Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Moments in Maun

Morning. I'll do other versions of the lion kill story and the John Kata interview later, but look on the Desert & Delta Safaris blog for what I had mentioned in a posting below.

You might imagine what I am doing now that I'm back for a little while from the bush. I'm sure you're thinking it's something exciting. Nope. Tomorrow will be. I'll hop another bush plane and head east for my last few days with DDS. But for now I am eating pizza, a cheeseburger, french fries,a Kit-Kat bar (not at one sitting) and hoping to get a manicure and a pedicure during my 48 hours in town. Oh, the small pleasures.

What I am not doing: drinking red wine or Jameson's. Life in the bush provides ample opportunity for sundowner drinks, and I took advantage of every opportunity. Plus, I became an erstwhile bar tender at Xugana Island Lodge. Got quite good at gin and tonics. Shook with fear when a guest requested "a Manhattan" or "a cosmopolitan." I ran for help every time. Drinking the fancy-pants cocktails is quite different from mixing them.
Healthy living. That's what starts today.

I also woke up in the night hearing a strange animal noise. It was new to me. It sounded like a motorcycle at first, punctuated by ee-ors. Ah, yes. The sound of Maun: wall to wall donkeys. If I can't hear the lions' roar, the donkey is a poor substitute. But, then again, I acted just as frightened of them when I was walking down a Maun road in March as I did when I got close to the lions at Camp Okavango.

Next week I'll be up and running with the blog again. It's been a pleasure to hear from you who've sent emails and notes. Many thanks.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Escaping the puff adder

Hi friends -- I'm back in Maun for a few days and finishing up my safari life stint in the remote wild of botswana. I hate for it to end! Below entries are a couple of things I wrote about camp experiences. I figure I'll add them to my blog so you can get the flavor of my life in the bush.

I tell you it was over-the-top grand. I'll have a lot to contemplate when I move to my little cottage on the Boro next week. I'm not sure how I will manage without the wonderful staff around and the many guests I've met, who've ranged from a professional clown to a UN adviser on climate change and architecture. As if to complete my introduction to truly wild life, yesterday marked the occasion for me to watch a puff adder slither away. Now i can say I have seen black mambas, boomslangs, a cobra and a puff adder. Pythons were nearby a couple of times, but I didn't have the pleasure of meeting them.I happen to work with a woman, however, who once pulled a problematic python out of a trough in front of men who were chicken. Even she was surprised to see that snake turn out to be longer than she was tall. It started wrapping itself around her arm and the men had to extricate her. It takes some kind of guts to be that kind of heroine in the bush. I cannot count myself among them.

Thanks for your notes and well wishes by snail mail. They arrived by mail bag on our bush planes, and when any of us received mail in the camps it was a red letter day!
more after I come back from my next assignment.

A magical flower

A magical flower
The guide squeezes this flower and it squirts water like a water pistol

Cathy and Joe Wanzala

Cathy and Joe Wanzala
They couldn't wait to paste the Obama sticker on their car

My main man

My main man
Ernest is my trusty cab driver who blasts music as we make our way through Gabs

Ted Thomas, man of intrigue and style

Ted Thomas, man of intrigue and style
My friend, Ted, and his wife, Mary Ann, hosted a Safari Send-Off for me in Austin and treated me to a special mix of African music that already a UB student and a professor want to download.