We got OK sleep but were both still reeling a little bit from yesterday’s excitement with the police. We were hoping to make it through the day unscathed from that perspective.

We made a final visit to the steam room, then breakfast, then made our way to the airport.

We made it all the way to immigration with no problems. And then they asked for our visas. Oops: they were in our day pack, which was now in checked luggage. We weren’t sure what would happen for a moment until Ash pointed out the multiple Mozambique stamps already in our passports – a total of 5 others at that point. They correctly reasoned we couldn’t have gotten that many without having visas, shrugged, and stamped us for a 6th and final time. Thank God.

We are now sitting peacefully in an otherwise empty lounge, enjoying some decent coffee before we board our flight to Johannesburg. We catch a connection there to Maun, where we will be staying the night before we head to the safari lodge.

On the jetway to board we were approached by a young guy, maybe 25. “Are you American?” He was a Marine from Fresno, assigned to be Embassy Guard for the State Department. He just finished a year in Maputo and was headed to Bosnia.

He asked how our visit was. When we told him about the police activity he said “yeah, it’s bound to happen sometime. How much did they get from you?” We told him and he said “yeah, that’s where the fake cash comes in handy.” He didn’t elaborate on how one acquired such things.

We had a nice conversation in the slow moving line to the plane. It was oddly comforting and disturbing at the same time that our experience was not unusual. “Next time just call the Embassy” he said. Let’s hope there isn’t one.

We had a transfer in Johannesburg that took every bit of the hour we had to go through Immigration and walk to the other side of the airport and go through security again for a 12:05 departure.

We landed in Maun about 1:40 and walked into our room right at 3pm. Not bad at all!

We will have great weather while we are here. This is definitely colder than last time which was first week in June 2023. I think the lows were like mid 50s then, which felt much colder in moving open aired vehicles at 6:30am.

Since we have water this time, we are supposed to be in mokoros which are like canoes. So still moving in the open air. Those 40s will feel like 30s. And we packed for that.

Ash booked this on points so we paid for an upgrade, and got the exact same room we had in 2023!

Complete with the same bug sprays as last time. The blue can goes on your skin; the green can is used for crawlies in your room. And the pink can is just an air freshener.

We got settled and went out to the patio for a bite to eat.

Maun has a population of about 50k and its nickname is The Gate to the Okavango Delta. It is situated along the Thamalakane River which is fed by the Delta. That’s the river in the photo above. I’ve been following a Facebook group that reports on the flow of water, which comes from northern Angola and makes its way down here before it dries up and starts again the next year. That last few years there hasn’t been much water. This year it got here about a month ago and people were super excited.

We figured that was a sort of late lunch / early starter for dinner. For that we decided on Marc’s Eatery. We made reservations for 6:30pm. Since it was already after 5 and Google was saying it was a 1.5 hour walk, we started moving in that direction.

Meet George from the hotel. He lives just by Marc’s. He usually takes a taxi to/from work but for some reason he decided to walk with us. We welcomed the company and enjoyed our visit with him along the way so much we invited him to join us for dinner.

It was admittedly a longer walk than we anticipated. We had been walking almost an hour and had another 30 minutes to go when Ash decided he needed a restroom. George assured us we could get a taxi easily and we did. Ash made it just in time!

Meet Marc. Originally from Germany, he was sent to Botswana in 1981 to explore the feasibility of starting safari lodges. We know how that worked out since that’s a significant industry here. He was successful in that arena then “retired” by opening this restaurant 8 years ago. It was a great place – terrific menu and a comfortable, fun atmosphere.

It was pretty dark by then so we struggled with the lighting a bit as we sat farthest away from any lights.

Ash got a shrimp dish, I had impala stew. It was a teeny bit gamey but the cous cous smoothed that out to make it a delicious dish.

Tomorrow we head to the Delta, staying at Moremi Crossing as we did in 2023.

https://www.kwando.co.bw/camps/moremi-crossing/

Here’s what UNESCO says about the Okavango:

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1432/

So – what about this Eswatini prince? I know at least one of you has been wondering about that.

We were hoping it would turn into a more interesting story but it ended up not going anywhere.

We met Prince Lusuku at dinner our first night at Summerfield. We didn’t know who he was at the time, but was there celebrating a family member’s birthday.

The staff here made a big deal about birthdays. We witnessed this twice that night. The first one, oddly enough, was a Zulu prince who was at the table next to Suku. Zulu is an indigenous royal family that has been reigning since around 1840.

Then came Suko’s family member. It was his cousin or the sister with him, party if 3. But maybe because they were members of the Eswatini royal family, the staff made an even bigger deal about this one.

Before all this, Suku had already gotten our attention. We were at the table on the other side of him and could hear his quite animated conversation, at one point about Beyoncé. Now, IYKYK, but straight men and gay men just don’t talk about Beyoncé in the same way. So we knew right away he was gay. Note: it is still technically illegal to be gay in Eswatini, they just stopped prosecuting. So no rights and lots of stigma.

As we were leaving, Ash walks up to him and says “next time one of us has a birthday we are calling you to plan the party.” Mind you, we just think he’s some random gay guy.

Ash introduced himself, and me as his husband. Suko gets up and greets us enthusiastically, saying “it’s an honor to meet a couple such as you” – like maybe he never met a gay couple before? Totally possible. He asks about our travels and offers to show us around, etc. He then pulls out his card.

That’s when we found out who he was. I ask if we should refer to him as HRH. He says “You can call me Suku.”

He said he would be in Maputo this weekend for his sister’s wedding and maybe we could connect then.

And in the end, that’s all it was. We exchanged a few texts after that but nothing ever came of it. Now that we are far enough away to say nothing will, it was time to tell the story.

I was kidding Ash on the way here: Harry & Megan used to spend a lot of time in Maun and the Delta before the kids, maybe we will run into them? It could happen…