US Out; Heading To Okavango Delta In Botswana

Tuesday, June 29
When I planned my trip to SA, I left the tail end open because there was no way to be sure how well our team would do in the competition. I set my return flight for July 4 to allow for attendance to a quarterfinal match if we made it. We didn't, so now I have a week to fill with some other activities.

I had tried to find a way to return home early, because honestly I am sick of South Africa and I want to be home. But there are no flights available, or what is available would cost $2,000 or more.

So now I sit in the sparkling airport of Gaborone, Botswana, awaiting a flight to Maun, the starting town for all the trips into the Okavango Delta. I booked a flight to Maun with no certain plan. Steve gave me his South Africa guidebook, and it had a lot of information on safaris in the region. I'm going to try to get in on a safari package to Oddball's Camp for several hundrew dollars. In a day from now, hopefully I will be camping in the bush with some crazy elephants all around. Or maybe I'll be sleeping in a sewer pipe. I don't really know.

It is disconcerting to be heading off to an unknown place with an unknown itinerary. I am traveling alone now so I've only got myself to rely on.

I'm flying on Air Botswana, with this stop in Gaborone to switch planes. The second leg of the trip, from Gaborone to Maun, will be on the turboprop airliner pictured below (note to Scoutmaster Neal: it is an ATR 42-72). The airline is really nice considering it is so small and I don't imagine they have more than a few planes. On the Joburg to Gaborone leg they served us a bag of beef biltong (jerky) and a bag of peanuts and raisins, and they weren't skimpy little bags like on American airlines.

This is not the smallest aircraft I will ride in to get to my destination.

The Gaborone airport looks new, and they did not spare expense on it. It's situated in the midst of dry plains, surrounded by brown fields of grass and small, squat trees. A walk from one end of the terminal to the other might take about 30 seconds. I'm trying to imagine what the city looks like, because it really seems like we are in the middle of a deserted desert.

The plane is boarding now so I've got to go.