Tree Hugging in the Middle of Nowhere

Bush Camp Baobab

Last weekend, although we were supposed to have been confined to base, we actually went out to our friends' bush camp (known in this blog as The Middle of Nowhere - mentioned here and here). 

It was kind of a hard week and escaping from (relative) civillisation was just what the doctor ordered - so we set off after work on Saturday on the transit road through the National Park, stopping only for a herd of very shiny, well-fed looking buffalo to cross over.  

Hot, blue and sunny weather was a welcome break from the recent gloomy raininess, and naturally called for a quick stop in Mabele village to purchase ice cold Hansa beers at the lovely Kanini Kanini General Dealer &  High Life Bar. The general weirdness of this transaction brought back memories of a Botswana we used to know about 20 years back!

We found that great progress had been made out at the camp, and enjoyed staying in one of the newly established future guest tents. Very romantic design, set upon teak decking, in amongst the natural indigenous trees.  A piece of heaven...

Tent hiding amongst the trees

We enjoyed an evening round the fire, gazing up at the Milky Way and the dazzling Stars, liberated from the cloudiness by the clear weather... 

Waking up the next morning to the birdsong surrounding the tent, I opened my sleepy eyes - straight into sensory overload! An astounding, wild, red sunrise was busy going on, as viewed through the huge, uncurtained mesh windows! Alas, being half asleep at the time, the colours had rapidly faded into tameness by the time I could get to a camera to capture it...

As ever, I just revelled in being in the bush. And indulged my delight in hugging, and if possible curling up in, great big, warm, earthy baobab trees!

On the way back, we stopped numerous times - to just enjoy the pure silence, the sheer seasonal abundance of the trees and undergrowth, and also to pick some Sausage Tree fruit for medicinal purposes...

Sausage Tree, (Kigelia Africana) with fruit

Looking up through the stunning vegetation

Oh, and what would a trip through the lush vegetation be without frantic reversing and climbing inside a thorny acacia tree, to capture a rambling, creeping, Flame Lily in full flower. This is a slightly different colour scheme to the others featured in earlier blog posts - but still a delight to behold in the wild!

Traffic and Pedestrians

A few days ago, driving home from work, the car ahead of me slowed down - hazard lights flashing. We both stopped and waited for a leisurely band of elephants to amble their way across the road in front of us. They were in absolutely no hurry, and seemed supremely confident (with good reason) that we were going to wait there for as long as it took them to get to the other side.

Amazing how large an elephant looks when you are in a tiny green car, whose driver's seat is almost at road level! It really is a humbling experience to look up at the plodding, wrinkled legs and gently swaying undercarriages of these unlikely traffic obstacles! 

They really don't seem to mind encountering us on the roads during their walks to and from the river, which never ceases to amaze me. Every now and again, one of them will direct a gentle, rolling head/ear shake in the direction of the vehicles on the road, as if to remind us lowly humans that they could... if they just wanted to.... load us and our silly little tin boxes up onto their tusks like a forklift.... I always have the greatest respect for them while on the road, and no matter how serene and friendly they are, I always breathe a sigh of relief, tinged with awe once they've actually crossed over! 

For an older post about other encounters with elephants have a look here.

Highway Elephants - rainy season

Warthogs roam freely through the town, mainly on the bottom road which parallels the Chobe river.  In the mornings, if you're unlucky enough to coincide with the government workers' "rush hour",  it is not unknown to sit in a traffic jam (in Kasane, about 6 cars), with all vehicles flashing orange lights while waiting for a lone warthog or family of warthogs to cross over!

Last week, how I wished my camera had been accessible. An entire family of hogs ventured onto a proper pedestrian crossing in front of me. Therefore I followed the rules of the road and stopped while they demurely trotted across the road in single file - mother first, piglets behind, tails pertly vertical! I was the only car on the road at the time and could have had enough time to snap a photo, as I know it sounds a likely tale which seems to require some sort of proof!  It really was a delightful experience, in any case!

Town warthog family - just passing by...

Overseas Visitors & Daycare time...

On Tuesday, I went along to the Kamadine Daycare Centre in Kazungula (previously mentioned here), to meet up with a new friend Kristin for the first time in real life, having  "met" via the blogging community and only communicated via email up till now! Kristin and her two friends arranged with their overland tour guide to drop them off at Kubu Lodge (where the centre is situated) and Sharon - lodge manager and chairperson of the project, had invited them to come along and visit the children at the daycare during lesson time.

The overland truck took a fair while to cross the Zambezi river on the Kazungula Ferry, (from Zambia to Botswana) and thus I turned out to be early as usual! While I waited for them to arrive, I spent a bit of time with the kids and teachers. It happened to be Lego time, so having idiotically squeezed myself into a tiny little plastic chair at a preschool sized table, I attempted to create a sophisticated symmetrical type of structure from the rather worn lego blocks which no longer lock together quite so well...

Whichever children were not trying to copy my engineering marvel, or competitively and piercingly identifying primary colours, were busy fiddling with my fascinating hair and/or gently patting and stroking my pale, strange arms. An endless fascination for these little ones!

Eventually, Sharon brought the three travellers in, and we were all introduced. I so enjoyed meeting Kristin, Cheryl and Maria. Much to Kristin's surprise, she immediately received a special hug sent all the way from the States from her real-life friend, Barbara of blogland! It was a great feeling to meet and connect with an online connection in real life... Our amazing, shrinking online world never ceases to intrigue me. (other blog friends involved here somehow are Val and Angela).

Teacher Emeldah took the 3 girls on a guided tour of their little school, and on their return the lego and plastic furniture was riotously cleared up, in readiness for a singing session for the special guests... 

Here is Kristin, having been there about 20 minutes, already getting involved with clearing up that furniture! You've just got to love her!!

All the kids who attend the centre are vulnerable children - either HIV/Aids orphans, or from desitute backgrounds, and although a small drop in the ocean, Kamadine does make a difference in these young lives - offering a safe haven where they can receive love, attention, stimulation and a couple of good wholesome meals a day...

As you can see from the pics, these kids instantly  took to their guests, who gamely joined in with the singing and action dancing. Here you see Maria and Kristin down at kiddie level. Maria is receiving the arm treatment in this photo!

and here's Cheryl, on the left.

What a pity my camera battery had gone flat by the time they got to "head and shoulders, knees and toes" but it seemed great fun was had by all! 

Kristin, amazingly, had carried some lovely stationery products with her all the way from home, and after 5 weeks on the road, was delighted to be able to hand these over.

After the session with the children, we all jumped confidently into my car. Instead of departing for Kasane, however, we bizarrely found ourselves stranded in the car park with a flat battery, stricken by a mysterious electrical problem! Undaunted, we enjoyed a good chat inside the car in the pouring rain, waiting for Tiennie the knight in shining armour to come and jumpstart the car...

Once in town, we had lunch together at the coffee bar, chatting nineteen to the dozen as if we'd known each other for ages - not forgetting the ritual reading of happy sugar packets! (if mystified, check this earlier blog post).  

Eventually we parted company at Chobe Safari Lodge in the midst of the most horrendous downpour, where the travelling trio were off to find their overland group in the campsite, and then venture forth on their afternoon boat cruise...

Wet laundry, camping in the rain, singing and playing with a bunch of little kids at an African daycare centre, being stranded inside a car in an alien carpark with a virtual stranger? These ladies took it all in their stride! Lovely people, and I so enjoyed this uplifting encounter...

"This little Light of mine.... I'm gonna let it shine"

Sugar Packet Wisdom

I noticed a lovely quote all about Kindness and Wisdom on the sidebar of Val's blog (Monkeys on the Roof). She had read this on a sugar packet somewhere in Maun.

Just like Val, I love to read the sugar sachets provided by coffee bars in our part of the world -there's always a gem of positive inspiration to be absorbed along with your caffeine and calories! You'll usually find me flipping my way through the sugar bowl, looking for new quotes...

I was lucky enough to come across Val's very same sugar packet at our local coffee bar a few days back... I decided to upload it here, since I do love its message, which is worth repeating.

My personal selection from the sugar bowl. 

with inspirational-January-new-beginnings wishes to you all out there :-)

Farewell 2008!

This mysterious, masked person - who could she possibly be? Haha! Seeing out the old year in some kind of style ... in a more upmarket version of the middle of nowhere (where else?!). 

The staff at Selinda Camp, where we stayed, handmade these cool masks to get the small group of guests in the festive mood! We all partied together - South Africans, Spaniards, Welsh, Germans and the Batswana staff! Much dancing, the usual mad session of hugs for virtual strangers at New Year, but also loads of laughs and new friendships made! I fear a bit too much vino was consumed by yours truly, but the New Year spirit was extremely infectious! All my absent friends and loved ones, as some of course already know - rest assured that I had a drink for you and thought of and missed you all..   

To backtrack a few days...we were delighted and so lucky to be invited by management to enjoy 4 nights in the exquisite and romantic Selinda Reserve in northern Botswana. On Monday we jumped onto a small charter plane, armed with chocolates (gifts from civillisation for our friends working out at the camps) and of course the usual bits and pieces for their computers!

Only about a 50 minute flight away from Kasane, and close to the border with Namibia, this place inspires me to fling all sorts of biblical brochure-type words onto this page regarding eden, paradise, heaven, sublimity.. and since they've landed here, I'll just leave them right where they are!

A typical view: water, floodplain, palm treeline and hippo amongst the waterlilies!

Dinner table being prepared at Selinda Camp.

I'm now compelled to try and describe the sunsets over the Selinda spillway: the water glinting in the last moments of daylight; random rhythms of surfacing/submerging hippos creating ripples and bubbles, which break up the reflections and gently jostle the fields of water lilies... 

The treeline of palms and delicate leafy silhouettes picked out in jet black against the coloured backgrounds. Backgrounds plural, as the colours shift and change constantly. Pastels, sepias, oranges, golds and purples, all with their corresponding mirror images in the water below.

Selinda Reserve is a pristine wilderness, lush and green at this time of year, where you come across so many different species of animals and birds - despite it being the wet season where the animals don't need to travel so far to find water.  Elephants, hippos, warthogs, impala, zebra, kudu, tsessebe, giraffes, wild dog, leopard, lechwe, waterbuck... eagles, rollers, bee-eaters, francolin, guinea fowl and countless water birds.  

Let's not forget all the smaller creatures such as the dung beetles, lizards, fireflies, frogs in full nocturnal chorus... and, to top it all, an entire thicket of Flame Lily buds hiding in the undergrowth near our beautiful tented accommodation - ready to burst into flame for the next future occupant!

This is me in my absolute element: reclining on an anthill, enjoying a sundowner and absorbing that magical late afternoon golden light... 

After New Year we moved across the Reserve, to the fabulous and luxurious Zarafa Camp which almost appears to float above the floodplain, on the edge of the Zibadianja lagoon. Here we luxuriated, dipping in our private plunge pool, experiencing the indescribable views over the lagoon, and enjoyed (as usual) the great company of the management staff! The entire camp is designed in the most imaginative and eco-friendly safari style, with the gorgeous decking in the main area seeming to flow right into the lagoon itself! 

It really was a sad occasion, leaving the beautiful place and people, but yes.. back to reality with us, and all ready for a most wonderful 2009! I know it will be a fantastic year, all the better for having started off with such an awesome Safari getaway! 

So, back home to the Chobe River... here's an aerial view of our part of the world, taken during one of our flights. Also not such a bad place to live, come to think of it... :-)