8th – 14th March 2011
Debbie’s retreat at Seronga in far north Botswana, south of the
panhandle.
A friend offered for us to stay at her retreat right next to
the reeds, the water and the hippos of the Delta. It’s about 8km from Seronga and well off the
main road. She's built 2 mud huts for
accommodation, a large reed and thatch hut for cooking and lounging and another
hut for the ablutions…behind the reed walls are a loo and a shower with hot
water heated by the “donkey boiler”, a wood fire under a boiler.
The photos tell it all….men just 20m away from us fishing for
bream from their mokoros, the fabulous colours and sunsets of the Delta, the
many times we had lunch by the campfire with another old friend and reminisced and
shared books. We asked one of the
fishermen for a trip in his mokoro.
Three hours of gliding through the reeds and water lilies, past distant
hippos and seeing the many birds…African fish eagles, spurwing geese, African
darter, egrets to name a few…how peaceful and amazing….
Two very special highlights were the Sports Day held on the
Saturday in Seronga where we joined in (and provided a tow rope for) the tug of
war. There were some very impressive
110m runners – male, female and kids. Then
on Sunday, we were the only pale faces amongst a sea of interesting people
at a cultural event – a sort of talent quest competition held under shady trees
in the village. They had to face a team
of judges and a few of the town dogs kept the audience amused by cavorting in
the sand alongside the dancers. We were
so lucky to see many traditional songs and dances all very colourful and
expressive. We asked if we could photograph
the people around us…..wide eyed children, craggy faced men, a mother teaching
her baby how to “click”, grandmothers with grandchildren, kids fascinated with
our camera!
After 5 days there we said goodbye with a promise of
meeting in the UK next month! The road
back was again torturously bumpy and the next surprise for Jim was whilst
waiting for the car ferry he saw his former driver (when Jim worked with the
Roads Dept), Joshua, who was equally surprised to see his former boss! Joshua drove him on the long stretches of
roads around NW Botswana checking road conditions - to beat the boredom of the
journey he taught Jim Setswana.
