This Blog Being Primarily (or Initially) a Travel Diary of a Trip of Several Months Duration in Southern Africa

Countries and some destinations:

• Botswana: Francistown; Ghanzi (D'Kar); Maun; Nata; Okavango River (upper portion); Okavango River Delta (lower portion); Otse; Rakops (Xhumaga); Selebi-Phikwe; Sepopa; Serowe; Shakawe; Nxai Pan National Park
• Namibia: Bagani (near Popa Falls); (the) Caprivi Strip; Etosha National Park; Gobabis; Henties Bay; Katima Mulilo; Keetmanshoop - Kokerboom Forest Lodge; Omaruru; Otjituuo (Grootfontein); Otjitwarongo; Rundu; Sesriem; Solitaire (Rostock Ritz); Tsumeb; Tsumkwe; Waterberg Plateau Park; Windhoek
• Republic of South Africa: Calvinia; Cape Town; Clanwilliam; Dongola Ranch (near Mapungubwe National Park and Messina); Hermanus; Johannesburg; Kalahari Desert - Kalahari Trails Lodge; Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park; Kruger National Park; Nelspruit; Stellenbosch
• Swaziland: Ezulwini Valley; Hlane National Park; Manzini
• Zambia: near Livingstone and Victoria Falls

A Question Asked Repeatedly at the End of the Trip [Skip this part if you just happened by and just want some information about where to stay or how to get there.]

Which was sort of an obvious question and I can't say why I hadn't thought about it more except to say that I realize and confess that I am not a really an intellectual or deep person and (in addition or as a result of this condition of mine) am inclined to evade or elide or altogether avoid making waves...

It's a Sunday gettogether, a family barbecue -- called a braii here in Cape Town or for that matter all over Southern Africa. I'm the guest of some very nice, very classy people. And on the terrace of an ancient and beautiful house in a setting I haven't enjoyed in a long time -- as if Napa Valley had come to Malibu Canyon. Fortunately for my hosts, after several months in Africa, I had stopped making banal comparisons to (the weather, the geography, the old architecture of) southern California since it was clear early on in my trip that every one had heard them all before.... so like I said, I was trying to be on my best behavior.

Besides, the southern California of my childhood is long gone and attempts to explain that it compared to what I knew 50 years ago translated as “you mean we are 50 years behind the U.S.?” A conversational death spiral is not the perfect compliment to South African wine.

And so standing under a grape arbor and with a second or third glass in my hand (recalled as the product of the vineyard across the road) a welcome nudge recommended moderation: my hosts Robyn and Fernando had seen me somewhat under the weather up in Botswana.

Why did you take this trip? I've lived here all my life and I've never visited those places.

"My son, Will, is in the Peace Corps in Namibia and the families of volunteers are known to visit sometime during their service". Yes, but those visits are usually just for a few days and you've been in Africa for months.

"In 2005, while riding home on a bicycle" (guaranteed to you, patient reader, quite sober), "I was overtaken and hit by a truck. The injuries and rehab were a reminder that a long and demanding trip required the presence of a certain amount of physical and mental ability." That still doesn't explain to me why you were in --- where was it apart from South Africa? Zambia? And Botswana?

"Ironically and improbably for a black sheep -- I was alone with my mother at the very end. She had gone into a coma before I arrived by plane. The nurses' station was just a few feet away and I (observed /imagined that) her respiration was very, very slow but I waited. (I had seen people die before but wasn't sure.) She was in this room in the hospice section of the hospital and the whole point was for her to exit peacefully (wasn't it?). I don't like to make waves -- like I said, I mean what if I was wrong and it's a false alarm? I began to time her respiration with my watch -- you know how time gets so distorted in these situations. It is so hard to be objective! 45 seconds... then one last exhalation. Go get the nurse. But I was right (or correct so-to-speak) wasn't I?" A little impatiently: That's all well and good but 'the sand running out of the hour glass' still doesn't explain to me why you took this trip. What stuck in my mind is the marble pallor that flooded her face after that last breath.

"Always worked episodically as a consultant and my latest assignment was done. So it didn't need to be a quick vacation. I was bored and really needed to get off the grid for awhile." No -- this still doesn't explain it. It's not what I mean."

"Always wanted to travel to remote places. As a very young child there were no parental controls and that meant I could wander freely in the San Gabriel Mountains all day. No one knew where I was and it was just as well..." Now we're getting closer....

...and finally the answer that satisfied as all such things in Africa are explained traditionally which means by your forebears, 'by your blood': "My grandfather was a French-Canadian and lived off the land as his ancestors had done, the voyageurs, the trappers. I can happily wander this way the rest of my life.”

Ah, that's it. Let's now join the rest for dinner.

Labels: Africa, Destinations, Southern Africa, Travel Diary

¶ 11:42 AM