I’m writing and posting this Monday morning, Cape Town time, on June 5. The last two days were travel days that blended together so decided to do them as one post.

Since the leopard sighting the prior evening trumped the bush walk, that was moved to the morning. Ash and I decided to skip it. We just wanted to relax and the description of the experience wasn’t compelling enough to get us moving early on this last day. When everyone left at 6:30am, we sat at “our table” and enjoyed our last sunrise in the Okavango. Above: 6:30. Below: 7:19.

When I went back to the cabin to finish packing, I noticed we’d had a visitor since we were last there: prints on the deck that were not human. Rasta identified them as baboon.

We were “bags out at 9:30” which meant have your bags in front by your door at that time for porters to pick up and put in the vehicle. We left for the airstrip at 9:45.

The real last photo! Dylan made it to this one, the young guy just left of center. He’d skipped the night of the leopard sighting but didn’t seem all that upset about missing it. He and 3 others on this trip – Jan, Kit and Maire on the right side – had been on different safaris for 10 days in other parts of Africa before joining this one in Victoria Falls. Not sure I could do 20 days! At least not while I’m working. We will definitely be back, though.

We left the way we came in: 3 small planes, in the same formation. So just me, Ash and Gail, and Ash got to sit in the cockpit again.

It was a 20-minute flight to Maun, Botswana. It was odd somehow to see a proper town. Population around 70,000. We hadn’t been in one since Victora Falls a week before, which is over 100k.

We stayed at a Botswana chain hotel called Cresta. Gail is not happy with this place but said it’s still better than the last place they were working with. She only gave it 2.5-3 stars. We landed at 3.5.

Our initial room, like everyone else’s, had the sink and shower out in the open of the main room, with the toilet in a closet. Ash likes space for me to be able to write without getting in the way of his sleep – completely reasonable – so he asked if there was an upgrade available. There was at a reasonable rate so we took it. It had a full living room…

…a bedroom…

…and a proper bathroom. After hearing Gail say “proper” 50x a day for 9 days you’re probably going to be hearing it more from me. I liked the way she used it, and in this instance it’s completely applicable.

We had lunch around 12:30. Another typical outdoor dining experience. The service was awful, the food OK.

After lunch we walked about a half mile down the dirt road (yes, even the nicer hotel is not on a paved road!) to the Wild Bird Trust, an organization National Geographic supports. They do some conversation work on the Delta, and we watched a 90-minute movie NatGeo did of 4-month expedition called “Into the Okavango.” I think all of us really enjoyed it. If nature documentaries are your thing, it’s available on Disney+ and I recommend it. You can catch a trailer for it here.

It was after 3:30 by the time we got back to the room. Dinner was at 5:30 – a drive to a local’s house where there would be a “cultural event” and we’d be back by 9pm. Ash and I begged off. We just couldn’t imagine going out again. And after 10 days with people around this introvert couldn’t handle another group outing, as much as I enjoyed our interactions. Ash and I stayed in the hotel for dinner and, well, he called it a fiasco although I didn’t think it was all that bad.

By the next morning I’d gotten 2 days of blog posts up and had decided this next one would combine these travel days. We went for a walk about a mile up the dirt road and back. Encountered a donkey on the way back. Maun has 3 nicknames: Donkey Town, Gateway to the Okavango, and A Drinking Town with a Tourist Problem.

We left for the airport with Gail around 10:45. We were the only ones going to Cape Town – she lives in the area; everyone else was going to Johannesburg to catch their flights to various places. Gail had suggested we check our bags then go back into the town area to kill remaining time because there’s nothing at the airport once you get past security. So that’s what we did. We ended up at – where else? – the Dusty Donkey a couple of blocks away.

This guy was selling crafts at a table out front for much cheaper than anything we’d seen so far, so we did some last-minute shopping. It was good to be back on regular international weight restrictions! We are way under by those standards and still have plenty of room in our bags ;)

We had some lunch, and it was very good. Below: a burger for me, and a tuna sandwich for Ash.

The people were lovely and it had a nice feel to it.

We got to walk the tarmac again to our small plane – although the biggest we’d been in since our flight to Victoria Falls! Just 3 seats across – one on one side, two on the other.

We had a 2.5-hour flight to Cape Town and landed early. It was very rainy but got a fun view of the coastline once we got through the clouds.

A beautiful photo of the city greeted you at the airport. We are staying at a Marriott in the middle of that harbor area on the left. That’s Table Mountain in the background, which we will do on Tuesday probably when the weather is supposed to be better.

We got our rental and it’s the same kind of Hyundai we had in Joburg, just a different color. And an automatic this time! (Their choice, not Ash’s.)

Ash is a Lifetime Platinum Marriott member back from his travel days with IBM. We are staying here on points, AND they offered a free upgrade to a suite with a harbor view. Living room above, where I’m writing right now.

The bedroom with a nice sitting area, and snack gifts in those little jars by the chairs.

And a proper bathroom :)

The room comes with breakfast included, and Ash’s membership also gives a $10 discount on food purchased in the hotel for each day. We were tired after 2 days of travel and the weather was not great to we stayed in for dinner.

They had a lovely beet soup which Ash is going to try to duplicate when we get home.

Some final thoughts on the safari and Africa in general as we’ve completed the 2nd phase of this trip:

1. I’m still flabbergasted on a daily basis that English is the primary language. No barriers at all on that front. Even in the bush, if they’ve been to school at all, they’ve learned some English. They also still speak their tribal language. There’s something like 30 languages spoken between Botswana and South Africa alone, but it’s English that unites everyone.
2. The safari was my first organized tour experience and I’m sold. It helped that it was a small group. Gail actually works for a company called G-Adventures, who NatGeo partners with to offer mid-level tours vs. the “luxury” tours they offer. We thought this was pretty luxurious! Certainly, no need to go up from here. We are already looking at other tours we can do in the future. This entire experience was just incredible, and we definitely want more.
3. There was also value traveling with a group of travelers. It was fun listening to other stories and picking up tips here and there. And we were able to make a restaurant recommendation to Maire who was on her way to Zurich, because I looked it up in the blog!
4. I was already feeling this in Joburg, and it increased 100-fold on the safari, but there’s something about being here that makes me feel closer to a higher power. Something about “where it all began” combined with “there’s a purpose for everything.” The up-close-and-personal-experience with the animals was like nothing I could have imagined. That people have hunted them for sport literally makes me sick. Thankfully most of that has stopped, at least in the areas we’ve been. There’s also a near-constant sense of presence – being right here, right now – that is unique relative to anything we’ve experienced elsewhere. When you’re watching the regalness of a leopard walking across the plains, you’re not thinking of anything else.
5. “The Big 5” are a big deal in these parts. Every gift store we went in had books on them, etc. We saw 4 of them: Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo. Rhino is the last and they are the most elusive. All of them in Botswana are living in sanctuary because they are the most poached because of superstition about powers the horns have. Ash saw some – both black and white – in South Africa when he was on safari the first time in 2015.
6. Especially in the Okavango, it was, well, wild to have an experience where essentially the animals are in charge. The respect shown for their habitats is palpable. And to some degree, it’s like that everywhere. I lost count of the number of times Gail said, “It’s Africa – anything can happen.” From questionable power and water systems to baboons on your front porch, you just never know what’s next.
7. Our respect for NatGeo has increased 100-fold as well. We’ve always had some awareness of the work they do, but to see it in action was something else. And their sense of respect for the planet is woven into their tourist operations; it’s tremendous to experience it at that level.
8. We were also super impressed and aware with how hard the camp workers worked! The schedule of the days is long, and theirs even longer – 4am – 10pm pretty much every day. At least at Moremi Crossing, they work 60 days straight at that pace and then have 16 days off. Or can work 90 and get 24 off. But either way, that’s grueling. And they’re so happy, so helpful. And in great shape. Walking is the primary transportation. Other than the Land Cruisers. we saw no other vehicles in the Okavango.
9. And speaking of Land Cruisers, I’ll end with this. The photo below captures a little message I had on my phone when I woke up this morning: on average, you took more steps in the last 22 days – by a lot. Except that, for the last 10 days, we hardly walked at all. Gail had told us about this at the beginning: the safari rides are so bumpy your phone actually counts them as steps! Hilarious.

With that, I’ll end with a couple of beautiful photos Dylan took of birds, which he shared on our group WhatsApp yesterday. We gave up on birds early because I just couldn’t capture them with my iPhone, but he had a nice camera that does great.

We’ll be in the Cape Town area until we start the trek home Thursday night here, getting there mid-afternoon on Friday. It’s a beautiful area and I’m looking forward to exploring with Ash, who of course has been here before. It’s one of his favorite places on the planet so it will be fun to see it through him.