Our Last Day in the Delta

Our last day in the delta was a long one. After breakfast we packed up prepared to leave. Amanda and I sneaked a few glorious moments away from the noisiness of camp and wandered around behind the tents in the early morning sunshine, enjoying the sight of a herd of impala grazing nearby and a few ever-present guinea fowl running around. Then we came back and and hopped back in the vehicles for the long drive back to Maun. Up until we reached the veterinary fence it was kind of live an extra game drive. We saw the enormous mass of a dead adult elephant at one point. The dry climate kind of mummifies the bodies for a while. We also saw a few giraffes, tortoises, and impala. Of course everyone was pretty sweaty and uncomfortable when we finally reached the city, but for about half the group there was one last great activity. Batsi had arranged that those who wanted to pay the fee could do a flyover of the delta. Keeping in mind movies like 'The Gods Must Be Crazy' and 'Out of Africa' I had eagerly signed up to go. After pulling out huge wads of bills from the Machine That Only Gives Small Bills we headed into the office to pay. Then it was over to the airport across the street to drop off our bags, leave the other suckers not going, and head onto the runway. We were met by two bush pilots, each flying us in a small Cessna. My pilot was named Brett and he was, unusual to see in Botswana, red haired and freckled. His accent sounded South African. There were six people in each plane and somehow I jumped on the offer to ride in the cockpit first. This turned out to be a great decision in the end. The land dropped away swiftly as we took off and Brett told us to look for the veterinary fence; it was not hard to find because one side was cut into dry little squares with square little houses and the other side was lush greenery and wildlife inter mingled with streams and rivers from the delta. We saw herds of elephant, buffalo (thus making my list of the Big 5 complete and seen), impala, and clumps of hippos which looked like ticks they were so fat and grey. Once I saw a huge crocodile lurking in some water- it was suitably unnerving even from a airplane. At one point Brett showed me how the steering mechanism worked (there was one on the copilot's side where I was sitting as well as the pilot's side) and then took his hands off, making me in control -temporarily- of the airplane. Every little bit of pressure I put on the steering thingamajig made the plane move sharply. Over in the other cessna Zach had been given the same opportunity, only he made his plane plummet and dive before bring it back up in a steep climb.

Brett took control again in time to land the plane and we all got out feeling thoroughly exhilerated. There is a group photo of us in my facebook picture feed. After the plane ride we were pretty hungry so we stopped at a nice looking cafe across the street from the airport. For some reason it was WWII themed and the waitress looked like she was about to kill someone, but the food was good. I fulfilled a dream I had had since taking French class for four years in high school: eat a croque monsieur. It was delicious! After stuffing ourselves my friend Brooke wanted to go and do some shopping because Maun is famous for it's crafts. It was probably in the hundred degree range, but I agreed to go with her anyway, even though I wasn't planning to buy anything. We made several dog friends as we walked along, so that made up for the discomfort of the heat. We shopped for about forty five minutes before heading back to the cafe where the rest of the group was more or less clumped. Everyone was wilted and tired from the temperature, and some of us made an escape to the only air conditioned shop we could find. Ah, sweet relief. Howevere, we still had time to kill before the flight back to Gabs, so inevitably we ended up back at the cafe. It was here that the dust storm hit. At first it was just windy, then VERY windy, then I had to close my eyes and cover my face because of the dust! Everyone either tried to cover themselves or dashed inside for shelter. People's food and drink was ruined. The power went out at the airport. TIA. When the storm abated a bit Batsi led us all over to the airport to sit and wait for the power to come back on so that the airport could get up and running again. Three of our number had joined us at the start of the delta trip from an expedition to Namibia and they had some left over beers they shared around. We had been enjoying them for some five minutes before being shooed outside by airport staff. Outside the wind had died but the sky was darkening and there was lightning. Everyone could smell rain. Sure enough by the time we had gotten through security and waited at the small gate area for our flight there was a serious downpour. The runway was completely flooded and the departure time kept getting pushed back and back. The gate was crowded and everyone was crabby. I was sweaty and dusty and quite ready to get back to Gabs and take a shower and relax in my now empty room. But I couldn't. I had to wait for the storm to pass. Eventually though, we did get on the plane and made the short flight back to Gabs. It was much chillier in the capital city, but it felt homey and we were eager to get to our showers and wash our smelly things. Here though we met another small roadbump; the man Batsi hired to drive us back to UB was nowhere to be found and we waited around for about an hour in the growing chill of the evening before he arrived. Two vans were needed, but I jumped into the first one being in no mood to share. Our driver was a complete and utter idiot, talking on the cell phone, weaving and speeding through traffic like a maniac, and driving the long way around the city. He even pulled over for a while and didn't tell us why. TIA. Anyway, we made it back to home base at UB at last and I was overjoyed to find not only the whole dorm building empty, but also no one had broken into my room, cut the lock on my closet, and stolen all my stuff. Batsi had made us leave our laptops and valuables in his office for safety, so I picked those up as well. Then it was time to relax and enjoy the silence. So that's how my December 1st went.