The routine here at Bushman is simple. At 5:15am you are awakened with a knock at you r door and Elson fills the water basin outside with hot water. Get dressed, a quick wash up, brush teeth, and stop at the communal dining area for a cup of tea and leave for the morning trek. We stop around 9:00am for a rest and a snack – fruit, crackers, cheese, sausage and juice. More hiking until 11:00am then back to camp. Shower, shave, etc. then lunch, siesta, write or read until 3:30om then the afternoon trek.
The treks seem to wander around aimlessly to those of us without a map or sense of direction but I am certain Leon and Benito have a plan. Today we saw klipspringer, kudu, impala, and baboons, flowers (foxglove, daisy, hibiscus) several birds and no large animals. But it was quite pleasant trolling through waist-high grass and shrubs punctuated by large marula trees and numerous stream crossings. We decided not seeing rhino might be a good thing since we could have stumbled on them before either we or they were aware of the other – a recipe for disaster. In the dozen years he has guided , Leon has twice used his rifle – once on an elephant and once on a cape buffalo, both of which were injured.
Our trip mates are an interesting lot. Nick and Cathy are Canadians now living in England; retired and on their eight annual three month around the world trip – always in the southern hemisphere. Ester and Jens are from New Zealand and are on a five month round the world to Africa, Europe and the U.S. Adrian and Niki are South African are on their honeymoon. He’s pretty mellow, but she felt she had to continually defend her position of privilege vis-à-vis the blacks . Our conversations have dealt with mostly travel but careers (past and present) living conditions, politics and lifestyles have all come up at one time or another.
The evening trek was a farewell of sorts. The first stop was at a site of San rock art, the little people, the bushman of the Kalahari. Their paintings are quite delicate and detailed compared to those of the American Southwest. Then we drove to the southwestern boundary of the park for reflection time and a “sundowner”. Connie and I spent much of the time watching a pair of pied kingfishers. We returned to camp in the dark under a sky filled with countless stars, had a late, mostly inedible dinner and went to bed.
