $3! We relaxed near the pool after our big lunch and then I played Scrabble in French, then English, with Dominique until the early evening as Jill read and talked with the ladies. That's right, nothing has really changed!
Boxing Day was nice because we had a nice sleep in, ate brunch around 10am and then a group of eight of us went to a conservation centre for the afternoon. It was run by this couple who moved from England, bought this beautiful piece of land and built this conservation centre that is geared towards local school children learning about conservation practices. They really had a wonderful set up. It was so informative yet a very comfortable setting so that it didn't feel like a typical boring museum. They showed us around the centre and then took us through their wonderful home, and it was immaculate! This guy had collections of everything; tortoise shells, antelope horns, pottery from 2.6 million years ago found on an archaeological site near his home, ancient rocks used for cutting, amazing photos that he has taken living in Africa, etc... It was just breath taking.
They also take in orphaned animals and we got to meet and play with a three month old vervet monkey and a young warthog! It was fantastic! Then we went back to the campsite for four o'clock so we could go on our evening game drive! It was pretty scary/exhillerating being in the middle of a Nat. park in pitch darkness in the middle of Africa. Our guides had a spot light and they would continually sweep it across the fields/roadsides as we drove and all we could see was hundreds of eyeballs looking at us. I wish we could tell you that we saw a leopard hunting gazelle (like our friends Paul, Allison and Fab saw the previous night) but we didn't see anything that exciting. We pretty much saw everything we did the previous day except we also saw a puff adder (snake), a large spotted genet, and a hyena! No leopards or lions, but oh well, it was still a lot of fun!
We had a truly memorable Christmas!
We are now on our way down to Livingstone where we will see Victoria Falls! We can't wait. We will also being doing a rhino walk where we will get as near as 3 feet. Don't worry we will have an armed game warden with us! Supposedly it's really amazing so we have our fingers crossed! And then we will be spending New Year's on a houseboat floating along the Zambezi River! No more tents and no more cooking, there are beds and the food is fully catered! We are pumped! So if we don't get on email between now and New Year's, have a wonderful New Year everyone and we'll email you all from Cape Town!
Happy New Year!
Bow.