Girls Come and Visit Mokolodi

I was surprised how much enthusiasm for camping there was within my friends. I did no convincing and didn’t have to worry about any of the tents, food or drinks. I just needed to set up the accommodation and book the campsite. After talking to the boss’ boss we were able to camp for free.

In the two weeks before the girls came, it rained everyday. I wasn’t able to do much work which only gave me more time to think about wet firewood and grumpy visitors. To rest my imagination, I switched our booking over to the largest chalet at Mokolodi. Some decisions are easy to make. After some negotiation, we paid 665 pula ($100 CDN) for the entire weekend.

So all was set, I started mentioning the visiting group to some male friends here. Needless to say, the idea that 7 girls were coming to visit was a big hit around here. I was called ‘big boss’ for a few days before and after. This is something I’ve heard before. All rides thereafter were from these friends who really didn’t seem to mind.

There are mountains in Botswana with magic so that if you go up, you’ll never come down. On Saturday, Feb 7th, we hiked up Magic Mountain, the biggest in the park. To get to the base of the mountain, we walked the road which is used for game drives. For some reason, the girls would always want to stop and look at length at insects. (These same girls would later walk within 20 meters of elephants but wouldn’t notice. They were deep in conversation.) There was no path up or down the mountain; we followed the electric boundary fence for most of the hike. The view was beautiful but the highlight came during the descent. We noticed two giraffe far away and hiked until we came close to them. Seeing and following giraffe on foot is a liberating experience. You notice their looming height and the dangerous look of their legs.

The hallmark in my mind was on Saturday was driving to our chalet in the evening. We came across around 15 zebra, the most I’ve seen so far. We stopped and watched them slowly cross the road. They watched us wait. A multicolored, expansive sunset was in the background. All around was the savannah, lush and green from the rain. Even my friend Kenosi, a worker of 8 years at the park, remarked it was beautiful.