Better day today, perhaps I had a
better night’s sleep as this is the first time I recall dreaming during the
night. Or maybe it is that we are heading to the Madi a Thavha Mountain Lodge on
Thursday and Friday and I know there will be no manual labor involved. Either
way I woke up in a better mode and even did not mind the task of picking up or moving heavy
rocks all morning.
Kopje climbing at sunset.
The morning project was to collect
rocks so that they can lay them into a watering hole being built, the same one
we were digging the trench for when I arrived. I’m keeping my fingers crossed
but hopefully this is the last of the bad work projects I need to be on before
heading to Cape Town. We don’t return to the camp until Saturday and I think we
have a makeup project on Sunday, but I’m guessing it won’t be a really bad one.
In the afternoon we drove around
taking a baobab tree census. These are very cool trees so I was more into this
than some of the other census’ we have done. It largely entailed hiking out to
the trees in the bush, taking a GPS coordinate, marking down any elephant
damage to the trunk, and taking various measurements.
Baobab trees are very cool and are
unlike any other tree. First of all they are fibrous, so if you cut one down
there are no tree rings to mark the years, as such you can only really estimate
how old one is. They are somewhat like giant stalks of celery and the fibers
can peal and hold water in much the same way. The elephants know this and will
dig into the tree to get water. The tree can survive this to a point but too
much damage and ultimately the tree will die. When it does, after a while there
is nothing left to show it was there. The roots, trunk, limbs, everything dry
up like hay and ultimately blow away, leaving just a hole until it fills in. Of
the four trees we looked at, half had bad elephant damage to them and one is
close to dying off. There are somewhere around 100 of these trees in the area.
One thing that really strikes me
about this place is how clean the air is. It has a clean and fragrant smell and
tastes different than air in the U.S. I am sure it is from a lot less pollution
in the air and it is nice. I’ve seen many of the animals here before in
Tanzania, and it was much easier to actually see them as they did not run away.
So in that respect the animal watching is not the biggest thing for me. Being
outdoors and in the open air here, however, is a very nice change. But as I
said before, this is not a lifestyle for me and I am pretty much ready to move
on to Cape Town.
One thing I am pretty sure I will
not be doing when I return to the U.S. is going out and living off the land. It
is nice for a week or two but you will not find me on any of the reality TV
shows on A&E or Discovery Channel, living out in some remote area and
living off the land with a nickname like “Chicago Smitty.” Visiting for a week
or two and returning to city, or at least urban life is more my style.
July 16, 2015 – Botswana/South Africa Thursday Day 10
We headed out for the Madi a
Thavha Mountain Lodge in the Limpopo region of South Africa at 8:00 am today
and it is a 3.5 hour drive in an open car, so very windy and noisy. Not exactly
the most comfortable ride but it is what’s available and I am OK with a few
hours of discomfort sitting in an open car vs. swinging a pick-axe. It is sort
of like riding a motorcycle from Chicago to Green Bay.
First stop is the border crossing,
about an hour away, where we get stamped out of Botswana and into South Africa.
It is somewhat funny as everybody finds the U.S. passport very interesting. I
got a new one just before coming and it has a different picture on every page
as well as a quote from something in history. I had not really thought about it
before but it is rather cool to have that.
Two and a half hours later and we
finally get to the lodge, drop our stuff and head out to a shopping mall to get
lunch, so some people can get some cash, and so Sophie and Gens can do some
shopping for the camp. The mall itself is not unlike the U.S. just not quite so
nice but full of the same types of stores. Except for the Wapons and Camping
store. Wapons being Weapons in American English. They have all sorts of camping
gear and guns and ammo in the back. I’ve seen this kind of thing before, and
there is a big store just like this right over the border from Chicago in
Indiana. But for the others they don’t see this type of thing in Europe and it
is very much a novelty. Especially the pink shot gun, sort of a Barbie style
weapon for little girls to get their feet wet on killing things. The one thing I
did find interesting was all the Jeep branded clothing in the store. I did not
know that Jeep had a line of clothes. They are actually rather nice, somewhat
like the type of clothing you would find at Eddie Bauer.
It was around 1:00 when we got to
the shopping mall and had lunch and around 4:30 by the time we had finished
everything and made it back to the lodge where I was finally able to try and
call the U.S. 5:00 in South Africa is 10:00 in Chicago so I knew my family
would be up but was not so sure they would be by the phone. It is also the
first time I used Skype outside of the U.S. to make a call and it does work,
however it was not working very well. Lots of static and a delay when I called
my folks and the line dropped three times so other than to let them know I got
in OK, I was not able to talk about much else. However, I was able to get
through to my aunt and talk with her a bit and she relayed the info on to my
parents so all is good at least until I get into Cape Town and hopefully find a
better wi-fi signal to make a Skype call from.
I get the good fortune of sleeping
in the same room as the other three male volunteers, of which it is Teo at 16;
Philip at 19; and Hugo at 20. I have no kids but I would imagine it would be
like rooming with them but it was not so bad. Three years of coaching novice
men at the University of Chicago has well prepared me for this so I get along
well. Don’t know if they think the same but I’ve learned younger people don’t
think too much about the age difference being a big deal, it is the older
people who think about that.
The lodge itself is beautiful, there is a bar
where I can get a beer, we have an awesome dinner that evening and a real bed
to sleep in! And it is not totally dusty here, I am in heaven!
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