The first day of safari was definitely an adventure! We loaded up the bus and one of the World Camp Land Rovers at 7:30am and started on our trip to Zambia. About an hour in, we stopped at a gas station and one of the volunteers, Jay, saw a pink dress on the side of the road and bought it. Of course, he had to put it on, so that was pretty entertaining. About an hour later we stopped at the Zambia border to get our passports stamped and take a potty break. About four hours after the border, we ended up on the bumpiest dirt road I have EVER been on, which turned in to massive potholes and huge rocks we had to avoid.

Eventually, we got to this village about 40 minutes away from the Wildlife Camp where we had to stop for huge holes of water. There was a side road through the village which went around the holes, but the villagers refused to let us drive through. So the Land Rover was fine, but in the efforts of driving through and around the holes the radiator on the bus cracked irreparably. We all got out and hooked the bus to the Rover as the villagers swarmed us begging for money and gifts for their “help”. We ended up walking about a mile in the heat following the bus to a dry place in the road. At some point in the walk, it became apparent that the villagers were quite experienced with people getting stuck at their village. We found out later that they dig out the hole at night so the tourists get stuck and they can make money either helping them through the holes or by hooking them up with a guy who can fix the broken part (who they just happen to be great friends with). It’s quite scary being stuck in the middle of nowhere in a village with grown men swarming you about giving them money for their help. Not to mention several of them were carrying hoes and machetes from the work they were doing earlier. We tried to be nice, but the boys were getting quite annoyed.

Once we had gotten the bus up the road, we grabbed our valuables, and everyone except Jesse, Josh, and Scott crammed in the Rover to be taken to the Wildlife Camp. Once we had been dropped off, Brett and one of the drivers from the camp drove back to tow the bus and pick up the guys. The drive ended up being about 8 1/2 hours for us. Long day! We did get a chance to see elephants on the side of the road on our way to the camp, so that was pretty awesome.