a whole new experience

Hi Everyone!

Oh, how i've missed having connections - amazing how much I rely on something as small as a laptop that has such a huge impact on everything. A whole week without talking to my husband or my mom!! Unheard of! But I survived it.

I flew from Cape Town to Jo-Burg to Livingstone, Zambia last week to meet up with 6 others and 2 guides for an Intrepid Bundu tour. I had no expectations as I had no idea what to expect. I had an amazing time.

At Victoria Falls we walked to the Zambian (the less impressive but still awesome) side of the falls. We slept in bedded tents and showered in gross showers (ha), peed with a huge frog watching me!

I went on a dinner cruise up the upper Zambezi with dignitaries from Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa & Botswana and me in my shorts and tank top - I have NEVER felt so out of place! ha! The people were very nice to me and one even told me he thinks I'll have twins, wow! he didn't even know my name but was predicting the future of me; i was just thankful he wasn't offering to father them, wink wink!

I flew in a helicopter of the falls - AMAZING! Such an impressive site, i guess thats why its one of the 7 wonders. wow. wow. wow.

I went on an elephant back safari. (see my facebook profile pic). My elephant was Bop. He was the oldest of the elephants there and he didn't like to go up to the dock to get on so he knelt down and the guide helped my climb up on him. He was fantastic, we walked through the jungle and then swam the river across. then I was able to feed and pet him. wow. this huge HUGE animal was so gentle and sweet. he felt like soft bark on a tree with tiny (compared to the size of him) hairs all over. his trunk opening was wet and soft like a dogs nose but could grip my hand like a handshake. he was amazing, the whole experience was unbelievable.

actually i could say that about my whole trip. like being in a dream. i walked through the whole week thinking wow. fantastic. wow. so many times i had to shake my head and say - I'm in Africa! this is crazy! ha ha. you'd think after the 40 days i've been here I would get used to it, but nope. like a dream I need to pinch myself. wow.

We left for Botswana early to get to Chobe National park early afternoon. beautiful. We went on a cruise on the chobe river and saw so many hippos, crocodiles, birds, antelope, and even awhole herd of elephants rolling in the mud and spraying themselves and playing. There were young ones that were playing and even baby twins that were soooo cute they kept slipping in the mud and falling. ha ha. it was truly breath taking watching the sun go down and watching nature do its thing. ahhhhhh.

Next to Maun, Botswana to leave for the Okagango Delta. A place like nowhere else in the world - wow. We were poled out to our campsite in Mokoro's (carved out canoes) through the reeds and channels for 2 hours to get there where we swam in the natural pools with the clearest pristine waters and nice warm(ish) water to cool us down from the 38 degree weather. I tried my hand at poling a mokoro - you could probably guess but I sucked. Action, my teacher, had to pole us back because I was an embarrassment to the sport... ha ha. That afternoon we went on a game walk. wow. we saw tonnes of birds and a herd of zebras that we walked right beside. wow. no lions, which i saw totally okay with! you know, walking and all ;)

We travelled back to Maun the next day spent the night then left bright and early (not so bright it was that early) to Karma RHino Sanctuary after eating our breakfast on the side of a deserted highway under the only tree to be seen for miles (beautiful) in the Kalaharui Desert. wow.

We went for an open air game drive at the sanctuary where we saw the BIGGEST giraffe I've ever seen (but i've been told they are even bigger in the serengeti! yay!) we saw 19, or 21 rhinos! lots of baby ones too! cute! warthogs with babies, cute! Impalas, with you guessed it, babies! cute! lots of birds, water bucks, springboks (not pronking.... dang) a HUGE lizard! steenbucks (the cutest tiniest antelope) an owl, and a herd of zebras. wow! what a drive!

I also witnessed the tragic death of a baby squirrel, so new its eyes weren't even open. his mama deserted him when we checked into the room and he and his brother were squeaking for her. then he toppled out of the nest 10 feet above my bed. he made the grossest sound when he hit the concrete. oh dear, tears came to my eyes and I had to leave. Thankfully Antje was able to deal with the situation. I'm still traumatized. I asked the ranger to help the other little baby and he said "I'll take care of it" not like.... I'll get a tiny bottle and i'll nurse him to grow up... but more like I'll feed him to a snake behind your cabin. poor little guys. all because i started playing Lady Gaga they woke up and started crying.... then splat. thanks Gaga....

Well, yesterday we drove a record of 9.5 hours... exhausting, and then went for a quick drive down to Soweto, the most famous township in South Africa. Amazingly moving stuff. South Africa is a crazy place where the history is only now becoming history - you know I learned about things in classes in highschool and i thought oh, wouldn't that be terrible way back when to have to with such and such. but it was so long ago its hard to appreciate what the people went through. but here its so fresh that it is all around us. it is amazing to think about what was happening here while I was oblivious at home growing up in a safe and beautiful country. What if I would have been born here? everything would have been different. everything would be so hard... its hard to put into words but I feel I am so lucky, yet sad that I didn't understand until now.

Today, I'm in the JoBurg airport waiting for a flight to Nairobi, Kenya to start another adventure to the Serengeti and Ngorogoro Crater (the cradle of mankind) - I'm sooooo excited! and can't wait to tell you all about my next journey.

I hope all is well with you all! I miss everyone lots!!
12 more days until I'm home..... yessssssssssssss!!

All my Love,
Katrina / Kipp / Kapracino / Katherine / Hurricane (this is my new "action" name, like it?)