Hell Week
You last left us in Malawi. Big K was doing his diving certification and I was chillin with S and R who were good fun, reading and relaxing at the lakeshore. From there, we had hell day. Wait, it was hell week!
From there, which was Nkata Bay, we had to go to Lilongwe, which is also Malawi, but is about 8 hours from Nkata Bay. So we took a morning bus at 5 am, it rained, no wait, POURED on us the whole walk to the bus WITH all of our stuff. We arrived at Lilongwe, kind of dryish and tiredish and got the closest hotel to the station because the NEXT day we had to get up again and catch a bus at 6 (which did not leave until 8) which lasted all day again. We arrived in Lusaka at 9ish (PM), had to pitch our tent (yes, we ARE camping!)
So...the NEXT day, we did the same thing... a 8 hour bus ride from Lusaka to Livingstone, where Victoria Falls is (Zambia). We stayed there one day, went to look at the falls, relaxed (in our tent) and then the NEXT day...yup you guessed it -- anohter travel day! This one was actually interesting. I think I said before that I hitchhiked for the first time. This was that day. We wanted to take a bus from Livingstone to Windhoek, Namibia. This is about an 18 hour bus ride. However, the bus only goes on Wednesday and Sunday. Today was Thursday. So, we tried to get a bus but they said we had to go to another town to get it. So we took a taxi 60 km to the next town where they dropped us off....at the side of the road. Mind you, at this time it was about 630 am. So...we hitched. The guy who picked us up was super nice and was actually traveling in a caravan, two trucks long. They always travel together.
The guy, Franco, was from...Namibia! Yay! Since that was where we were trying to go, we asked him if we could go all the way with him. He said yes, although he was going to a different town, but we could go with him as far as we needed. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!! His partners were great too, we actually switched trucks in the middle. We saw elephants and warthogs!! We learned A LOT about Namibia. We did not go over 100 km/hr (they have a sensor that sends a signal to the home office if they go over 100). We did not make it to the end. We had to get off in the middle because it was 10 pm. Namibia is a HUGE country!
The next day, we hitched again, met a nice guy named Bob and his dog, Poppy (named for "the item you get from Poppies". I didnt ask him to elaborate), tried to rent a car but were told we DID need to go to Windhoek (pronounced VindHoke) after all. So, we got another ride with a great guy named Sam (who had AC -- wonder of wonders!!) He was a wealth of information. He told us all about the human trafficking from Nigeria and China. He told us all about the gun laws. He knew so much. I asked him if the cops were corrupt here. He said no and he knew all about the programs they have within the government where they watch the cops to make sure that they stay legal. I was thinking "this guy knows his stuff!!" Then we asked him what he did. He says, "I work for the police". Hahaah. Oops. He was super nice. We finally got to Windhoek around 8 pm.
This was the end of hell week. 6 days of travel. No rest. Camping on the ground, riding in uncomfortable buses for 6 days in a row. We got a car to continue our journey and I am sooooo glad. We are traveling every day, but it is no big deal anymore. We can stop when we want! You dont know how good this is! Anyway, more about that later. Hell week is over.