Friday was a good & interesting day. We started our training with the Zambian leaders which went for most of the day. We started with a devotion from Wiza, and then had a lesson in the local language Icibemba which was great. After some team building, and an inspiring lesson on the Zambian culture and children from Pastor Gilbert our training for the day was complete.
In the afternoon we made our way the Nsobe Game Park stopping via Fedex to collect three bags that were found. When we got to Nsobe there were a lot of monkeys that we took photos of. We all started to walk a little bit further into the park when we came across a Giraffe. It was a huge amazing animal and as can be expected got scared of about 20 westerners running at it with cameras. After that a number people turned back to go to the BBQ area…except seven of us. Under the guidance of our fearless leader we kept walking around the game drive track…within 5 minutes it was dark, after many suggestions just to turn back we were lead to keep walking. What we thought was a short loop turned into a 2.5 hour treck in the dark. We had a phone with no reception and another phone with a little torch in the top. We had 1 bottle of water, no food and an asthmatic.
We had to keep two girls positive to the fact that we were on the main track and that eventually someone would be coming the collect us. We endured, kept walking and in the end we were found about 300m before we returned to the BBQ area. So in conclusion 7 of our fearless team managed to walk the entire Nsobe National Park game drive, through Africa, in the dark of night… and survive.
Cheers Guys
Simon
Jenny & Steph to the rescue!!! (…& Reid, Tim, Bonifest, Andrew & Li)
As you read in the previous blog five people were keen to turn around when the sun began to set and we did just that. Nearly an hour later whilst sitting in front of the warm fire awaiting our hot BBQ we began to worry about the “7 missing” in the African wilderness. Jenny and Steph went in search and shout not realizing that what started out as hopeful name call. Turned into a full fledged search and rescue mission! After prayer and a few more shouts Li the kindly park ranger answered our call. With Reid, Tim Bonifest & Andrew in tow we started out on our mission to find the “7 missing” aka “7 ulasakesha muzungus (7 crazy white people)”.
Tracker Tim and Andrew lead us fearlously through the game park by following the unique shoe patterns of the “7 missing” & Li complained about missing out on his supper and milo. We were sure that we were going to find them within the first 10 minutes but 10 minutes turned to 20 and twenty turned to 40. Each crossroads we met our fearless trackers would hop out in search of the unique muzungu foot patterns and at each crossroads our disbelief grew more and more and questions arose. Why hadn’t they stopped? Why hadn’t turned around when the sun went down? But all questions would have to wait until we found the “7 missing”. Luckily we had pastor Tim from the medical team to lift our spirits with jovial nature and constant cracks at the “7 missing”.
After 1hr and 10 minutes of enduring the frigid ride we came to the guard station where they proclaimed to have seen a group of traveling muzungus and laughed. Let it be known that the “7 missing” had been on foot for 10km by this point. Jenny and Steph screamed in disbelief. Finally we saw the white legs shining in the lights of the rescue vehicle…and there they were cold, tired and hungry and in need of the the loo only 300m away from their initial starting point. And that is the slightly amusing story of the “7 missing” and the noble and fearless search and rescue team led by Jenny & Steph…(kind of)
