Vic Falls - Zimbabwe - New Years Eve

This morning Lisa had a massive sleep in while I caught up on writing some journal articles. It's nice to have a day of rest.
We have been trying to organise our accommodation in Nairobi for the past few days with no luck at all! We have sent emails, called a billion different numbers that we have found to try contact the hotel,- but they are either not answering or cannot help us. We wish to book transfers from the airport to our hotel, as we land quite late at night, and Nairobi is not really the place I want to be after dark.

Finding 'air time' to have the ability to actually make the calls was probably the most stressful part of the day. Again, everyone wants your business which means that people are extremely helpful when trying to sell you something but also will tell you anything you want to hear to make the sale meaning that you may or may not be getting the correct information! We were dragged from place to place trying to buy these stupid 'air time' cards. The hotel told us we could use their phones if we bought the air cards, but everywhere we went they were simply just trying to sell us an entire Zimbabwe phone kit because 'landlines don't exist in Zimbabwe'…. Well they do. You have one right there. :/ ugh. Anyway, we eventually bought some airtime tickets that he he didn't want us to buy for $3US and it turned out to be exactly what we needed! We went back to the hotel and an incredible receptionist 'Rejoice' helped us make a few calls. Again with not much luck. She continued to call people all throughout the day for us! Even sending emails- I wish we had been able to give her a massive tip for everything she did to help- even if it didn't work! However, it was difficult to do it when she was always with other staff and we didn't know if it was acceptable or not. During this time I had got to my most stressful point and used my Australian phone to call the Australian office for booking.com, which is the website we booked through. I explained my situation how I had called the hotel many times with no response or answer and I was almost settled that what I had booked was a fake. She wanted me to hold the line while she made a few phone calls- but I politely told her I had waited on phones enough and that if she could organise my transfers and confirm my booking from her end and call me back I would be extremely grateful!

Meanwhile, Lisa and I had done some research and contacted Tim and Andrew with an accommodation back up plan when this all fell through. Annoying!

I returned back to the Chalet after my stressful phone calls to find Lisa still asleep! Very jealous- but also understanding since she is a little bit of a sick girl! I hope I don't get it!

We got up, had some showers and then sat by the pool with Callum. We organised to go to the 'Victoria Falls Hotel' with our new found South African friends camping on our yard, which is this extremely fancy hotel with a great view of the Falls 'smoke' rising and the bridge that joins the borders between Zimbabwe and Zambia where the falls begin. It was very 'Colonial' according to the boys, which I have found out means very fancy with dead animal heads all over the walls and a man constantly playing the piano in the corner of the bar. Very 'Colonial'! So many old rich ladies sitting in their overly classy leather chairs tapping their fingers away to the piano notes while a lion skin lies on the floor, and a zebra skin on the wall! We had a few ciders but then decided we were not dressed well enough to look like we belonged there!

Back to the hotel for a sleep to prepare for New Years!

Got dressed- put makeup for the first time since I arrived in Africa and sat around at the boys camp for a few pre-drinks. By 7.30 we made our way to the bus and hit the carnival!

It was fairly quiet when we first arrived but the South African's wanted to get there to watch the band 'Short Straw' who played at 8. So glad we did! I loved them! So much fun dancing to their music! During this time I also ran into Nick Coots- a boy I went to uni with in Ballarat! He is a PE teacher now working at Assumption College and he was there with his partner Ally and 5 other friends- from Ballarat! Random! It was nice to have a bit of home here! Trust the Carroll's to find someone they know in some other random part of the world!

The next artist was Jeremy Loops. He was a bit of a mixture between Xavier Rudd and John Butler trio- good relaxing music! He started something and looped it over and over adding more and more to each loop- it sounded awesome! We met so many great people here and I loved every minute of spending so much time with Lisa and Callum- it was nice to have our little group even if we missed the others. I took so many great photos of us this night- I'm so sad I can't share them with anyone or keep them. :( Unfortunately, my poor little worldly travelled digi camera fell victim to the craziness of Vic Falls Carnival and is now lost forever. Shattered.

One of the best parts of the night is when booking.com called to say our hotel had been confirmed and there would be a driver waiting for us at the airport! Finally!