Bright lights, big city of Maun!

Sunday
May 4, 2008
Maun

I'm at Bon Arrive, the flight-themed bar and restaurant across from the Maun Airport, having breakfast and waiting for the Internet cafe to open next door. I'll have 30 minutes before I fly into the bush -- this time for 2 months solid. Next stop is Camp Okavango in the Delta.

I got a quick trip into Maun for a couple of nights but hardly any Internet time. The shops close early on Saturday and few are open on Sunday, so I couldn't find time to prepare many proper dispatches, let alone post photos. I used by precious "city" time to do essentials shopping for such luxuries as toothpaste and to seek out my favorite girly-girl things -- a pedicure and massage. And one big bonus: Adrienne, head of HR for Desert and Delta Safaris, picked me up at the airport Friday afternoon and whisked me away to Katia's house so we could both have haircuts. Katia was a Belgian hairstylist of fancy training who suffered from "cocky fever," which is really "khaki fever," but "cocky" is how they say it in Maun. Adrienne told me everyone around here knows that means Katia came on holiday and fell in love with her guide. They now live in a house worthy of a magazine cover for European metropolitan homes with their tiny blond-haired boy, Ethan, who crawls around on the stained concrete floor while his mother cuts hair in an open room that serves as kitchen, dining room, child's playroom and living room. It's a truly beautiful place, and, oh happiness!, Katia can cut my hair.

I hated to leave Savute, though. What a place of enchantment. When I walked out every morning, I prepared to greet the elephants beside the watering hole, or the impala that butted antlers, or search the sky for the juvenile martial eagle that was always swooping down to harass the baby impala. I'll even miss the baby yellow-billed hornbills, one of whom moved in on my face, beak open, to steal the cake off my plate. He succeeded. I'll have to describe Savute in more detail later, but you can see 2 of my postings that arrived to hq by CD on the Desert and Delta blog (www.desertdelta.blogspot.com). Just know for now that this has been a dream come true -- with a few nightmarish moments.

I can now officially call my literary parody "Eek! Prey! Leap!" I was walking guests from bungalow 10 to 11 on Thursday when we rounded a crook in the path. The guy to my left jumped, and so did I.

"What was that?! I almost stepped on it and it was one meter away!" Those were the exclamations of the poor fellow from Switzerland as the people in 10 rushed to the balcony to see what was amiss.

I'm so proud of myself.

I didn't scream. I calmly looked over at the gray snake now slipping toward #10, paused, took a deep breath and said, "Well, I'm afraid that was a black mamba."

I figure it was about 4-5 feet long. I also am sad to say that I could recognize it because the camp has been dripping with poisonous snakes since my arrival 3 weeks ago. This is not the norm, just a major kerfuffle before winter sets in. When the birds start a maniacal chatter, those of us in the manager's office know what's up: SNAKES. We have gone outside to find boomslangs in trees, black mambas crossing paths (even one with its mouth pressed up against the pipe on the lawn used to connect water hoses), pythons and in one watering hole at a very safe distance a cobra. I think my nearly stepping on rattlesnakes in the U.S. prepared me for the African bush. The ridiculous part is how I still jump a mile in the air and squeal loudly if bugs fly at me.

As I mentioned to Mr.and Mrs. Scared out of their Wits Swiss people, I too am struggling to get used to the snakes but I have been assured by experienced guides that snakes want to get away from people and don't mean harm (except for the puff adders, known without affection as "ambush" snakes.) And so I was able to tell the Swiss couple, "You see. It's true what they say. We've witnessed it. That snake did want to get away from us!" Plus, I told them they would have a good story to tell when they got home.

Myself, I returned to the office and collapsed in a camp chair. My knees were no stronger than overcooked spaghetti.

That's all for now -- off to the Delta and once again, off the grid! Send snail mail to the address in the blog item from April 9-ish. It took 3 weeks for me to get something from the U.S., so it's doable!