Dinner Al Fresco

Duma Tau - Botswana

Dear Dorothy

I crashed for a while in the afternoon until a dream I didn't like awoke me. I was a little disoriented and really really wish I had been able to find a clock at the airport in SeaTac. This having to boot up the computer to find out what time it is, is not the most efficient way to know what time it is. And on this trip time is a very important thing. Wake up 5 am. Escort to the dining area at 5:30. Get on the bus Gus at 6. Return at 11. Dine at 11:30. Free time until 3:30. Tea at 3:30. 4pm "Bus Gus" again. 7 pm return to camp. 8pm dinner. 10 or so pm bed. And there is very little flexibility in this. I can understand because they are used to herding 20 or so guests at a time to various sights, but it still is a little rigid for my traveling style.

My Limo

Speaking of rigid. After this morning’s game drive for lunch I opted to sit at a different table than my Rover companions. The woman running the room was insistent that I sit with my group and not the current one. I told her I knew them already and these were new to me. She was very insistent so I got up to move and one of the guests at the table asked/told me to remain. 

Off to Botswana with the eskimos

Duma Tau - Botswana

Dear Dorothy

At the crack of 8:05 we boarded the bus and went to the airport where I and the rest of the ducklings were handed off to another mother duck and we waddled through immigration and the exit formalities.  Our Cessna 208B picked up all nine of us and popped into the sky for 15 minutes before landing in Botswana.  Where another hen guided us through those bureaucratic mazes. I generally give a shoulder patch to the first officer I encounter my Mr. Officious Immigration officer who was a paper work micro manager did not get a patch. I might have given him one, but would have had to wipe my butt with it first and I didn’t want to disrobe in the immigration office then.

Back on the 208 with one additional passenger a VERY tall black man who was going to Maun to visit his wife who was a teacher there. We slipped into the sky and in another 45 minutes landed on a grass strip in the north eastern Okavango delta. Our nine minus the one split into three groups and like the Blue Angels peeled off into separate directions.