I was robbed at the Zambian border on our way to see Victoria Falls… by THIS baboon.
I recently purchased a brightly colored purse from a local Zimbabwe street vendor. It was lightweight and perfect for adventure days when you don’t want to carry around a massive daypack. We signed up to explore “Angel’s Pool”, which involves a boat-ride David Livingstone Island, breakfast, and sitting on the edge of Victoria Falls. We had the most INCREDIBLE time, and it was by far the BEST Adventure Day of my World Race thus far.
Some of us wanted to explore the Zambia side of the Falls since we saw Zimbabwe’s side the previous day.
That was the plan.
After paying the entrance fee to the park, we started to make our way to the Falls. I noticed that some baboons were walking pretty close to us. Naturally, I took a picture. Little did I know that seconds later, I would have an encounter that I’ll never forget. The baboon walked behind the car and was walking straight towards me. I tried to swerve to the right but it became clear real fast that I was a target. It started swiping at my purse and showing its teeth at me. Afraid that it was going to lunge at me, I dropped my purse. The baboon quickly shoved my purse in it’s mouth and scampered up a tree over the fence.
While I was still in shock, my team led me to the park security where we informed them of the situation. we explained that my purse contained some important items like my passport, credit card, and cash, along with some makeup. A guard followed us into the park as we cautiously searched for the brightly colored bag in the trees. We found the baboon on the ground with shreds of my purse around it, while it was drinking my liquid foundation straight from the bottle. The guard lunged at it with a stick and it dropped a small pouch – which contained ALL of my money, passport, and credit card! Praise God!!
The baboon scurried up the tree with the remains of my purse. All of the contents were recovered.
The local vendor gave my teammate Joy a slingshot so she could fend off the baboons if they tried to attack again, and the rest of my team carried sticks.
I lost my purse, but I got one heck of a story.
