Dispatch from the Okavango Delta: My biggest fear
Thalefang Charles | Friday August 11, 2017 15:32
‘Aren’t you afraid?’ I have received this question many times ever since I started crossing the Okavango Delta with mekoro (dugout canoes) in 2015. But, I do not really remember answering it with any ounce of second thought. All the time, it was met by a half-smile, half-laugh coupled with an emphatic “No!” But sometimes, I have responded with a question, “What should I be afraid of?”
Many people who inquired about my fears wondered if I am not afraid of: drowning in the water, tumbled up by territorial hippos, eaten by large crocodiles, stomped down by elephants, mauled by lions, gored by buffaloes, bored into by river leeches and stung by the ‘chicken-sized’ mosquitoes. I genuinely never thought much about these dangers. To me they are just normal dangers like riding a vehicle, flying an aircraft, walking through the city or even eating – people die from eating everyday.
So on Day One of this expedition at the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project’s Mopiri Research Camp, when the expedition leader Chris Boyes asked everyone to observe a 20 seconds moment of silence before we launched into the river, I actually started thinking about what could be my biggest fears on this expedition. But 20 seconds was just too short to get them out clearer.
At our first campsite, at a place called Makwena, I chose the furthest spot to pitch my tent away from the rest of the team. I moved further alone from the rest of the team to perform my usual ritual to try to connect with the wilderness. But this time, I also wanted to find out my biggest fears around this place. I have found inner peace and the love that is almost spiritual with this place. So, I always drift in that love and spirit to connect to the wilderness. My connection ritual helps me to be extra-conscious of the wilderness without even trying. Usually, after the connection, I do not have to look out hard for wild animals, they just appear. I then blend in and become part of the wilderness and it is so refreshing. That is in fact the main reason I keep coming back here. So what should I be afraid of?
So, I sat alone on Day One and imagined my biggest fear. What would really make me scream and run away if it appeared here? Then an image of a human being, an adult male, peeping from the bush developed. But even that was not scary enough because I could easily say, “Nitishire!” to him and we would become friends.
S,o the scary human figure had to be a mutated large extra-terrestrial being, watching, motionless and menacing enough to me. And that is when wilderness started to be scary. I felt the fright and searched around for more of these scary beings. A barbet monkey broke a tree log and I jumped, startled thinking that more extra-terrestrial beings have arrived. And that is when I recovered and got back from my wild imaginations of fear. All those were a figment of my imagination and they do not live in the wilderness. In a nutshell my fears are non-existent.
So, without fears that I create on my mind, I have no fear of this place. I love this place. Wild animals are not out searching for humans, (well maybe mosquitoes but there are plenty mozzies in the city). That is, why when they see humans they run off, unless when they feel threatened and need to defend themselves, or in rare occasions when they mistake us for a meal.
And why would I be scared of mokoro in the Okavango Delta when I am travelling with expert river men that understand mokoro and this place like any city’s cab drivers? I will tell you about those river men on my next dispatch.
The Expedition Team is expected to reach Maun by August 23. You can follow the team updates at #okavango17 across social media.