#I love the idea that as they get older and Zim stays on earth longer

[sketchnskribbles]

Monster Hunt wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Gaz decided to be a good little sister and is trying to cheer Dib up, as best she can. Zim is their for the possible necessary distraction if her talk doesn’t work out.

[lyricalafrica2]

18/09/2019 On the move again….

I’ve just relocated due to my visa expiring in Zim. With a little nudge from the nest I’d become accustomed to, I booked a bus to Francistown in Botswana and took a night bus to Maun. The preferred destination.

I’m pleased I did. There are only so many times you can wander around a shopping complex and as novel as it was, I didn’t come to Africa for that!

I booked an airbnb for the first night, well, by the time I got there, it was actually 5am. Deliriously tired, having not slept much the night before either. Bots was instantly hot, thankfully there was air-conditioning, but wide legged charlie and having my rucksack take up any legroom made it hard to get comfortable.

I slept for maybe an hour off and on. By the time I made it to the guest house, I managed another 3 or 4 in a proper bed. It was a tentative relevé. Every time I tried to get up, my legs went wobbly in a very numb way. I also had the usual, relocation flu.

I walked up to Maun town with the lady who was looking out for the house. The tap water wasn’t drinkable, but there was a company in town operating a business that sold refillable container and discounts on refilled, purified water. Adamant to keep to my word and drink more, I took note of the location and bought my five litre bottle today.

Maun is a sweet little place, a few good coffee shops, one in particular really does do the best iced coffee! It has various tourist safari companies, a Woolworths (M&S to you and I) and a few other chain stores, pep, spa, choppies etc. You can be fairly self sufficient with the contents of those, then numerous chinese stores that sell the usual paraphernalia that an absent minded tourist might want.

The house was ok, though the bathroom was more of a bucket wash in a bath scenario. The lady who was looking after the property for her friend was shamelessly un body conscious, answering the door wrapped in a towel and stroking her chest in a way that obviously wasn’t soothing an itch. Bizarre, you can’t help but notice these things 😣

The river out front had long but dried up, but I found as I walked around later in the evening zebra frequented the area, several timid warthog and a troop of baboons. I was also promised giraffe too, but they stayed hidden. It was odd walking across the riverbed, houses on one side and a few soccer goals, before the darkened patch of earth adorned with empty mollusc shells and then off into the bush. Some peoples regular work route took them along the edge.

To think, living in the uk and beside the top of the dene is kind of the only thing I can equate this to. You just can’t quite get the idea of a giraffe stalking through Jesmond Dene. Recalling Lampton Lion Park is probably as tropical as the North East got and even that didn’t last too long. I still recall someone telling me about people getting out of their car and setting up their picnic in the middle of the park… Those not in the know, it was around late 70’s!

The landscape was dry and fairly bereft, it’s a crisis that has swept through a lot of central Africa. The dry seasons are getting longer and the rain during rainy season, more sporadic. Another sad indication of climate change. There’s always a seed of hope with me, but I can’t deny the dismay when I walked across the land.

Despite the promise of the wildlife, I’d wanted to feel a little more rooted in nature. Not here the traffic on a busy road. Unless you’re right off into the bush, this can be hard. All the shops in walkable distance, a pleasant hum of activity that would serve me some days, but not now. I have some recovering to do after putting on the exhibition and after the travelling to get here. I wanted peace, quiet, dark skies. As soon as night fell on Botswana, it was hard to get away from that urban orange glow on the horizon. In contrast to Zim, who are almost constantly submerged in darkness due to lack of power, it was an almost dissapointing introduction. Still, I love Botswana no less, and possibly more due to it’s promise of wildlife and friendly people. The gateway to the Okavango Delta no less!

So after a night spent in the airbnb, I decided to suck it up and purchase a tent from one of the chinese shops. Actually, maybe I’ll rename it Hardy’s play den. It’s for all the world more like a childs play den and the quality, well, lets say I can see the sky through the stitching. I daren’t make any sudden moves for fear of tearing it. I share the den with my large res suitcase, the other resides permanently at reception.

I’m still kicking myself for the amount of luggage I brought out here, if only I’d known I was going to be so transient! I find it kind of stressful, a nuisance and a little expensive. I’m currently trying to pare down my excessive toiletries, without leaving myself with nothing.

I noted that my oil paints are rather heavy. I’ve already given away a lot of stuff. My easel, paints, toiletries, clothes etc. I’m in talks with a few charities in Kenya right now and I wish I could have given them some of the stuff. Still hindsight and all!

The site I’ve moved to is a quiet camp, that sisters the more lively backpackers across the absent river. I took a walk there last night and sat watching the last remaining hippos and rather large crocodile, do their thing in the boma that had been erected in an attempt to save them. A relocation is in order and it’s an expensive, complicated business and bearing in mind how territorial hippos can be!…. I hope it’s successful for the remaining few, they’ve already lost a few of the older hippos.

In other news, I took a trip back to town after a rather awesome morning yoga session. A few bits and pieces that I’d neglected to get before coming to the camp yesterday. I’m self catering and finally found somewhere selling hummus, so I figured I may as well stock up. I needed a new padlock, a new charge cable and an adaptor after finding no sockets to use my very british plugs in.

The “cyst” or abscess on my face, continues to dominate my appearance. I’ve tried to ignore and deny it, but it is making me feel rather self conscious. I’ve two options at the moment. Homeopathy or surgery. The doctor I’d have to go to see uses both western and holistic approaches which suits me. It would be nice to know I didn’t have to have a scalpel taken to my face! I really really shouldn’t have put myself through those youtube videos. It’s nowhere near as bad or even infected, but it’s a bit concerning.

At the moment, I’m trying to figure out what to do first. See the doctor, or disappear into the bush. I have this urge to feel really tiny, in a big wide open space. People have tried to put me in my place like that, it’s not quite the thing I was after. I want wilderness, I want nature to take over. Big open starry skies and vast planes, the noise of bellowing lions (not too close….) hyenas, the rustling of porcupines and the stillness of an antelope as it picks up the scent of these other mortals. I want peace, contentment, awe inspiring tinyness to find where my piece of jigsaw fits into the world.