August 2, 2024

Flying Home

We needed to be ready to leave the lodge at 9:00, and breakfast was at 7:30 so we finally got to sleep in a bit.

It was still pitch black when we woke up, so I fought my way out of the mosquito net and we switched on the lights in the room and started to prepare for the day.

Then we were plunged into total darkness. The generator must have failed. I thought it was a good excuse to go back to bed. The ever-practical Brian knew exactly where his fully charged head lamp was, so he was able to start going about his day. Needless to say, when my headlamp failed on the last night of camping, instead of recharging it I packed it away into the depths of my duffel bag, and thus it was totally useless to me.

We heard the noise of the staff trying to get the generator going again, but the noise would start and stop, and we remained steeped in darkness.

It finally became clear that I would have to fight my way through the mosquito net again and face getting ready by the light of Brian’s headlamp. However, time was on my side, and gradually it started getting light outside although it was still dark in the tent.

When I was in the shower I could see the red ball of the sun through the trees. A new day in Africa, our last day in Africa.

By the time we were finished with packing it was light outside

But still cool as we made our way from the tent to the others who were huddled around the fire in the dining area.

The lack of power did not disrupt the kitchen’s ability to produce another amazing breakfast including delicious ginger poppyseed muffins. The best way to start the day.

And then it was time for the staff to carry our bags to the vehicles, and for them to sing a few farewell songs to us. Their voices and harmonies were as always, a real treat. There is something about African music that always sends shivers down my spine. I didn’t want them to stop singing because I knew as soon as they did, our driver would start up the engine, and in a cloud of dusty sand we would start our bumpy journey to the airstrip.

I had hoped that we may get to see some wild dogs on our way to meet our plane, but I knew that was very unlikely. Still, there was a small elephant herd who came to bid us farewell.

We arrived at the airstrip in good time for our plane,

and half an hour later than it’s expected arrival time, there it was. It came to take us away.

We are used to being the only people on the planes, but we were joined by 2 other couples, and there was a copilot as well as the pilot. The plane was absolutely full. I was hoping that with all of our luggage it would be able to fly.

In fact, as we were taking off the plane really did seem to have trouble getting into the air, with all sorts of alarms going off and the end of the runway getting ever closer as we made our attempt to leave the ground. However, we made it, and soon we were flying over the delta on our way to Maun.

Our landing in Maun was awfully bumpy, I thought we were going to take off again, but thankfully we returned to the ground and arrived at the terminal building with the airplane intact.

We had a couple of hours layover in Maun, so I used the time wisely at the nearby gift shops and ended up with a really lovely butter dish similar to the ones they had used at Hyena Pan.

Then it was time to say goodbye to James and the rest of the group, except for the Australians who were on our plane.

It was sad to say goodbye, especially to James who had done such a wonderful job as our leader and guide. But we all have our lives to lead away from the African bush, and the time to move on had arrived.

From the plane I could see that the river had reached Maun finally. What had been a strip of dirt 10 days ago was now a ribbon of gleaming water. Life in the Delta goes on. Without us.