Travels with Olga: African Safari -- Last Morning at Camp Becomes a Menagerie

Something incredible happened on our last morning at the Santawani Okavango Delta Camp in Maunnia, Botswana: many of the animals appeared for us to see them one last time. It's as though they knew we were leaving and they were saying good-bye. It's easy to anthropomorphize animals, especially in the wild, but the uncanny synchronicity of the event was too much to NOT to believe that they were here for a reason. They hadn't done that before during the previous two mornings we were here.

From my tent's "front porch" I first saw the wildebeest enter the scene.

By the time I made it to the dining room, a giraffe presented itself at the the pond for a drink of water. (I had hoped to get a photo of drinking giraffes since I missed a pair a day or two before, and here he was!) Such splendor and balance with his long legs!

Then the zebras appeared. They and the wildebeest typically hang together because zebras can hear better. This is a protective measure against predatory lions, leopards, and cheetahs.

Soon afterward, the impalas took a stroll into the scene.

The quality of this extraordinary scene beyond its anthropomorphic significance was its absolute peacefulness. It reminded me of American folk painter and Quaker Edward Hicks (1780-1849) who painted "The Peaceable Kingdom".

Then it was time for us to leave the camp and head for our bush plane that would take us to Victoria Falls. As is customary, the staff sang good-bye to us. Listen to the women ululating and the men whistling. MC, our trip leader (far right) joined the singing group.

However, our animal sightings weren't over. The landing strip for our bush plane was only 10 minutes away, but our drivers took us the long way for a mini-game drive--and came upon these lions! We were, of course, titillated and whipped out our cameras for photos. Fortunately, the lions had recently eaten and our noise didn't distract or frighten them. They just posed as cute kitties with full bellies as though they were expecting us.

I love this photo that Susan took because it aptly captures the intensity of our sightings over the past 15 days.

photo by Susan C. Brown

Before our planes arrived, MC, our trip leader, led us in a dance of "Jerusalema", which he recorded. He even brought a speaker! Here we are trying to execute it.

In 2019, Master KG of Johannesburg, South Africa, was inspired to write the music that would become known as "Jerusalema". He called African singer Nomcebo at night to listen to it and then asked her to write lyrics. When she first heard the beat, it gave her goosebumps, she said, and by midnight she had come up with the lyrics. The words are in Zulu language and it soon caught on globally just as the pandemic began. People from all over the world began recording it with their own dancing and posting it on social media. Currently "Jerusalema" has over 186 million views on YouTube. It was a song and dance that united humanity when we needed it most.

The staff had collected our baggage from the camp and placed it neatly on the runway to await our two bush planes. Our "egg carton" duffel bags were ready for transfer. We were given these bags for our bush plane rides.

It took about an hour to fly from the camp to the airport. This particular region of the delta was all bush with no buildings or villages to be found. There was an eerie beauty to this vast expanse of land that has never seen development. We were seeing pristine land.