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Published: February 11th 2011
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The last 2 days have been amazing! I woke up to find the open safari vehicle was waiting to take Locke and me to the Okavango Delta. He headed over some dirt roads until we got to our mokora boats. For the 2 of us, there were a total of 4 local folks accompanying us into the Delta. One was Jonah, he was the group leader. There was a trainee who didn’t say much and 2 ladies.
The ride took about 1.5 hours to our campsite. The ride was wonderful. You basically lie back and chill out in this narrow boat while starring at the thousands of water lilies.
When I say campsite, there is nothing but open land. There were a ton of trees which provided a ton of shade. Considering the heat, this was nice. We all hung out and the locals taught us how to play a new card game. Naps and junk food – Jonah took me out around 5pm in the mokora to search for hippos! After almost 2 hours (it was getting dark), we didn’t find any, but I watched a beautiful sunset and saw many, many birds. All the lilies alone make
this such a beautiful environment! Sooooo peaceful!
BAMM, the thunder starts! As I arrive back, Locke insists I start to eat ASAP… the winds were picking up, we closed the slaps on our tents and the sky opens up. It is pouring out! It is crazy enough that I am camping with absolutely no electricity or running water – but now pouring rain? I stick my headlamp on and start reading the gossip magazine I picked up in Namibia. It is only 8pm! What do I do with myself? Anyhow, the rain finally calmed down around 9:30. I finally went outside to pee. It is so dark and all you hear are animals making tons of different noises! Locke told me to shine my head lamp 360 degrees before going anywhere. Luckily, all I saw were frogs. I am sure plenty of other things were creeping around, but thankfully I didn’t see anything that would freak me out.
We woke up and headed back to Maun. I headed for a shower at the campsite as I had 7 layers of sun block on and 12 layers of bug spray! We had an early lunch and started our drive
to Gweta. Oh yah, we had to take Coleman and Linda with us. They did absolutely nothing for the past day except eat, sleep and possibly shit.
We arrived at Greta to find 2 campers – an American man, probably in his late 40’s and his buddy/guide from South Africa. The American (from Minnesota) is a traveling painter. He has been traveling the world for 20 years making oil paintings. Finally – some interesting folks to speak to!
Before I came to Africa, I purchased a ton of crayons and notepads to give to children. One of the men on staff at the lodge where we are staying arranged for me to go to the local primary school. It was marvelous. The children swarmed me. I gave tons of high fives and they all giggled. The teachers had some of the children put on their traditional clothing and sang and danced for me. This was one of the happiest moments of my trip. The children were so happy. They start learning English around the age of 7, so not all of them understood me… but either way I was pure entertainment for them. We took some photos and
they all stood around me excited to see themselves in a photo on my camera. More giggles and smiles surrounded me. All the supplies and treats (cookies and such) went to the teachers and they were going to decide how they would be distributed.
My local guide then took me for a tour of Gweta. Most of the town doesn’t have running water or electricity. Most of the folks live in the traditional bushman style huts (up to 7 people may live in just 1 hut). We passed the post office, the bar, the church, the cemetery, and along the way kids came running down the street to meet the ‘white lady’. They wanted their pictures taken. They couldn’t stop laughing and smiling once I showed them the photos.
It was such an uplifting day. I got back to the lodge where Locke downloaded the folks on the situation of our trip. The campers, the staff and I all drank beers while we ripped on the assholes of the world. I couldn’t stop laughing. Both Linda and Coleman were sitting in their rooms during the roast time. When dinner started, Locke didn’t even want to sit with them.
I did and Linda starred at me as if I had something growing from my head. I ignored her as usual as all she does is talk about the news. Did you know Lord Byron had some plumbing issues?
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