Thursday 28th July 2022

 Written by Martha

This morning we went to safari and saw lots of animals including elephants, giraffes, white rhinos, crocodiles, storks, warthogs, zebras, baboons, hippos, hornbills, wildebeest and lots of impalas.  Unfortunately most of the animals were in the distance so we couldn't see them particularly clearly and the majority of my photos were blurry, but it was still a great experience.

At some point during the safari we got out of the jeep and were led to armed guards to 2 white rhinos.  We were told some interesting facts about them, most of which I have forgotten. The only one I remember was the reason for why white rhinos are called that despite not being white.  It turns out it was a misunderstanding.  Basically, they are grazing animals, meaning they eat grass, so they have a wide mouth.  The English, because of this, called them Wide Rhinos but the Dutch misheard it as White Rhinos, now everyone just calls them that.

On the way back to Fawlty Towers, people in my jeep were singing Lion King songs as well as "In The Jungle", they wanted to play The Lion King soundtrack but no one had it downloaded.  I was surprised by Mr Sylvia not having it as he brought up the movie multiple times during the safari.  Before we left for the safari we had to sign a consent form stating that we were ok with the risk of loosing items, getting injured or even dying as a result of the animals.  Luckily none of that happened!

After that we rested at the hostel for roughly an hour before going out again for coaching.  The school my group went to was called Linda West, the children there had not played much Tag Rugby before and kept breaking the rules (mainly forward passing), but they did listen to the referee and improve.  Some were quite good and overall they were certainly better than most of the other schools I visited in Livingstone.  I was a lines person, which was not much work so I made sure I carried a kit bag on the way back.

For dinner we went to an Indian restaurant.  I had Chana Masala which I always have at my Dads.  It was very nice but not as good as my Dads!  Tonight it was game night and we played Bingo, we did four rounds and Anouk, Sophie and Sarosh were the full house winners (Sarosh won twice!).

Mum, how are the bunnies doing?  I hope they were ok with the heatwave and did not get fly strike.  Miss you and Dad, looking forward to seeing you guys.

Written by Alex

Today was our first early (ish) start since coming to Livingstone with a quick breakfast at 7am before everyone loaded into five safari jeeps, ours was equipped with blankets and a very smiley guide called Herbert.  Driving through the entrance of Mosi Oya Tunya National Park we could immediately see the border to Zimbabwe across a huge crocodile filled river to one side.  Our car quickly turned away, driving further into the bush.  Through the roughly 2 hour drive we saw a large number of animals and birds.  Notably amazing giraffes, warthogs, vultures, zebras, huge baboons (that ran across the track in front of the jeep) and lots and lots of antelope.  After driving for about an hour Herbert got a call from another group about an elephant spotting and we quickly drove to the banks of the river further on where the huge shape of an elephant was moving slowly in the trees beyond the sun basking crocodiles - it was amazing!  Here the groups all came together with lots to say about the incredible wildlife they had encountered, most notably Jake's video of an elephant crossing the road just metres in front of their jeep, just watching it was crazy.

Finally, after a short break for a superior Zambian Fantas more exciting news came from the nearby rangers, there were rhinos nearby that we could not only see but walk very close to and so guided in small groups by rangers with guns we walked into the bush, very quickly coming face to face with a huge mother rhino and her young calf, everyone was stunned (and taking as many pictures as possible!).  Leaving on a very high point we headed back to Fawlty Towers for a quick hour of coaching in the afternoon and finally a delicious meal in a nearby Indian restaurant, followed by four rounds of Miss Youngs Bingo!

For everyone at home, I hope you are all well.  The last two weeks have been intense but amazing and I am very excited for our trip to the Victoria Falls as well as the sunset River Cruise.  Hope to see you all soon 😀