Full Moon Over Botswana

Ricardo and I were welcomed to the Okavango Delta on our first night in Botswana by a glowing yellow full moon. We watched her rise during our evening game drive, having sundowners on the shore of a lake of clear water, baboons grunting overhead and curiously eyeing our drinks. Every imaginable type of bird contributed its call to the approaching night, and we breathed in cool air perfumed with wild sage. We held hands and huddled under a blanket, watching in awe as the light from the moon illuminated the bush in one of the last truly remote places on earth.

The next morning we rose at dawn to have another game drive. Sitting close together in the Land Cruiser we watched the full moon, now a luminescent white, set in the west while the warm red glow of the sun taunted us in the east. It was colder in the bush than either of us were really prepared for, but the excitement we felt more than made up for our tingling noses and toes.

The sky turned first purple, then pink as we drove towards the small air strip near our lodge. We were driving to meet my uncle and his family, who had been delayed the night before after their Air Botswana flight from Cape Town to Maun had been unexpectedly cancelled.

On the way to the airstrip we passed a giant Baobab tree that our guide told us was over 1,200 years old. In Botswana they call this the "upside-down tree". According to the local San people, in the beginning the Creator gave each animal in the bush a seed to plant so that the earth would become full of plants and trees. The hyaena ended up last in the line of animals and, when handed the seed of a Baobab tree, decided to get revenge for his unfortunate ranking by planting the tree upside-down. It's not so hard to imagine that the visible branches of the Baobab are actually a complex root system and that hidden underneath the sandy soil of the bush one might find graceful limbs and lush green leaves. (Notice the full moon just to the side of the Baobab.)

The sunrise was beautiful and brought welcome warmth to the Delta. Around 7:30 the charter plane carrying my Unc, Aunt Michelle, and cousins Jeff and Lauren touched down on the gravel airstrip. I hadn't seen this part of my family in over 3 years, and it was a wonderful reunion made sweeter by the fact that Ricardo was there to meet everyone and join in on a wonderful vacation.

(to be continued...)