An Awkward End to Victoria Falls

Yesterday was an odd, awkward day. It started out pretty normal with breakfast and a trip to see the Zim side of the falls. The falls were beautiful, and we definitely got soaked, even through our rented raincoats. After seeing the falls, we headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a while before our afternoon excursion, the elephant back safari. That's where the weirdness began. We were picked up in a minivan and driven out of town to the elephant safari place. We were the only ones on the bus, but I kindof figured that other clients be driven separately, and we would meet them there. Nope, it was just us. We pulled up to the elephant safari place and saw three elephants saddled across the watering hole. After a brief introduction and a look at a dead scorpion (eeks!), we got on our elephants with our guides. We proceeded to meander through the bush, learning more about elephants than we ever thought we would know. Additionally, both Sarah and I were asked some uncomfortable personal questions by our guides, so that made the whole thing even more awkward. After about 45 min of riding, we headed back to the base, where we assumed the safari would end. But oh no, it didn't end there... We proceeded to watch the elephants perform a few "tricks" and then sit down in unison. We were then urged to sit on the elephant's knee and feed it through it's trunk. It was both really weird and cool at the same time.

Finally, after some uncomfortable snacks and drinks with the lead guide, we headed back to our hotel just in time to see the elephants head to the watering hole at sunset (mom, dad, and erin, we know you'll be excited to hear we made it back to the hotel in time for that!). However, the weirdness did not end there... While watching the sun set, we entered into conversation with a nice man from Chile/New York who was traveling by himself. We had a nice conversation with him and headed back to our room. Then, a few minutes after we sat down to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant, he showed up and sortof/kindof invited himself to join us for dinner. Dinner was less awkward than I initially thought it would be, but still a very strange ending to a very strange day... The good thing is if we ever need an optometrist in NYC, we've now got a connection. :)

It's a bummer our trip to Victoria Falls had to end on such an awkward note, but overall we've had a good time here. Today we head back to Joburg for a day, and then up to London for a couple days before heading home. Our trip is almost coming to an end. Sniff Sniff.