The Thrill Of The Little Towns In The Wilderness

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Monday December 7, 2009 00:00

The salty air, especially at Baines' Baobab, was a ready-made calcium supplementary drink available in the atmosphere. The unbearable oxygen mixture left my throat dry, but my first safari experience was a memorable one. As a fist- timer, in the wilderness trip, I was not sure whether I wanted to go. Just before month -end when wallets weigh less, the wild was an awesome place for refreshing the mind. For six days, I had no incoming calls or smses. I was outside the information and technology box.

Knowing well that khakhi is the signature colour in safaris, and my wardrobe was not home to such, I was worried at the back of my mind. 

Do other Batswana 'tourists' in Botswana stick to that uniform as well? Do citizens ever travel to places that I got to see during the six days I lived in the wilderness in places like Mombo Camp in the Okavango Delta? The aerial view of the Okavango Delta is such a beautiful scenery. From the air, elephants look like harmless 'ants' and lions looked like kitties. The world is such a peaceful scene and I could not believe that it was infested with all kinds of evils. In my mind's eye, I quickly thought if I were God or other super-natural being residing above, I would set a reminder to citizens below that theirs is such a tiny and fragile home, which can be wiped clean at an instant. Have you ever sat down to think about what climate change can do to human life?  Yes, Africa will also suffer the aftermath, though you and I have emitted less of the gases that are instrumental for the depletion of the Ozone layer. Talking of the environment, I got to learn about the utility of the low- volume-high-value concept used in the country's tourism industry.

Sally-Anne, Wilderness Safaris marketing manager says the approach is paying dividends, as the environment is not polluted at the expense of making a kill through letting in a massive number of guests. My safari experience, started at Wilderness Safaris' premier camp, Mombo. Upon arrival, we were given cool wet towels to mop our faces. As the moisture evaporated, I felt a cool breeze across my black skin.The service at this camp was super. I gathered that the word mombo meant underground fire. It is not in doubt that the camp, together with its sister, Little Mombo, were voted the number one Resort in Africa in the 2009 Cond Nast Traveler (USA) Readers' Choice Awards. Yes, near perfection service is the word as described by the magazine. The communal dinner table was interesting, with countless topics of debate.

On my first night at the camp I heard a lion roaring. To be frank, I did not know it was a lion until the following morning; but the sound lulled me to sleep. For the first time I felt the service providers were not doing me a favour, but delivering on what they are paid to do, which is very much the opposite of what the urban populace get. After two nights at Mombo, we flew to another Wilderness Safari camp in the southeast of the Okavango Delta. Chitabe Camp is not like Mombo. It is classic. The welcome ritual of that cool wet towel was performed again at Chitabe. In front of the camp awaited the staff singing songs of welcome as per the Tswana tradition of welcoming guests. My ears fell in love with the line 'Bajanala ba tsile', which translates to 'tourists have arrived'. Was I really a tourist? I was not away from home, was I? The same hospitality I saw at the previous camp was extended here. The staff's level of socialising could be likened to that of long time friends. One of the staff members told me that she missed Setswana jokes, as the clientele is predominantly of Caucasian origin. 

Besides the outdoor shower- an element that ties all the camps I went to except Mashuti in the Tuli area-Chitabe Lekadiba houses an elegant honeymoon suite. In the evening Tswana entertainment was galore with songs like Terekere, Kubu Ke Sereto Sa Rona.

After dikhwaere (the songs), which I did not get enough of, we were treated to ballads by Ratsie Setlhako (famous Tswana guitarist) under Dawson's finger tips. The guitar is such a wonderful musical instrument. Nxai Pan Camp owned by Kwando Safaris was the next destination. Likewise, the towel ritual preceded when we got to the camp. It was like I was in Mercury. I imagined the hell fire story that I heard as a child, and if heathens are going to be under the same treatment, I made a decision to repent.

Nevertheless, Nxai Pan Camp was great on its own. Like the previous camps, the guides were well- informed. Conservation of the environment for posterity runs in their veins.

During one of the evening drives, our guide spotted a car driving off road. He foamed with rage. He summoned the person to the wildlife office nearby regardless of the fact that we were running late and ended up missing some of the wildlife he had hoped we would see at the waterhole. 'These people are destroying our environment. I am not going to let it happen just like that,' he said. The following morning we drove to Baines' Baobab, where there is a clump of seven Baobab trees, also known as sleeping sisters or the seven sisters. The guide explained that the famous painter; Thomas Baines arrived at this point to paint 'an unusual group of baobabs' while visiting Livingstone in the 1860s.  I learnt that Baines commemorated these trees on canvas. Also classic, but the hospitality does not quite match that of the previous camps.

After two nights of compulsory salty air, we took off to another unique habitat. Still, the warm African hospitality was there. It was in Mashatu where my inquisitiveness for the big five was satisfied, as I saw leopards for the first time. I saw some engaged in the act of expanding their lineage!

The atmosphere was very relaxing, there were points where one could get a cell phone network signal; but I did not feel like receiving or making a call. The evening game viewing exercise was a beautiful experience under pregnant rain clouds. Viewing a pride of lions, elegant giraffes with long endless legs, supermodels of the wilderness, the black and white stripes of a zebra, I tried to understand their language, their order of doing things; but I could not.