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Nxai Pan - Botswana - 0745 a.m.

Dear Dorothy

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. I am sorry to announce that there is an obstruction on the runway and we will need to make one go around before landing. Thank you for your patience.

So after all that I'm going to stay in camp rhetoric I decide to go on one last game drive last evening. WTF. I'm here and even though I'm going to see the same ole, same ole it sounded better than just killing time. I decided that I was going to be a pig, a nice pig, but I was going to not get the middle seat. One of those "Where would you like to sit?" questions of the other guests and expecting them to say it didn't matter. Then taking the seat I wanted in the first place. Knowing full well no one would be as rude as to say "I want ... that seat" So after the expected response I grabbed a seat in the back at the side.

Cheetah - Nxai Pan - Botswana

Mohane is a different guide than Donald. He said right up front. "We are going to drive fast and stop just long enough to get a few pictures before moving on. Alright?" Praise the lord. The Master Race would stop and look at a single little Tit Mouse for 5 minutes. Describing one another the color of its feet. The hue of its bill and the size of its nostril. I mean - It's a game DRIVE, not a game STOP. Still it was better than the Eskimos only wanting to see big animals.

Time to head home

Nxai Pan - Botswana

Dear Dorothy

After doing nothing all afternoon except high tea at 4 pm then we had to wait an entire four hours before dinner. Chicken Tarragon and rice and peas and carrots, not peas 'n carrots. Tasty meal. I know it is almost a cliché'dish but chicken tarragon is pretty high on my list of faves.

I lightened my luggage a little. I had lugged around a plastic throwaway poncho because the guide books said to. This being the rainy season and all. The only rain I've seen was one afternoon in Duma Tau and the only other rain was Camelot rain in Davison Camp. You know Camelot where it only rains after sunset. After a short rest in my room I needed to get out of the room and ran into Eva Braun of the Master Race. Seeing Christina's seventy year old body in a black one piece bathing suit was something that I tried to avoid with my eyes. After a certain age when it comes to bathing suits we should all be required to wear burkas. I knew she was going to Victoria Falls next and it might come in handy, or not. But if I gave it to her I wouldn't be forced to schlep the darned thing around any longer.

Giraffe survivor on the way to Baines Baobob

Nxai Pan - Botswana

Dear Dorothy

It is hot. At least it's not humid. All the camps have issued either a plastic or metal liter reusable bottle for water when away from the camp. This is the first place that I have felt the need to really use one. There is a hot breeze so any moisture evaporates quickly and I don't think I realize just how much fluid is going through me and not coming out in the standard method.

My jeep mates are a couple from Southern Germany. They are both professors, she English and he Optics. He's 77 and she's somewhere near that. A good group to travel with. They are interested in almost any animal they see whether it is a mammal, reptile or bird. A little too interested sometimes, but a welcome change from the Eskimos who only wanted to see what they had already seen in National Geographic. 

Battle scarred giraffe