Our God is an awesome God!!

Words and pictures cannot describe how amazing today was. It was probably one of the best days I can ever remember having. Our God is an awesome God!!

Last night I slept fairly well in our dorm room. We have the whole room to ourselves so it’s very nice. I kept getting awoken by an annoying mosquito buzzing around my ear, but other than that I slept well. I got up shortly after 7 and showered and got ready. I had a little breakfast of an apple and a Clementine and watched some news. Shortly after 8:30 the guy from the gorge swing company came to pick us up. Yep, that’s the first thing we did today: go to the gorge. We knew it was going to be a great day when the guy came to pick us up in an open back vehicle, just like the ones at Luangwa and ones you take on a safari. So we zipped through downtown Livingstone in an open vehicle—it was awesome. WE stopped at one other backpacking place to pick up some other people. They turned out to be sweet Canadian girls who were our age 21 and 23. They are spending five months travelling throughout Africa.  They were going to do the gorge swing as well, although they were going to do the tandem jump once and we had signed up for a half day of activities. We enjoyed a nice drive out to the gorge, getting nervous the whole time. Erika was definitely more excited about doing this than I was. When we got there just the sight of the gorge took my breath away. I couldn’t believe that I’d be jumping from that thing!! The gorge is several kilometers away from the Falls, so we couldn’t see them from where we were and the river wasn’t below us, it was just vegetation. We had to take a few minutes just to get pictures and soak in the view. Then we were taken aside and given instructions about what our day was going to be like. The other girls were getting strapped up already and given instructions because they were going first. We got to watch them do the gorge swing, hearing them scream the whole way down. I’m not sure if that helped my nerves or not.

What we did first was called Abseiling which is pretty much like scaling down the side of a cliff face. We were instructed on what to do and had a little practice round, signed the contract that said they weren’t responsible for our deaths and off we went. Erika went first and did a great job. I stayed up at the top and got some video and pictures. Then it was my turn. I was harnessed in tight, one hand holding the rope in front of me and one holding the one behind me that would let out the slack. The guide talked me down about 3 meters and then I could start the jumping. I’d let the rope out and fall a few feet and then kick off the rock face so you’d go down faster. The guy at the top was controlling the speed and talking me through it. Occasionally the rope would get slightly twisted which just meant you’d spin around instead of going straight down. This was actually nice because then I could soak in the amazing view of the gorge. It was a relatively short way down the cliff although it seemed quite far while you were watching it. While I was doing it, I think I was just caught up in what I was doing and the adrenaline that I didn’t have time to think about how long it was taking to get down. It was so much fun!! Once we were both safely on the bottom of the gorge we had the fun time of walking back up. It was a gorgeous walk until we got to the steep steps that we had to climb up. That was pretty tough and by then it was already hot.

The next thing we did was the zip lines. The zip line went across the width of the gorge and the nice thing about this one was that you didn’t have to climb back up the gorge when you were finished. We were allowed to do this one twice. The first time I went I was in the sitting position. I took a running start and then just leapt off the side of the gorge. Once I was in mid air I could let go of the ropes and just fly through the air. It was amazing. I can’t even describe how awesome yet scary it was to be suspended above a huge gorge with just a rope and harness keeping you up. I soaked in every minute of the view. The second time I did it, I did the flying fox way. This is where they harness you by the back so when you run and jump you’re going straight out like superman. This was equally if not more fun. I felt like a bird. It was incredible. Once you get as far as your running momentum will take you then the guys just reel you back in.

I can’t say enough about the people that were there running everything. There was a crew of maybe 10 men or so that we super friendly and funny and nice. They made us feel safe but also cracked some good jokes. I definitely trusted them with my life. We also had our personal paparazzi who was filming all the things we did. We bought the DVD of all our jumps and zips etc. J Apart from the two Canadian girls who were there for just their one jump, we were the only paying tourists there the entire morning. We  had the gorge to ourselves!

The final thing we did was the biggie. This was the gorge swing, the one that the girls did before us. Sort of like bungee jumping but not as scary. We did tandem both times because we heard it went faster. For this one we were harnessed together obviously and we had to jump of the cliff backwards. This was so scary!! We practice the jump several times before doing it. At the instructors count we had to crunch up, put our heads down and then lift our toes so that we just fell of the cliff. If I had to go on my own accord I don’t think I ever would have worked up the courage. But when he’s counting down, you HAVE to go. You have no choice. So we did. I can’t even remember much of that first jump, the falling part at least. It was sheer terror and panic. I was so scared I couldn’t even get a breath the scream. The fall is 3 ½ seconds but it feels like an eternity. When we finally reach the end of the rope and zipped back up, I could scream. I screamed bloody murder. After the initial terror was over it was actually super fun. Now we were in the swing part where we just swung back and forth across the gorge. It was so much fun! And it was so fun going with Erika because we could laugh and chat as we were swinging. At the bottom there was somebody there to meet us and unharness us and then we began the long walk up the gorge for the 2^nd time. Each walk up the gorge got harder and the sun was beating down on us. I can’t remember the last time I was that sweaty. J We had so much fun on that jump that we decided to go tandem again instead of jumping by ourselves. I’d say the 2^nd time was almost scarier because we knew what was coming. It was harder creeping up to the edge and getting into position. But we did it, and we actually enjoyed it more because we knew what to expect. So that was a pro and a con. I’ve never considered myself an adventurous person, but after the things I did today that opinion of myself is changing. I can’t believe I had the courage to jump off a gorge. When we got to the bottom and started walking back, my legs were shaky with either fear or adrenaline or both. The rush from that jump was incredible!

We did a little curio shopping at the hut at the top of the gorge, I drank a coke and then we watched the recording the guy took of us jumping. It was so cool! I’m so glad we bought it. Actually, we didn’t buy it yet but he’s coming to Jollyboys tomorrow to drop it off. On our way back into town we had to stop at the main office to pay, since that’s where their credit card machine was. Unfortunately it wasn’t working so we’re going to have to go back tomorrow to actually pay for our amazing day.

Our day didn’t end here. Our driver took us back out to the falls and dropped us off at this really fancy hotel. There was a courtyard with some shops and a café, since we hadn’t eaten any lunch. I got the fish and chips which were amazing, and a chocolate milkshake. We were told that we could access the falls right through the hotel grounds. Well it wasn’t as simple as that. I guess the hotel entrance was for hotel guests only. Thankfully, the guards were nice to us and allowed us to get through anyway. We paid our fee to get in the falls. The anticipation of seeing the falls was intense. We could hear the roar and see the mist but couldn’t see the falls yet. We walked along the “picture taking path” until we saw them. I have been here twice before as a child, but every time I see it it is amazing. The Zambian name for the falls is Mosi-O-Tunya which means The Smoke that Thunders. It truly does. And since it’s the rainy season here, the falls are in all their glory. The only downside to this is that there is so much mist, that it’s hard to see a clear picture of the falls. We did get some good pictures though. I won’t be able to add them to Facebook til we get back to Lusaka though. God blessed us with a wonderful man named Kelvin. We were just at a lookout point taking pictures and I asked him to take a picture of us together. Turns out Kelvin works on the Zimbabwe side of the falls giving tours etc. So he was a wealth of information about the falls. We didn’t even ask him to, but he sort of took us under his wing and gave us a private tour of the falls. He told us where to go and showed us things we wouldn’t have seen if we were by ourselves. He took us to all the cool nooks to get pictures, and he took tons of pictures of us together. He also walked down to the boiling pot with us. The boiling pot is where you walk all the way down to the base of the falls. It’s a long steep walk down. At first I wasn’t all that interested in going because the gorge walking was tiring enough. But I was convinced to go down and I’m so glad I did. We got right up to the base of the Zambezi river where all the water comes from the base of the falls. It’s called the boiling pot because literally it looks like a cauldron—the current is so strong and moving in a circle. We got right up to the edge and got some incredible pictures. We also had a great view of the bridge that connects the Zim and Zam side and where the bungee jumpers jump from. We got to see a couple people actually jump. Today was also the day of getting tons of pictures with random strangers. Lots of Zambians wanted to get pictures with us and even group of Indian men wanted pictures with us. It was rather strange. (Today was also the day were we got asked at least 5 times who we’d be voting for in the November elections. Who would’ve thought Zambians would be so interested in American politics?) So we took some pictures at the boiling pot and then headed up. The walk is so amazing, it truly is like a rainforest with all the trees and birds and greenery. The walk back up wasn’t as bad as I expected. We took it nice and slowly and the sun was behind the clouds so it wasn’t blazing hot. The mist from the falls also helped keep things cool. We were still pretty sweaty when we got to the top though so we saved the last part of the falls exploring for this time. This is the part of the falls where you put away your camera and rent a raincoat. Although we didn’t rent one. This path takes you super close to the mighty thundering falls and you get completely drenched in mist—it’s like it’s raining. I can’t even describe how awesome this was. We were completely soaked through and my shoes were making a ridiculous sludging noise but every second of that was worth it. How can people deny the existence of a God when you see the majesty of His creation?? There are no words to describe how amazing the walk was. Our trooper Kelvin even braved the downpour with us. On this walk, we also went across this little bridge which connected us to another chunk of land. The views were just incredible.

We thought this was the last thing we’d do at the falls but we were wrong. Kelvin then took us a little ways up river, to the part right before it falls. We actually got in the river! We were a couple hundred meters away from the edge. Sounds stupid right? Well it was actually pretty safe. We were at a little beach type area where the current wasn’t that strong and we only waded up to our knees. Kelvin got some good pictures of us in the mighty Zambezi though. After this we basked on the rocks nearby and admired the sun setting across the falls. I was just in awe of God and feeling so small and humbled watching this. Once again, pictures and words just cannot describe my feelings.

After a brief little look at the curio market, Kelvin escorted us to a cab outside the park. I definitely gave him a nice tip for being such a good tour guide and friend to us today. It was a super nice cab, with a friendly cab driver. The music choice was a bit bizarre though—it was some kind of Japanese children’s music playing at full blast. Very strange ride. But we made it back safely a little before seven. We were starving and also cold from being it wet clothes most of the evening. So I took a hot shower and then we ordered supper. I had a delicious veggie penne pasta dish with garlic toast. So delicious!! As a little pre supper snack I started munch on a couple biscuits we had brought with us from Lusaka before I realized the ants had found them and were swarming with them. So I definitely ate a few ants without realizing it. Gross!! Sadly we had to throw all those biscuits away. L

The evening was spent reading, relaxing and blogging. There are more people at Jollyboys now. They’re actually a group of 16 students and a few teachers from California. They’re here for a couple weeks to help out at an orphanage near Livingstone. Small world, and kind of nice to hear American accents again. It was interesting to talk to them for a bit as well.

We are both exhausted, as we had such a full day today. I am exhausted from being in the sun all day, and walking up steep gorges 4 times. I am also just in awe of what God allowed us to do today. He kept us safe, gave us great people to help us and just blessed us with His creation. Our God is an awesome God!!