01.16.2006 – Makgadikgadi Pans, Botswana

What a couple of days these have been in the bush in Botswana. This is what I had envisioned southern Africa to be like—in some ways.

After being driven from Livingstone to the border with Botswana on the Zambesi River, taking a motor boat across, literally a stone’s throw from Namibia, dipping the soles of my shoes in some dirty water and giving them a slight wipe (as everyone else was doing) to prevent bringing foot-and-mouth disease into the country (I don’t think this method holds much prospect for success), I was driven to the small airport at Kasane. There I boarded a light bush plane on which I was the only passenger, so I sat in the co-pilot’s seat. Ross, the pilot, is South African and a graduate of the University of Pretoria. We flew over savanna—long grass dotted with trees that looked like Africa is supposed to look.

Upon our arrival at a tiny airstrip in the middle of nowhere, we were met by a man from Jack’s Camp, Kaelo, who was my personal guide for my entire stay there. (I was the only guest during these two days.) Kaelo is wonderful. He’s a trained biologist who knows, it seems, just about everything. We drove for about 30 minutes in a 4-wheel drive vehicle over extremely rutted and bumpy dirt roads—really just tire tracks—to reach Jack’s Camp.

Jack’s Camp is surreal. Guests stay in tents and eat in an open-sided mess tent. BUT: all the structures are on platforms with teak wood floors, the furniture is teak, some of it apparently antique and all of it expensive, top-of-the-line stuff. The bed in my tent is a high, four-poster with a canopy. The inside walls of the tent are cloth, a kind of tapestry. Persian rugs adorn the wood floors. The sink in my tent’s bathroom (there are indoor bathrooms in each tent), is brass, inside a teak box that opens up with a mirror inside the cover. The toilet looks like a throne.

There is also an outdoor toilet closer to the mess tent. This is literally an outdoor toilet, with an African wood fence around most of it, but otherwise open. Yet it, too, shows the class and incongruity of the rest of Jack’s, with a conventional flush toilet with a teak seat, on a raised platform, and brass fixtures on the sink.

The manager, Hillary, is very nice. She welcomed me with refreshments. After I quickly settled into my tent, Kaelo took me for a drive on the Makgadikgdi Pans. The Pans are vast salt flats left from a huge lake that once covered most of what is now Botswana. The Pans are not obviously salt, like the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. It looks more like the lunar surface. It was a very interesting place to drive around in the late afternoon. We didn’t encounter any large animals, but saw many species of birds, as well as springhare and Cape hare.

Taking a different route back, we came upon the ultimate surreal scene. Something obviously human-made could be seen in the distance, next to a shallow pond on the Pans. It seemed to shine in a golden or coppery color and to be rounded at the top. At first it made me think of R2D2 from Star Wars. As we got closer, it came into focus: a table with a white linen tablecloth and a fully stocked bar, along with fancy canvas bar chairs, for Kaelo and me to sit, have a drink, and watch the sunset over the Pans. This spot is not close to the camp. There’s nothing and no one around. Amazing. This is my sort of camping.

The sunset was one of the most beautiful I’ve seen, reflected in the shallow water of pond/large puddle in front of us. I think I got a good photo of it. This had to be one of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had. I thought of Anne at home not knowing what was going on with me because there is no communication with the outside world from Jack’s other than radio. She was probably worrying that I was being eaten by a lion while I was actually sipping a martini and taking in the sunset.

When we got back to Jack’s, we had another drink, good conversation (Ross stayed at the camp while I was there and Hillary, Kaelo, Ross, and I ate together), and then dined on ostrich, which was excellent. Of course everything was properly done with china, different glasses for red and white wine, etc.

On Sunday morning I was awakened at 5 AM by someone who brought me coffee in a silver coffee pot, with cream and sugar also in silver, and shortbread cookies on a tray on a tray to my tent. After showering and shaving in the near dark (there’s no electricity in the tents), with a kerosene lantern and a flashlight, I went to breakfast—full English, of course—served in the same great style.

Then Kaelo and I set out in search of zebras. We drove into the Makgadigadi & Nxai Pans National Park, eventually leaving the terrain of scattered palms, acacia, and other trees, first to an area that had only occasional small bushes breaking up the grass, and then just grass and the sand of the Pans. Because it’s the rainy season and they’ve had a lot of rain recently, everything is green. It turns out that this is the Kalahari, which is a vast flat area that is mostly covered in grass—not the sort of sand dune desert that most people imagine. In any case, this sure doesn’t look like Pennsylvania. Dorothy’s line, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” came to mind (although it is as flat as Kansas).

While we were trying to find the zebra herd, we saw many other animals, including many birds, especially courants (the males have bright red on them and every few minutes a male emits a loud call, seeking to impress a female who will come and take up residence on his territory), a black-backed jackal, and several ostriches.

Then we came upon the zebra herd. It was far beyond my expectations. There were zebras as far as the eye could see—even better eyes than mine—hundreds in range of sight and probably thousands in the whole herd.

Kaelo had told me that some lions live in the area, but are not usually seen. We came upon a wildebeest, and then Kaelo, whose eyes are very sharp, spotted lion tracks. We followed them along the “road” for a short distance until they vanished. Then Kaelo followed a hunch. He drove off-road toward a cluster of small trees and bushes. We rounded the little grove and on the back side a lioness was sitting, staring back at us. She showed her teeth, but appeared to have eaten recently and wasn’t going to bother us unless we challenged her for her shade. I took some photos of her and then we moved farther around the trees, where we saw a second female lion.

After a brief rest and (semi) high tea, I went for a walk across the Pans with two Ju//wasi men, Xao and Nxinxao. The Ju//wasi are one of the groups of the San or Bushmen. These two men continue to live as hunter-gatherers for nine months of the year and come to Jack’s for three months to talk with visitors about their way of life.

I learned so much on the walk. Xao and Nxinxao speak enough English that they could explain to me what they were doing and answer some questions I had. They did some tracking of animals, telling me which animal had left various tracks. They found a burrow made by a springhare and showed me how they use their spears and digging sticks to capture and kill one. They also showed me how to kill an aardvark; how to get poison from something beneath a certain type of tree, I think beetle larvae, and how to make poison arrow tips; how to make a fire from dry grass, dried zebra dung (which they rubbed between their hands to make a fine powder), and a male and female stick (the male stick goes into a hole in the female stick and is turned rapidly to create heat); how to capture termites to eat, and several other things. As they showed me how to do each of these things, they repeated, “Ladies cannot do this; only men.” They also told me that when a boy becomes a man by killing his first large animal, women are not allowed to eat any of the meat from that kill.

They dug a scorpion out of the ground and Xao held it in his palm, where it remained motionless. They made a path in the dirt for it to return to its burrow, and let it go. As soon as it was back on the ground, the scorpion scampered off and went back under ground.

While Nxinxao was making the fire, Xao went behind a clump of bushes. When he came back, he had changed from the modern clothing they were wearing and was dressed in nothing but a skin decorated with ostrich beads. It was similar in size to the sort of barely-cover-the essentials suit worn by male competitive swimmers.

I asked them about hunts for larger animals They told me that such hunts could go on for more than a week. When the hunt is successful and an eland or other large animal is killed, they bring it back to their village and there is a great celebration. They demonstrated for me the celebratory dance that the men do around the women, who sit in the center of the circle around which the men dance. They also showed me a wild hand game that they play as part of the celebration after a successful hunt. They showed me their various hunting weapons and tools and smoked some blend of dung and grass.

When we returned to the main tent, I asked them, with Kaelo as interpreter, about men’s and women’s roles. They are so separate that they told me if men are on a hunt and find a place with good berries, they will not pick them, but will go back to camp and tell the women where the berries are so that they can go out and gather them.

I asked about their origins—human creation. They told me that humans had been created at Xae Xae, the Aha Hills, in northwestern Botswana. Originally all people were San and looked like them (the San are lighter skinned than most Africans). Then there was a tug-of-war, with water in between the sides. Those who lost and fell into the water changed color. They turned into white people (and maybe some into darker Africans; I wasn’t clear on that point) and are now the junior brothers and sisters to the San. Fearful that water will change their color, the San do not wash above their necks.

Talking in 2006 with people who are actually living as hunter-gatherers was an amazing experience. In some sense it was almost like being able to go back in time 10,000 years.

We had another good dinner and conversation. We talked aboutsome of my ideas from Eve’s Seed and ChristianityLite. Hillary said she was grateful to have something interesting to discuss, since most camp guests want to talk about how many lions they saw at other camps.

On Sunday morning, following a heavy rain, Kaelo, Ross, and I drove out to see a group of meerkats. Because of the rain, the drive included the equivalent of fording rivers in the Land Cruiser at many places, but Kaelo pushed on. There were four pups in the group of meerkats and Kaelo said they had only just come out from underground and I was the first guest to see them.

Having almost made it through my time in the bush without even a minor mishap, I stepped in a hole made by some animal and covered by plants, fell down, and bruised my ribs and the outside of my thigh on the left side. Nothing serious.

Then we went to see a famous baobab tree, which has huge trunks, several of them intertwined, and is estimated to be 1000 years old. It was a landmark and stopping point for European “explorers,” including Livingstone.

The whole experience in Botswana was wonderful. Hillary even had a lunch packed for me in case Air Botswana doesn’t provide food.

It’s back to civilization (although in many ways Jack’s is a high order of civilization), where I can contact the outside world and let my love know that I survived.

RSM