7 hour bus ride

This morning was an early morning! I didn’t sleep the greatest last night—I was up every few hours checking the time. I think I was excited! When my alarm finally did go off at 5am I was not ready to get up. I was mostly packed and ready; the only thing I had to do this morning was pack food for the bus. Erika was going to get up a few minutes after I did, but I noticed she wasn’t getting up. So I woke her up. Guess she didn’t hear her alarm. That could have been bad!

Dave and Dee brought us to the bus station and we found our bus no problem. We got there at about 6:30, so half an hour before our scheduled departure. The bus was a nice coach although lacking in overhead bin space and there were no toilets. It’s definitely not a bus we could ever take on choir tour. Instead of 4 seats across there were 5, so it was also slightly squished. We were holding our breath, hoping a 3^rd person wouldn’t come into our row and we thought our prayers were going to be answered, but literally in the last 15 seconds a girl came on and took the 3^rd seat. L We were so bummed, but it was ok. The bus ride was fine. We left shortly after 7am. The bus did make quite a few stops along the way to drop people off and pick up some more passengers. This was actually a blessing because then we could get off and use the bathroom and stretch our legs for a few minutes. The total bus time was about 7 hours. It was a long ride but fairly pleasant—we had delicious sandwiches and fruit packed and I entertained myself by reading and sleeping and listening to Fernando Ortega.

I wasn’t sure how long the ride would actually take so I tried not to get impatient and anxious. Before I knew it a sign said only 10Km to Livingstone!! We were so happy. The bus dropped everyone off and of course there were dozens of men hovering at the door to ask us if we needed a taxi ride. We weren’t quite sure where the Jollyboys place was in relation to where we were dropped off but we refused a ride and decided we’d just walk ‘til we found it. There were some nice people to direct us in the right direction and it was actually very close to where we were dropped off. A very short walk. When we got in, everything looked like the pictures. Very, very nice. However I noticed right away that the pool had no water in it and a guy was cleaning it. We asked about that right away and they said yeah they were cleaning it for a few days and it wouldn’t be up and running the whole time we were there. They said they have 3 Jollyboys locations in Livingstone and they could drive us to one of the other ones that had a functioning pool if we wanted to. We agreed! We were definitely planning on spending a ton of time at the pool. So it was a short drive down to the camp location which is more family oriented. We checked in no problem and she gave us a 4 person dorm room instead of an 8 person dorm room for the same price! It’s really quiet around here with not many people so this location actually turned out to be better. And the pool is wonderful!

This backpacking place is very impressive. There’s a community area with a lounge full of pillows to sit on, another living room area, a self serve kitchen and a decently priced restaurant. We have a nice toilet block right across from our rooms and of course the pool is lovely and for most of the afternoon we were the only ones in it. The first thing we did was jump in the pool. We were very hot from our bus ride. After cooling off we decided to look at the activities folder and book the things we want to do the next few days. The nice thing is that you can book everything right from here.  We booked two days worth of things. I won’t say what they are until we do them. The first one is tomorrow and we’re being picked up at 8:30am. All I’ll tell you is that Erika is quite a bit more excited about it than I am, although I am pretty excited about it too. J

After booking our fun things we spent several hours just relaxing by the pool, sunbathing and reading our books. I also watched some Premiere League football. What a life! For supper I ordered a curried chicken sandwich and Irish potato soup. At 6 they light a bonfire here, so we sat by the bonfire and enjoyed the rest of the evening before our real adventure begins tomorrow.