The People

I can't speak for Martin here, but I was very impressed with all of the people that we met while on safari. Even though we were out seeing lions and elephants and giraffes, the biggest and nicest surprise to me was the people.

When we first booked the safari, I had been nervous that we would have to eat all our meals and spend all our days with strangers. Every single meal, with new and different people. What if they were obnoxious or annoying or people we just didn't get along with? What if there were a bunch of morose teenagers or children who didn't want to be there or who didn't appreciate the trip? Would Martin and I get to spend any time alone on the safari if we hated all the people in our camps?

My fears were completely unjustified. Everybody in the safari camps ended up having a lot in common - we were all there to see some wildlife, we all enjoyed being outdoors and in nature, and we all cared about the animals and the environment. And, we all spent a fortune to safari in Botswana! It turns out that Botswana purposely keeps the cost of travelling into and around the country astronomical in order to keep their lands and wildlife in as pristine and natural of a condition as possible. The fewer people that trample through the environment, the better condition it will stay in, obviously. And, the high price tag keeps out all of the what I would call annoying or not-as-serious tourists.

We ended up meeting people from Australia, Spain, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, California, Detroit, Hawaii, and England. New people come and go from the camp every single day - almost every meal has a different group of people at it. In Kanana, we started our activities with two men from Spain who spoke very little English but who were hilarious. They were always laughing and arguing and doing stupid things to try to get pictures of animals ... they were quite comical. They were replaced by a middle-aged couple from Australia who were in love with birds and baobab trees (Kanana is the place to go for birds). You get to know the people who share your guide and ride in the jeep with you each day quite well, however people in the other groups you only see at meals and when there are 16-20 people at the table you don't necessarily get to know anybody particularly well.

At Okuti, we had most of our game drives with a couple from the UK who were our age and also honeymooning, Archie and Hazel. They were both doctors, or training to be doctors. Archie was also trying to finish up a PhD while training to be a doctor. So we were able to have discussions with them about graduate school and the busy life of working on a PhD in the sciences, and the differences between the U.S. and the U.K. PhD programs. Once they left, they were replaced by Don and Karen from San Diego - an elderly couple who had decided to travel like crazy before they got too old. They had a great story too. Karen and her husband had always been friends with Don and his wife since they had been young. Karen's husband of 44 years had passed away a few years back and Don's wife passed away soon after and then Karen and Don started to get to know each other better and then they got married! Apparently Don proposed to Karen only 3 months after they started dating and Karen said it was too soon but Don told her they didn't have time to waste so she said yes. They were the sweetest couple, but boy they sure did talk a lot. They had like 6 children between the two of them, all with grandchildren, living all over the U.S. Hours and hours of stories out of Don and Karen.

At Savute, we were with the same people for most of our stay. A young couple from Germany who knew a decent amount of English, a couple with their two college-aged daughters from England, and an older couple from New Zealand. There were so many different backgrounds and cultures there, the conversation was always good. I was sad every time somebody left a camp (except the annoying picky-eater couple from Hawaii), but was also always excited to see who we'd get next. Our last night at Savute-Under-Canvas we were joined by a group of 4 people from Switzerland who had flown into Gaborone and driven to the camp. I couldn't imagine trying to drive around Botswana, seeing as there were almost no roads and the roads there were were dirt tracks if you were lucky. These people had apparently driven themselves on safari in Namibia and had loved it, and had thought Botswana would be similar but apparently the road conditions in Botswana are nowhere near as good as they are in Namibia (and I can't imagine Namibia has a spectacular road system either). But, when you drive across a country, you get to drive through villages and meet people that live there and see how they live. It sounded fascinating but I'm not sure I'd do it. It takes hours to get anywhere in Botswana because you can only go about 10mph on the bumpy roads.

And then there were all of the natives of Botswana who worked at the safari camps. Of course they were all very friendly because they were paid to be. But several of them shared bits of their personal lives with us. They work for three months straight at the safari camps, 7 days a week from 5am until all the guests go to bed at night, and then they get one month off. They must have been tired all of the time. But they always smiled at us and greeted us warmly and they waited on us hand and foot. Our first two guides had both grown up hunting with their fathers. They had learned each animal's unique tracks and the call of each bird. Both of these guides, Shakapira and Solomon, told us that they had girlfriends back in their villages but that they were scared to make a commitment to them. Solomon told us that he would have to buy his bride when they became engaged, and that it would cost him about $4,000 USD. I wonder to this day if the guides were just making up these stories to get bigger tips out of us Americans, or if they really were too scared to commit to their girlfriends. Maybe it would mean they couldn't have affairs with tourists anymore? Not sure. Solomon also told us that they are allowed to apply for a transfer each year to a different camp - and one of their options was to work at Disney World for a year. I can't imagine anybody could go from the bush in Botswana to DisneyWorld, where the safari kingdom is a bunch of animals in cages. But Solomon seemed to want to go out to clubs and live a fun and fancy free life for a year in Orlando. And what of his girlfriend back in Africa then? I gave up trying to understand relationships in Africa.