At this pace, we will be lucky to be at the hiking cabins in time to watch the sunset.
After many travels through this part of the country, I would never have believed that one could spend days exploring so much – on foot. One expects to see birds, or the usual antelope, even elephant or a black rhino, because you know they are there. But to get so close to hundred-year-old mopane or leadwood trees, gnarled and twisted by time and drought, walk down mountains, over a plateau sprinkled with thousands of crystals, through rocky valleys and stare down cliffs in awe, is truly wonderful. To notice a cloud of dust and then, when the dust settles, realise that elephants are dusting themselves. They come to drink from a natural spring. Probably following ancient paths to this oasis.
To enjoy all this in the same place, undisturbed by modern man, where hunter-gatherers survived hundreds of years before, is a truly humbling experience and undeserved privilege.
Except we don’t have to provide for our dinner with bow and arrow.
It is all there. Campfire burning. Ice-cold beer. Chairs arranged in a semi-circle to face the spectacular view of the sunset over a gorge. Sizzling food on the coals. Warm water in the bucket showers under the stars. Comfortable bedroll on a stretcher in the most brilliantly designed sky tent on stilts, hanging against a cliff – our suite for the night, without a roof to block the stars. And the scraping noise under the tent in the middle of the night? A leopard? A porcupine? A mouse? I did recognise the sound of the owl. And saw the morning star when the hushed noises from the camp kitchen confirmed that it was time to get up. Tea was ready.
1 Comment
i love these heaven .its like pageing through a book and no pages are the same .what a majestic place its is.