Days 10 / 11: The Long Way Home

Day 10 was really two days of travel. On Friday, July 3, we checked out of our hotel in Zimbabwe and headed to the airport. After more than a week of moving through South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, it felt strange to be packing our bags for the final time. We would not arrive back at RDU until Saturday at noon, 33 hours later. 

Our first flight was on Airlink from Victoria Falls to Johannesburg. Once we arrived, we had a nine-hour layover before our United flight to Newark. We went through customs, collected our checked bags, and then realized it was still too early to re-check them. For a while, our whole group settled into an open corner of the airport with our luggage, backpacks, snacks, and nowhere else to be just yet.

After some searching, we found an area big enough for our whole group and all of our bags. That spot became the setting for our final reflection. It was not exactly a conference room, but by that point, we were used to making things work wherever we were. We sat on the floor, surrounded by suitcases, and began trying to process what we had just experienced.

There was something fitting about having our last reflection in between places. We were no longer fully in the trip, but we were not home yet either. We were tired, a little scattered, and still carrying more than we could probably explain in one conversation.

Eventually, we were able to check our bags and board our fifteen-hour flight to Newark. Once we landed in Newark, the goodbyes began. Our group split in different directions: some headed to RDU, some to Charlotte, and Rachel continued on to Seattle. 

After the fifteen-hour flight to Newark, the final flight to Raleigh felt easy. We arrived at RDU around noon on Saturday, July 4, and said our last round of goodbyes at baggage claim. Then everyone started disappearing into cars, Ubers, and family hugs. Slowly, photos began appearing in our group chat of people reuniting with spouses, children, pets, and the familiar pieces of home.

When I got home, I added pins to our family map in the living room. I placed two in South Africa for Johannesburg and Pretoria, then added pins for Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia, even if Namibia only counted for about five minutes during our safari.

It was a quiet way to close the loop. After all the airports, classrooms, border crossings, bus rides, wildlife sightings, conversations, and questions, the program had become part of the map at home.

Day 10 did not have the dramatic scenery of Victoria Falls or the energy of a school visit, but it had its own kind of importance. It was the day we began carrying the experience back with us. Not just in our luggage or photos, but in the stories we would tell, the lessons we would build, and the ways the program would keep showing up long after we were home.

#itsaprogram

Day 9: Elephants, Border Crossings, and One Last Rainbow

Day 9, July 2, was our last full day in Africa. We woke up in Livingstone, had breakfast, and made our way to The Elephant Café, an elephant sanctuary experience along the Zambezi River.

The Elephant Café is connected to a herd of rescued African elephants, each with its own story. The herd is unusual because it includes older bulls, females, younger elephants, and calves living together, which is not the typical structure of an elephant herd in the wild. Guests can meet the elephants through a guided, reward-based interaction while learning more about their behavior, histories, and relationships within the herd.

One of my favorite moments was watching an elephant pick food up from the ground, shake the dirt off with its trunk, and then put it into its mouth. It was a small action, but it showed precision and intelligence.

Baboons moved through the background while we were there, including a mother with her baby near the river. After seeing them so often in Livingstone, their presence felt like part of the landscape rather than a surprise.

After leaving The Elephant Café, we returned to our hotel in Livingstone, checked out, and began the transfer from Zambia into Zimbabwe. Along the way, we even spotted a zebra from the bus, one more small wildlife surprise tucked into the day.

At the border, we stamped out of Zambia, drove through the stretch of “no man’s land,” and crossed the same bridge we had photographed from below during the Boiling Pot hike. This time, instead of looking up at it from the river, we were driving across it into Zimbabwe. We stamped into Zimbabwe and continued on to Victoria Falls, where we checked into our new hotel.

The hotel was beautiful, and once we were settled, the pace of the day shifted. Most of our required program activities were finished, so lunch felt like the beginning of a slower final stretch. I celebrated with a piña colada, which felt very appropriate after days of packed schedules, border crossings, school visits, hikes, and early mornings.

After lunch, the rest of the day was open, so Jamesia, Lisa, and I decided to see Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side. After visiting the falls from Zambia, hiking down to the Boiling Pot, and seeing the lunar rainbow, I wondered how different it would feel from this side. It was absolutely worth going back.

The Zimbabwe side gave us wide views of the falls, the gorge, the bridge, and rainbows stretching through the mist. In some areas, the spray was so heavy that we needed ponchos, and even then, we were still getting soaked. 

I loved seeing the bridge again from a new angle. Earlier in the trip, we had photographed it from below during the Boiling Pot hike, then crossed it by bus when we entered Zimbabwe. Now we were looking back at it from the trail, with the falls and gorge around us. That bridge became a fun little thread connecting several parts of our time in Livingstone and Victoria Falls.

Walking the path, we stopped at all the viewpoints, taking pictures, laughing in our ponchos, and trying to capture something much bigger than a photo can hold. 

We moved quickly through the falls, hoping we might still have time to visit Elephant Walk Shopping before our 5:15 dinner reservation at The Lookout Café. We did not end up having enough time, so we called Bambino, who had driven us from the hotel to the falls earlier that afternoon. He picked us up again, wearing his leopard print vest and crown, which made the ride feel like its own little event.

The Lookout Café was a beautiful place to spend our last evening. The view from our table looked out over the gorge, with the bridge in the distance and the light beginning to soften. Before we even made it inside, we were greeted by a group of warthogs grazing in the grass out front. To reach the grass, they had to kneel on their front legs, which made me laugh. 

At dinner, Lisa and I ordered “double rainbow” drinks, which felt fitting after a day of elephants, border crossings, Victoria Falls, mist, rainbows, and one last evening in Zimbabwe.

After dinner, Jesse, Graham, and I went to a local brewery. After so many planned activities and group experiences, it was nice to end the night with a slower conversation in a place that felt more local. I tried a Zambezi beer, which seemed like an appropriate final drink after enjoying some memorable adventures near the river that shared its name.

It was a full-circle kind of day without trying too hard to be one. We started with elephants near the Zambezi, crossed into Zimbabwe over the bridge we had seen from below, returned to Victoria Falls for one more look, and ended the night with a beer named for the river.