Fat Ass Bwana: Last Post (Maybe... maybe not)

Thursday Early Evening

Knowing this adventure is almost over makes me hyperaware of so many things I have come to take for granted over the past six weeks: I treasure every moment and every degree of temperature and every moment without cloud or rain. Soon I will be home and unafraid of direct sun, sleeping with covers with weight and getting through the day without my fingers and feet swelling up (and slimming down overnight).

And because I am hyperaware of the impending end of this journey, I am already thinking about how to be somewhere warm again next Christmas.

But Steve and I ended our trip to South Africa with a superb high at Ukutula. Namibia has been super interesting (but awfully hot for Bwana) but I will end this adventure to a hot and dry country with two nice days in Meno a Kweno Tented Camp in the infamous delta area of Botswana. Meno a Kweno looks lovely in the brochure I have, like the exquisite tented camps of Tanzania. Here’s hoping…

Whether or not there will be Internet there remains to be seen.

As usual, walking in hot dry Windhoek, I was drawn to the steeples. I love architecture of faith and here is no exception. Churches are my sanctuaries when I travel (when they are not in services). I can be cool, usually alone, feel safe and relax in a church, no matter where I am or what faith.

At dinner, I met Tom. He is an engineer from Belgium who is here to be part of a bike race through Sussosvlei and its 40° temperatures. I suspect Tom is seriously heterosexual. We had a thrilling night—at least I did—because his work is in staging. He and his team, for example, created the huge “Space ship” staging for the global U2 tour and he is now working on special staging needs for the Cirque du Soleil area shows. Super interesting guy.

The plan is I get picked up at 6:15 am tomorrow for a 9:15 flight to Botswana, followed probably, by a long drive to the delta. Plan B, is that my hotel takes me if the driver does not show up. More whenever….

Friday: To Botswana

I got up at 4:30 and was picked up at 6:00 for a drive to the airport with Iwanna Dye. I was scared stiff, plus he got me there way too early for my 9:15 flight. A short flight and I was in Maun and while I waited for my ride to the camp, a man stole a wallet and the whole neighbourhood went after him. He was caught and arrested.

I met exuberant Germans, Nicole and Tom who also came to Menoa Kwena. I bought everyone a drink while we waited for our drive (two hours and sucking on my inhaler) and now I am writing to you from the banks of a river that has been dry for 17 years. We are on a cliff in dry, dry desert and it is 34°. I have a tent built with charm, solar lighting and a sweet shower and bathroom right on the edge of the cliff and I look down on the river.

Best of all, there is a splash pool right on the edge of the cliff in which to keep cool. My favourite part so far is meeting and talking with the chef. This is a true safari style camp; cooking of bread and our meals is in tins on coals with coals also on top. Fab-u-lous! Outdoor showers on demand with water heated from the cooking shower. Fab-u-lous! No power; no Internet.

It is hot and silent. We eat all together at one big table and I am meeting everyone. I am opting out of all the activities I paid for like the nature walk, in ten minutes, and the all-day drive. I cannot imagine all day in a truck with people who have seen no animals before and are enjoying their first safari; we will stop forever for my 4 billionth Wildabeest, zebra, antelope, warthogs, etc. etc.

Instead, I read, relaxed and contemplated my re-entry to winter and spent as much time as I wanted in the pool being cool. And at night, dinner was a blast as was sitting around the fire talking under a full moon that drenched us in a faux daylight because of the reflection of the white sand.

Night delight: Bush babies in the tree overhead.

Saturday

Up at 6:00 and HOT by 9:00 and the whole mob here left at 10:00. I was virtually alone all morning, then a large family group of very friendly people (Dooley/Palmers) arrived. Their kids (Oscar 10; Bella 13) are a delight. They are profoundly mature, polite and engaging children in whose company I delight. I spent all afternoon in the pool with them, their parents and their Oma (Meryl). They made what might have been an almost boring say, fly by in fun.

Terry and Meryl, Karen and Andrew, Bella, Oscar and Amanada (who is adopted); these are the Palmer/Dooleys. (Andrew is Irish). Rosie and Rob, two others here, are people whom I could also spend the rest of my life with.

Honest admission: I shuddered when I saw the family arrive. Again, I had to face my very negative view of others. And as so often happens, these people to whom I take an instant aversion turn out to enliven and enrich my experience. It’s rather sad that no matter how many wonderful people I meet, I can’t shake my deep-rooted desire to remain aloof. Thank God for kind extroverts like Meryl.

At 5:00, welcome clouds and cooler temperatures. I am excited about sleeping in much more comfortable conditions tonight. At 6:00 we went to visit the bush baby that was released yesterday.

Sunday: Last Day

The day started with a bush walk in the morning with the Joquasi bush people. A routine. Our guide is the handsomest most charming young man imaginable; his mother is one of the dancers. The best part by far was me being the first to hear what I thought might be elephants in the river. I called the guide; the elephants got louder and louder and we realized that they were coming up to where we were.

When they smelled us, they panicked. They started bleating and trampling the bushes but we could not see them coming. The bush people took off; that got me a little worried, but In fact, we had scared them so the trumpeting and growling we heard was a warning and they stampeded back to the other side of the river.

A lovely casual day with the Dooley/Palmers in and by the pool was my afternoon. They are spectacular people, every one of them. And at 6:30, we went to see how the newly independent little Bush Baby was doing. No question: I am his new favourite person now that Laura is gone. I wear the shirt he has marked and we spent a never-forgettable half our together. I am in love with XR. He would visit no one but me.

Monday: Departure Day

Last night after an extremely pleasant evening with Rob, Rosie and the Palmer/Dooleys, I went back to my tent for my final night and this never-use-a-flashlight, never-wear-shoes idiot encountered a large yellow scorpion—not deadly, but you want to die or cut your limb off for three hours. Not being a killer, I chose to stay with him/her and watch until she burrowed into the soil so that I could go to sleep with confidence. (Silly, I know.)

Up to a cloudy day. Yay! It is cooler than usual and the breeze makes it bearable for me to wear my goin’ home clothes during the drive to Maun.

The Palmer/Dooleys would welcome me back, and Rosie and Rob have invited me to come to Australia. Having human destinations appeals to me very much; it is one way to enjoy travelling alone.

Every trip ends in suicide. Last year it was Zanzibar to Switzerland via Dares Salam and Istanbul, then to Toronto and then home. This year: 10:00 am Dec. 31 departure by car to Maun; 2:00 pm flight to Johannesburg that arrives at 3:40, followed by an 8:15 flight from Jo’Burg to Frankfurt arriving at 6:15 am Jan. 1; finally, at 10:15 am, my last flight from Frankfurt to Vancouver, arriving at 12:20 noon on New Years Day.