Day 26

Sunday, October 12, 2008
Our last day in Kruger! A 5:30 a.m. road trip to see what we could see. It all turned out to be pretty quiet on the road and on the river. We did see a couple of striped mongoose and some kudu bulls with spectacular horns. Always an awesome sight. The rest of the day was spent shopping at the camp store, reading, resting and soaking in the magnificent calmness of the river valley over which the campsite is situated. A lone bull elephant munching away the afternoon, a lone male (an assumption, made on the basis that he is dark colored) giraffe traversing the valley from one side to the other with a pause to drink from the river, a half dozen storks standing in the river to hold their own kind of confab, herds of impala grazing and wandering, a flurry of guinea fowl hurrying to the water and then back again. Just another afternoon lived at a pace we might well learn to emulate.
This evening our last braii with Beth and Perry. Then packing, and to bed, anticipating another 5:30 start in the morning to get to Johannesburg in time for a bit of rest before getting to the airport for our 11:30 p.m. flight to Amsterdam and on to SeaTac.
It has been an outstanding month with a wide diversity of experiences, but it will be good to be home once more. This past week we have been totally out of touch with the rest of the world, and that has been a wonderful holiday. Ignorance is bliss, they say, and bliss it has been. We have no idea what is going on in either Zambia or the U.S. But in the back of our minds, we wonder how the forthcoming elections are shaping up (Zambia has a presidential election on October 30, just prior to ours), what is happening with the market, and always, we hold a concern in our hearts for our brother-in-law Henry’s declining health. We are aware, too, that we still have much to share about Zambia, our final reflections and impressions of our time there (not that they are ever final – this experience will continue to shape us and inform our thinking and feelings for a long time to come). Perhaps the long plane ride will be a good time to collect our thoughts and write.
Bruce and Paula