Tag: people

My Bubble

A week back ‘Home’ and I’m safely ensconced in ‘the bubble’.

I read the papers daily and make the appropriate sounds of indignation, anger, sadness but the Emotion which is engaged is one of resignation and mild detachment.

I meet my friends, enjoy the exchange rate that makes eating out easy – ( although the cost of living is much higher than previous visits)

We worry about the drought – but as an intellectual observation because ‘we have a borehole for our garden’

I see past the beggars, looking ahead at the robots (lights) as though there was
something very significant about them that demands my total attention.

I drive like a local – aggressively, fast (as opposed to Very fast which is the norm and I am sure my next step) always alert to ‘the possible’ – hi jacking, window smashing theft etc.

I feel the hair rise on my arms and my breathe tighten as someone suddenly stops, swerves in front of me, drops a stone onto my windscreen (and I nearly didn’t pay the extra for insurance 😂), appears unexpectedly alongside my window – and then enjoy that strange sensation as your body realises all is well and slowly reverts to ‘normal’

‘Normal’

I’m back, like the proverbial frog and the hot water story, to normal enjoying this still remarkable country

Like ‘Home,’ ‘Normal’ is a question of definition 😜😂

Whatever….

06/10/2016

As I watch giraffe doing a mating dance on the lawn in front of me – I eavesdrop (okay again, I’ll admit – what else is one supposed to do when travelling alone😂)

And all the way the most common conversation between people has been climate and weather – Poles telling Israelis; Brazilians telling Germans and everywhere guides telling me ; this river used to flow; this was never a river; this lake bursts its banks 3 years ago and still the same

Whatever the experts say; the people have plenty to say about changes in our climate

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In Africa

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05/10/2016

We were out for over 8 hours today
Great fun.

The CB radio is like white sound in the vehicle – voices talking loudly non stop and when we congregate at a lion or rhino they all sound together – a cacophony of modern technology
– perhaps I was the only one who noticed?

Miles and miles of open plains. The great herds gave left ( not sure if I should be pleased or not – with the herds come hordes if you know what I mean). The views are lovely.

Lunch on a rug – all very civilised until I stood up with a wet you know what – the ground is sodden everywhere.

It has rained each afternoon so we went exploring to visit a very upmarket camp where we had coffee, and drove back in comfortable silence with the windows wide open

There is nothing as lovely as the bush just after rain – the buck twitch their ears, the birds call, the air has a smell that fills lungs with joy – unique; everything is washed new – well actually the roads were washed not new but totally away 😂 but we won’t spoil the story

And then just as I was thinking how perfect – the heavens opened and dumped solid sheets of rain. It took us over an hour to get 7 km!!!! The road was a river, Livingstone at times couldn’t see at all and we just had to stop – it was unbelievable

And here I sit an hour later on the deck -clear skies savouring a g&t

Another S.. Day in Africa as the saying goes 😀

5/10/2016