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SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP

11/14/92

FRIDAY, JUNE 26: Wake at 2, do some notebook pages, and get rid of list gradually. Breakfast at 3:15 (9:15 AM), lunch at 8:45 (late at 2:45 PM), and the last of the chocolate-banana cake at 2. Pack and pack and PACK, getting to 54 pounds! At 3:45 the Heights Car calls and says 4:10. I pack and pack, turn off air conditioner, turn on light (paranoid: I told Car Service I'm going to FRANCE from 167 Hicks, apartment 8!). But John'll be in and out, so I DON'T unplug computers, buffered by protectors. Agony. FORGET black shoes! So much for grand Paris dressing, unless I borrow Jean-Jacques' shoes. Car buzzes at 4:07, and I'm down at 4:08, and he goes Tillary to PARK, then down Vanderbilt to Atlantic, getting to Air France at 4:50! Great! Gal says I CAN check bag through to Johannesburg, so I put "top suit" into shoulder bag--GREAT! Get seat 34E, on aisle but only two people, she says. Hope to SLEEP! Checked in by 5:04, gate 34 opens at 6:10. Look at Grand Marnier for $36! Get Jean-Jacques a quart of GIN? South Africa allows one-liter liquor and two-liter WINE. One for Wolf and one for Laird? Look at International Buffet on Third Floor, but $16 for all I can eat doesn't appeal. Get a turkey and cheese croissant for $5.25 and a Heineken for $4.50! For $9.93, collecting SMALL US bills. Now 6 PM, midnight for me, and I sure feel ready to SLEEP! Locate pills and take Buspar #4: 2 AM, 8 AM, 2 PM, and 6 PM, upping ante. Mizzy from Heineken. To gate 34. Oh, it's seat 14E---near FRONT? Have 19A for Johannesburg? Window? To JAMMED gate, boarding 6:30, MOVE at 7:05 and on LINE at 7:20 when I take Rohypnol and OFF at 7:40, effortlessly. I try to doze and probably do: first we're taking off, then I open my eyes and they're eating dinner, then I open my eyes and they're through. WONDERFULLY comfortable seats in business class!

SATURDAY, JUNE 27: But at 5 I can sleep no more so look out windows, chat with men whose 300-passenger charter was CANCELED with no alternate plans! Drink lots of juice and feel pretty good as sun comes up at 6:30 and breakfast is honey-gruel and TWO rolls, one from neighbor, and at 7:50 we start down. Land wonderfully at 8:15, quite HAZY over 55ºF city. Onto bus at 8:20, to terminal 2 at 8:40 and HUGE crowd at Immigration. Wait! BUT people are hurrying around to RIGHT, and I go THAT way to find entry for EEC and SUISSE ONLY. Stand on line and the EEC guy waves me over! Stamps me and I'm OUT! Go way away to baggage claim, then back to get to Gate 5. Only to Etoile, told gate 3. To Gate 3 and there's an ORLY bus every 20 minutes, but Montparnasse is every HOUR at HALF hour and it's 9:05. Had changed $60 into francs for 286.50 @ 4.7750, where $58 @ 4.8 would have given 278F. So I lucked OUT for 10F. Bus comes at 9:25, 65F, NOT cheap, and taxi yet to come! Lots of people (and kids) on. Then to Terminal 2 and they fill up by 9:50---it's an HOUR to get to Montparnasse Station---so I miss Jean-Jacques at 11 AM? Leave at 9:55 and get to Montparnasse fast at 10:45. Phone Jean-Jacques 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 times, FINALLY getting him at 11, and he waits while I DIRECT a cab to his door at 11:15, shower and change while he stops to 12:05, and he suggests Giverney and we're to Garden Restaurant at 2:25, closed, and down to Montardier Cafe for crepes of dark wheat, mushroom and ham, cheese, and smoked salmon and creme fraiche for me. Out at 3:30 and LONG line for house, but it moves fast and photo gardens and sit till 6:10. Back by way of Defense Grande Arche and Exposition Hall and to Arab-Union Building at 8:15 for dinner as sun sets over Notre Dame. Great baba ganough, humus, tabouli, yogurt, and fun slim sausage/tomato pita/pizza. BUT at 9:30 we're STILL not served barbecue and he says it takes 1/2 hour to 45 minutes to get to Charles de Gaulle when I have to be there by 10:30 for 11:30 flight! Ask again and again for check, finally GO to pay it and it's 485F! $100! Jean-Jacques insists on paying and we dash down at 9:50! Out gate, not there; down near stairs, LOCKED door. Down FAR stairs to ANOTHER locked door, but then ANOTHER way and we're THERE, and "Caisse" refuses to accept his two 10F coins for the $20 bill. We leave it beeping. He ROARS to Charles de Gaulle by 10:35, a new record, sun JUST SETTING. First gate locked, second gate (15) pointed to Gate 24, but 15 IS open. Go in gate 16 and it's first class only! Have slip and dash to back to escalator and it says I need "passport" and "slip." Can't find passport. TEAR bags apart and it's on the bottom. Up LONG moving stairs at 10:35 and they ask for TICKET! I tear bag apart AGAIN (after tearing bags apart before remembering I put film in CAMERA bag from which I removed it while bag goes through x-rays. Up EXHAUSTED and tear bag apart to find pillbox BROKEN. Rattle through for all pills but pain and pulverized C, and into dop kit for a replacement. GOT seat 19A and  stand in line till 10:55 and seat is JUST behind door, AT window in FRONT of wing, and stop is in BRAZZAVILLE, DAYTIME in Africa in Gabon just south of equator! So I can sleep at start and not have to worry about a NEAR stop in NICE! Drop bag on seat and get glass of water at 11:25 and down 9 pills, all but Rohypnol, catching up (I hope) on meal with pain pill, AND take a Buspar to be sure, since I'm almost a-TREMBLE with the haste of the last frantic hour---and cars passing Jean-Jacques at 30 at LEAST when he's going 120 km or 72 mph! THEN get to john to piss and shit, GRATEFULLY, and back to buy and take out notebook, pen, and book, which I'd laboriously put to stay, and go two storage cabinets back to force stuff to one side and put my bag in, then back to my seat to hear hassle about missing tickets, illegal luggage (though NOTHING as terrifying as the LOST PISTOL found in the toilet seat in JFK!) and other hassles, and finish this as jets rev up at 11:32, already at least 20 minutes late, but with hour's time difference and a LANDING, the final flight CAN'T be much more than nine hours, STILL time to sleep before dawn and AFRICA below! Bouncy bumps and we back out at 11:34. Great! Off at 11:50, said to be 6:50 to Brazzaville, so that's my maximum sleeping time. Takeoff is quite smooth, not that many lights from suburban Paris below, and it's the start of ANOTHER day!

SUNDAY, JUNE 28: At 12:30 AM I ask for MORE water for my Rohypnol: I'd tried using my evident fatigue (by nodding off every 30-40 seconds in the car in two half-hour periods before lunch and before dinner with Jean-Jacques) but I felt nowhere near sleep. Peed again, told stewardess I didn't want earphones OR dinner, just wanted to sleep. Pillow at window, which she told me to pull down the shade of, and blanket over legs, which had the luxury of stretching out into the doorway area. Propagandistic-airlines films on the TV, as well as the fetching moment-by-moment screen of local time, time at destination, time flown, time yet to fly, altitude, tail wind, outside temperature, and air speed, alternating with large-scale and small-scale maps of just where the plane was, with boxed references to nearby geographical features like towns or rivers. I doze off probably about 12:40, and I don't sense ANY meal service, though I glance at my watch at 2 and at 3 AM. They finally shut off the glaring over-window lights, and the handsome male steward moved back and forth, as well as the VERY handsome young man with the black tee-shirt and the steady gaze in the seat behind me, and the hefty blond in the seat ahead of the aisle who would have been even more attractive had he not blown billows of cigarette smoke into the air almost constantly, which seemed to annoy the handsome stewart-trainee in the third seat on my row, next to the young woman reading a French magazine but speaking English to suggest Brazzaville, our stop, might be in Gabon, though on land-based vehicles later seemed to be labeled Congo. I looked out window on occasion at the waning moon, a fingernail with its heaviest part downward, and since this is the morning of the 28th and there might be a solar eclipse on the 30th, it must have only one thinner fingernail remaining, then increasing waxing until mid-safari full moon on July 14th, to go back to blackness on July 28, and back toward fullness by August 12, my departure. When I woke definitively at 6 AM, there are pink streaks in the sky above a cloud deck below toward which we seem to be descending for a 6:25 AM landing in Brazzaville. Look out at the lightening horizon, and then the cabin lights come on and welcome orange juice is served and we dip down and into the clouds about 6:10, strangely 5:10 local time, since I guess Brazzaville is east enough that it doesn't participate in the almost ubiquitous African standard time zone. But at the 6:20 landing, it must be 8:20 in Johannesburg, and with about an hour on the ground we have roughly a two-hour flight to Johannesburg over morning-lit southern Africa. Landing is quite smooth after sailing low over masses of light and dark on the ground, only a few fires that, for me, marked the previous African stopover in Khartoum, and the brightness of the lights suggested prosperous ranches, sometimes laid out in a square with harsh guard-lights outside and guttering native-family lights inside. Crowds start gathering for departure, including a squalling Japanese kid strapped by a yellow blanket to its tiny mother's back, and the grandmother seemed to have the job of patting, safeguarding, and cajoling the kid who wasn't about to be mollified. They finally crashed their way into the 30-seating 20-standing bus, but about 10-15 still milled around as it left to empty out and return to refill. The white-garbed black UTA attendants with green travel bags and green tires on their tummies were FINISHED as they entered from the symmetric entrance to the right of my side, and I glimpsed them later with more and more voluminous travel bags. With all the exits from Rows 60-70 on the level above on this 747-300 (less now than our highly-praised 747-400 yesterday with its rather discomforting RAISED wing tips---how strong was the metal at the upturning joint and WHAT would happen if it snapped off?), I went up the narrow steep stairs to see open galley, metallic panel in the rear, to a rather conventional, low-ceilinged, 2x2 seating for 11 rows in what looked like first class or business class luxury, many exiting and entering these areas. The STAFF was quite attractive, females AND males obviously charmed by our man steward who'd stopped himself in facing us as we took off for Paris and casually put his sexily large hands and thumbs proprietorially on the LWR (life W? raft) cover at the bottom of the exit door storing the emergency-exit chute. Women he kissed and handsome men he exchanged amorous winks with. Is THIS one of the charms of South Africa? Black attendants still scurried about redding up the plane's cabin at 7:28 as we prepared for departure, already over an hour, during which I wrote almost continuously. Guy in faded denim jacket to my right (while the entering girl still sleeps) takes the Herald Tribune and the Figaro, rubbing his scruffy salt and pepper beard. The LOUD squad of black maintenance people are now in khaki. Amused to glance out the window to see the 10-15 boarding passengers closing their carryon luggage, which was scanned for metal, as were their outstretched bodies with raised arms as they bemusedly endured the series of investigations. After their boarding, now at 7:33 AM, a Hydrocargo fuel truck in fire-engine red trundles from the rear of the plane and covey of 4-5 black suited, white shirted, black-tied, badged officials chat between a white, light-green-dark-green striped tiny truck and a four-door white Toyota. The black crew has now gone from white to khaki to working blue to blue-suited officialdom. A man smiling behind stewardess hands out "Serviettes," citron refreshed, and when I say I'd like an orange drink she answers we will be served them soon. The door on the right closed (debarkation had been only from the front first-class entry, leaving my door conveniently closed). So I'm up to date at 7:39, looking out at the quiet hill on the horizon, obscured slightly by haze, continuing village-like small scattered dwellings, and I break out my serviette and wipe my face, already washed when I got up to pee about 6 AM this morning. The sky is evenly overcast, foreboding a fairly boring view between Brazzaville and Johannesburg, but I hope the moist clouds viewed as we head south over Angola, Zambia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe on our way to Johannesburg, having ALREADY traversed France, maybe Sardinia, the Mediterranean, Tunis, the Sahara, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon to the Congo for Brazzaville. Announcement at 7:45 for fastening seatbelts for departure. They show the same, rather dramatic (oxygen masks falling directly downward into the camera's eye, groups of passengers looking startled when the array of masks fall from the ceiling, the kid being furnished with his mask before his father). At least the filmed stewardess actually gets her cheeks brushed with an INFLATED lifevest, as opposed to the flat-remaining ones on the listless demonstrating stewardesses, who utter not one word and seem to be studied by about no one. My emergency exit is at least convenient at my left foot. A stage-fearing couple on TV examine the plastic card in their seat pocket, which I don't possess, three copies of each (whoopie bag, atlas, plastic card) being squeezed into the pocket at my left knee. Added segment on packing, labeling, and safeguarding personal luggage. No change in the grayish light outside, but the TV is relieved by a sneaky gift from a blonde girl to a suited businessman. The scanning metal detector fiends only a metal tin of ginger bonbons, amusingly unique. I sit with my pillow and blanket on my lap, the blanket helping me feel more concealed from revealing the 3-4 inch SEAM tear in the seat of my suit pants, worsened when I shit last night---hope Wolf has the equipment so I can sew it before I use it for some fancy restaurants on the trip or in the Sandton Sun Hotel. It's now displayed as 6:54 at present position and 7:54 AM at destination, so Johannesburg is the same time as Paris! Maybe NYC and Paris are ahead (spring forward) of Africa (always on standard time?), so there IS no change between Paris and Johannesburg. Forget to note how far or how long the flight is. Paris-Brazzaville was something like 5800 (?) kilometers. At 7:57 the air-conditioning motor fades off, leaving an unaccustomed eerie silence in the plane, broken mainly by conversation among the attendants. After filling up with two Heinekens, lots of appetizers, and 90% of the thin breadsticks---tasting terrible, which with a surprising bone, and beef with a few lumps of fat, but still medium-rare, tender, juicy, and tasty---I'm now feeling quite HUNGRY, but since that was at 9:30 and it's now 8, it's rather like my usual eating hours in Brooklyn. Motor sounds rev up again and it seems, if anything, more foggy outside at 8 AM. Thoughts of a good-viewing flight over Africa---OOPS, I'd forgotten to get my AM pills, guess I'll do it pre-breakfast? Four clouds of white smoke arise from (cooking?) fires on the village slope before me. There's a bump, the lights flash, and I store pillow and blanket beneath my seat as the air-conditioner whooshes reappear to my ears. My Helprin book, wedged under the seat, stacked in the only space at my door-foot seat, still contains my passport, my stolen UTA menu, and my sunglasses, probably needed as I'm facing east and we'll be ABOVE the clouds. Start moving, maybe the ONLY plane at the airport, at 8:05 AM. Didn't even bother to get my CAMERA out: getting more and more choosy, though there's really NOTHING to see, but there are four other jets and a funny bulbous-headed PROP 747 lookalike, and a smattering of 4-6 passenger (charter?) planes. Recalled WEEDS growing in runway tarmac as we landed, and runway strips are quite weedy and unmown. Stewards strap themselves in at 8:04 as a red-orange sun peeps through scattered clouds down the runway. Stupid kid starts to squall as we line up for takeoff at 8:09 AM. Dirt streets, TENTS arrayed near airport, DIMMING clouds as we ascend. Sand bar matted rivers, intended flying time of 3:15, getting in at 11:25, NO time change, 2700 km Brazzaville-Johannesburg, estimated arrival 11:19, GOOD for Laird and Wolf! LOTS of clouds below. OOPS---gotta get VISA out of bag! NOW it says it's 8:20 at destination, and 2:53 to get there at 11:18! 390-400 minutes FIRST flight, 190-200 minutes SECOND flight, and ALL flights with TAIL winds. (Forgot to mention KNEELING for long periods of time at DOOR windows at sunup and coming to land in Paris on FIRST flight). Sun is quite high at 8:35, and sunglasses give lurid pink-purple striations to eastern sky that CLEAR vision sees as only light and darker areas. Clouds below more like HAZE, maybe to clear as sun burns it off? Almost CONSTANT line for johns, and clouds jostle plane a bit. Should I take a Buspar? Sound of a breakfast being served and my stomach applauds. Scrambled eggs (tough) and mushrooms, roll and butter and cherry jelly, cheese and two sweet rolls, three delicious cups of tea (I must be DRY), and nice fruit compote. Return tray, take down shoulderbag and put in book, take out camera bag and camera and film and jacket (probably cool in Johannesburg, she says) and notebook and put THAT under my feet. SOME ground visible at 9:30 from 11,800 meters, the glint of a tortuously sinuous stream, what looks like sandy river or lake borders, and patches of trails, woody sandy areas, and dark saline (?) pools or streams. NO chance for a photo, however. Everyone rapt in 10 minutes of CNN news, "everyone" also going to the john, so I go to BACK where three guys are sacked out three seats across in nice cul de sac. To shit a bit at 9:45 and back to see huge clearing: what may be acacia trees, sandbanks on "banks" of rivers, and shallow crater-like depressions that may be filled with muddy water. ALMOST good enough for a photo with telephoto? And my telephoto LENS cap has vanished?? And CAMERA batteries are going! NICELY caught up with writing and feeling GOOD and only two hours to Wolf and Laird! Spectacular smaller jet winging NORTH not TOO far below us at about 9:30 AM. At least a PLANE wreck in this village-less plain would be a snap to spot. HUGELY meandering and ox-bow river as plane starts bumping and lurching. Thermals? Real CRATERS below! 10:15, FIRST "fasten belts for turbulence." At least there's WATER in rivers south of Maun? (Photos 2-7) LOTS of thin, straight, dirt ROADS, some turning at right angles! Herds of elephants, or KRAALS, too small to make out even with telephoto lens. Lots of dry lakes, some with a TINY centered dark dot of liquid. It just occurred to me: I AM going on a WING SAFARI! SOME green, but mostly brown and yellow below at 10:40 AM. 10:55 start of farming plots---no kopjes yet. Hello, we SHOULD Be starting down at 11! Miner's huts with new GLITTERING tin roofs? GREEN lake-water. Start down 11:02. Land over industry and land-tailing sites at 11:19 AM. Here! Door opening 11:27, right at me! [ONLY Capetown-Johannesburg Blue Train is August 5 and I GOT it. BUS Johannesburg-Capetown OVERNIGHT 6 PM - 11 or 12 noon. RESERVED bus, too. Since I'm back on the 6th and here to 11th, try going on a LONGER tour FIRST, but Drakensburg is FULL this week and had to call back for August 5 - 11th. No, but I can take a bus and stay at their hotel, she says when we call back at 1:55. I let Springbok tour leave and Jimmy's Face to Face doesn't ARRIVE and that's the SAME office that was CLOSED. To bus terminal: no maps, get bus 85, and bus 13 GOES to Gold Reef City, but I walk and it's CLOSED Monday. Check map and Art Gallery is closed Monday, too, so only LIBRARY is left, with NO hours marked on map! To Africana Room 3:30-4:30, wars, costumes, some native chiefs but mostly British generals. To Gem Collection, Tsumeb Namaqualand mines furnished incredible specimens, but he starts putting lights out at 4:55 when they're to close at 5:30. I leave, footsore, and walk to Electric House and pay 16R for two adaptors, then to Carlton Center where there's a wet rag on the chair in the restaurant and the waiter refuses to change chairs, so I do. In retaliation (?) they have no quiche, so I get a Monte Cristo--ham and cheese sandwich dipped in egg and fried, and a choice of two beers that I don't know, so they select a Castle for me, leaving the chair BESIDE me where I put it. Today is some kind of memorial in Soweto, so even this WEEK it might be dangerous. Maybe FORCED to Sabi Sabi for three days and THEN to Drakensburg by bus? Stuff food down (did Wolf give more to me to TREAT me OR because he's on a diet and SHOULDN'T eat more?)(forgot AGAIN to call Jean-Jacques)(Laird called to moan about two co-workers SHOT in a DAY as they came out of a bar Friday night) and hassle trying to get on the Sabi Sabi trip at 7:30 AM, when Wolf would have to drive me in. Bed at 10 PM, TIRED, and wake at 3:15, 4:15, and then at 6:50 AM.

TUESDAY, JUNE 30: Think how to do it: Downtown tour today, Drakensburg Wednesday-Thursday-Friday by bus through Hesty, then to Sabi Sabi on FRIDAY after I get back, being left off at airport! Shower (warmest day yet!) and eat and Wolf gets neighbor in for billing, and out at 7:55 to Carlton at 8:30 and Jimmy's is OPEN, so I buy Soweto AND City tour. Soweto great, lots of photos and good guide, and handsome Richard from London and goony Oliver from Faroe Islands, later a family of four from Stuttgart touring by 200 mark/day (about $90) camper. Back to Carlton at 12 and up to SATRAV to find NO way to have gotten tour last night through Springbok; there HAVE been animals in Kruger but ALL three: Manyelete, Sabi Sabi, and Honey Guide and Londolozi are OUTSIDE in PRIVATE reserves where they would FEED the animals; AND I can call Hesty, who calls me BACK for "two nights" and KNOWING I want North Drakensburg for Tugela Falls. Catch up by 12:37 with this, feeling a bit bushed, also HUNGRY for lunch before tour of city 2-4:30, and then to PAGE Wolf to come get me. Then IF I get tour, cancel with Natalie. YES, it comes through: 225R/night and 50R transfer and 156R for Greyhound. Have to pay CASH at Computicket and I'm lacking 23R! Up three escalators to National Bank, up another level to Foreign Exchange, which will change 10R for exchange of $20! I blank, she says "Try STANDARD Bank, down two escalators!" Go and wait behind a multi-terminal series and get quote of 44R for $20, obviously 280/100, 56/20 from Wolf, obviously THEY charge 10R too! Ugh! But I HAVE reservations for next three days and it's "only" 1:27, HUNGRY! It's coming together, but it's ROUGH! Maybe Laird can pick me up at bus station on Friday? At least 10 AM departure means THOMAS can drive me, not Wolf. Pass form in at 1:29 and HE fills out the needed forms. And YES, it's 54.76, a charge of 10R! To 1:32. City tour stops in LOTS of interesting places: Blue Train Museum, Costumes, DeBeers, "Museum of Man and Animal"---but NOT the Panorama! Joel from Zambia and NYC is interesting, as is Chinese couple from LA. KLM crew STAYS at Carlton and gets shuttled around in a GORGEOUS white minivan. Patrick not so good as Opau, who JUST hands me his card and says to "call him when I get back." WHY? Houghton is great, and Rhodean is a school for "very rich people" where Laird's friends took their daughter. GREAT homes with "Armed Response" for Alarm Systems. Out for house-shots and Wilds shots and overlooks. ZOO is safe for individuals and is right down Prince of Wales Road from Sandton. Off at JUST 4:30 and phone the pager and decide to shop for monopod. Japanese "rifleshot" monopod is 300R, ridiculous, and I look at smaller and smaller items and get a light one for 120R they knock down to 115R because they have no box. Hurrah for Visa! Indian woman KNOWS beanbags but has none. Try a camera shop at CNO, but she's never HEARD of one. Around to toys, look and look, but nothing LIKE a beanbag until the very END when I see a flexible rubber SNAKE. I know I have only 5R left and change after a 13.10R Wimpyburger (AWFUL!, with bacon/limp ham and cheese), but the "grenadine" juice was good for 2.75. I give her my last 20R and then a 204 piece and she looks up in exasperation and asks "How much do you want back?" I repeat "I gave you 20.20 and the bill was 13.10, so I want 7.10." She gives it to me. The toy has what I THINK is a CODE 6-59, but it turns out to be 6.59R, which I'm quite sure I have and actually end up day with 2.27R, not enough for a juice! Out to Carlton front and finish this at 5:30, getting chilly. Sure hope I know how PAGER world! She DID repeat message back for me. Oliver says these streets are BUSIER than London's, but we say they're sure quiet compared to NY or LA. Smoker areas for me in Wimpy's and behind me on his ashtray BUTTS are sure annoying. I hope Seat C is in FACT a window on Greyhound and that smoking section row 11 isn't TOO bad. But it's "only" 6 hours each way. Read to page 3 of book and Wolf picks me up around 5:40 and he talks of traffic stopped for accidents, and begins talking about Martin, the 40-year-old dependent who went to live with abusive alcoholic psychiatrist manipulative father and psychotic mother. He leaves almost immediately and I phone Natalie, Laird, Cynthia, and FINALLY Jean-Jacques, and eat Belinda's spaghetti with fishy chicken (that turns out to be tuna!) and last of guava juice and diet Tab (and Wolf had a HEART attack from STRESS in February!) and then repack through 10 PM, when he comes in, and MOST restaurants are CLOSED Sunday night, so he finally reserves for 5 on July 10, Friday, when we're BACK, and for five at Ile de France on Sunday at 7 (or 7:30, which'll drive Delores WILD!). I pack finally and smelly socks make me decide to shower tomorrow TOO, so I'm back into bag for flashlight AND deodorant, and write this to 10:50 PM.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 1: At 7:20 I make a list of things to do: 1) Find tie and hang to unwrinkle---and I find I left it with Jean-Jacques! 2) Natalie, if you want to go with us, phone Laird at work---but she works Saturday. 3) Greta, how do I pay you for Blue Train---Wolf: if I pay by credit card, she has to have my PHYSICAL signature, but he'd prefer to pay her in South African rands and have me give American dollars to him so he can use them when he travels to the States. 4) Greta, is it a good inexpensive hotel including transfers? Yes. 5) Computicket, how do I pay for Greyhound ticket, and Wolf says I have to pay 248R cash for this. 6) Wolf gives me one of his cards for identification inside my bag in case it gets misplaced. 7) Wolf says that the Lipizzaners are fun, but he's seen them in Austria and prefers them there. The shower is somewhat COLDER today, and Wolf says I should leave around 8:45 to make sure traffic doesn't delay Thomas and me. Phone Natalie and Greta and have breakfast and pee and pack for the final time and leave at 8:35 contented that WOLF will pay Greta by CHECK for Greyhound, hotel, and train, and I'll return him American cash. No traffic at ALL. Thomas excoriating the "Afrikaans Government which is killing all the blacks. I direct him to the Rotunda at 9:05. My bag will fit on board and hostess can change my aisle seat to a window if she can. Music in the depot is surprisingly good, playing light classics that I love and some favorite tunes. Bus announces, she says, at 9:30, and there's a half-hour stop for lunch, too. But it's 9:33 now and NOT many people waiting for bus, but a military Afrikaans pair, one in uniform and one in nicely-filled jeans, and a wistful young man with a nice dangle in his loose white pants keeps catching my eye. Pick up MORE brochures---a WORLD of travel, particularly a bargain at a coming 99, ROUND TRIP London-Johannesburg coming later this year, "finally settling at about 1000R round trip," opines Wolf. Food kiosk offers "Russians, Vienna, Frankfurters and others." What, no Hamburgers? 9:37 for passengers to Durban. Girl A said bag would FIT on bus, but Girl B insists it must go beneath. SO glad I brought the LOCK! So only my LITTLE bag on board (should have put the MONEY in my HANDBAG!). Bus ARRIVES at 10, luggage on (only TWO to Ladysmith) and off at 10:10, getting switched to right window #7, but too close to smokers in back. Get to Heidelburg on time at 10:45, early at 11:50 into Standerton. Lots of burnt fields, blacks hitchhiking and riding on backs of trucks, a fair amount of slow traffic to pass, clear blue sky, winter: brown grass, and industry and smoke. Brahma bulls in fields and odd birds flying. Get cookies and juice. TV shows "Alibi" with Tom Selleck and Paulina Poriskova. Two translucent blinds block half the windows on sunny left side. WATER in streams and ponds and holes, so it's not THAT dry down HERE. Termite hills about a foot high in fields where black women sift corn stubble for leavings. Dead tires along road. Eucalyptus trees and cows and horse herds. Early into Volksrodt at 12:45. One man on. Newcastle at 1:40, after slight auto mishap at intersection, chrome strip banged off and fender-dust liberated. Almost WARM. Fort Mistake 2:20-2:55 isn't bad: pretty lake, and a fantastic NON-Wimpy burger and egg and ham and cheese and onion and tomato and a GREEN creme soda for 9.75R for which I leave 11. Hope I don't regret the ICE in the creme soda! $565 @ 280R/$100= 1582+128R=1710R [1210 Blue Train + 248 + 300 (?) (hotel) = 1758R, so I'm totally broke!]

THURSDAY, JULY 2: 1:30 AM: "Maybe It Started With a Dream," I was going to write, but as I peed, it became ANOTHER song in "Black Lady" [from "My Fair Lady" to "My Black Lady" (but too derivative) to "Black Lady," which includes "Dark Lady of the Sonnets" and "Queen of Spades" and "Woman of Death" as a triad of "Last-Third" songs, as MISWAD, "The Typing Song," and another are a triad of "First-Third" songs, as Barbara Johnson (?)(the black woman on the Warren Commission---or the Nixon impeachment?), Marya Mannes or Maya Angelou as a writer, and Diana Ross as an entertainer ALL hit Mary as PROVING that she MUST speak well in order to make her way better in the world. And now at 1:45 AM I'd paused as the plot-ideas rushed to me: she starts (an adorable black 5-year-old) by singing "I Never Knew There Was a Christmas," as she finds out (at the age most children find there is no Santa Claus) that she never had the treats of Christmas as she was growing up in Soweto, which DID start in 1904, and she started in the 1930s. And it could include "I've Just Seen <My Fair Lady=" as she sees a black performance in Johannesburg in high school, as she meets the black boy who will later return as Prince Charming, but not until after she's become a guide for the musical equivalent of "Jimmy's Face to Face" and falls in love with a white tourist who tempts her to "Marry Into Money" rather than "Making My Own Way." So she goes back to school to learn typing, which finally enables me to write the finale of my dream: a young lady learning the typewriter keyboard, making up songs as her fingers fly through the triplets of "The Trying Typing Lesson" as she complains about how EASY TRY is to type compared with the long right "Little-Finger Reach" (and there's ANOTHER song, coming in late as SHE becomes "The Little Finger" who provides the key in a Soweto Conference to bring peace between Afrikaans and Blacks in South Africa in some magical future when she's an old lady, having lived through her black Prince Charming husband who dies of AIDS, leaving her to raise all the grandchildren when HER children die of AIDS, leading to ANOTHER kind of "Why Do ANY of Us Deserve This?" plaintive song as she goes through the prejudice against gays, drug-users, prostitutes, and finally basically GOOD Women of Color all die of AIDS due to lack of governmental education because of high-placed manipulation and politics. Ah, "Politics," as a pattern song of "He paid me to pay him to pay her to screw him to vote for that to get the money from there to elect THEM to rule THEM to exploit ME who got the money to start the whole thing off in the FIRST place (a la "La Ronde" and Bernstein's "What's the Use" in Candide). Still didn't QUITE transcribe the lilting triplets in the letter of the typing song: "The" being automatic, SOW-ETO being rather unbalanced or mismatched compared to the gracious circle of WORLDS, as larger SPHERES of being (WORLDS isn't circular, but I'm sure I could find words that would): children, feminine, success, world peace, AIDS, motherhood, patriarchy, potato, musical, writing (she BECOMES a writer and uses her typing AND her voice to change the world through words as I hope the PLAY might do---"The Power of the Word," she muses, as she drops the S from Sword to find that SHE has powerS that are stronger than the power of the man, as she is WOman. A musical for the stage-yearning-for musicals: a positive black female singer to counter the black self-hatred of "Jelly's Last Jam," and of course a BETTER black play than the touted "Fences" (or whatever James Earl Jones was so acclaimed in that was such a BORING play), or "The Changing Game" (or whatever the play was that catapulted Lewis Gordon, or whoever he was, in that play that opened the Walter Kerr Theater and got such GREAT reviews that Dennis and I HATED because WE could write a better play. And now it's 2:07 AM, I'm muzzy from dinner's wine and coming down from elation of "going to Tugela" and finding Karos Mont aux Sources FAR from falls which are ANYWAY FROZEN SOLID and DRY from May to October! So I have to come BACK! The "Typing Song" ALSO urges everyone to learn to TYPE as a needed way to operate in the world, as EVERYONE needs it, even her boyfriend faced with his computer and the "non-macho" quality of tapping with one's fingers---maybe her BROTHER gets caught up in CRIME and she tries to save him and mourns over his bullet-riddled body, "If You'd Only Learned to Talk With Your Fingers Rather than Pull the Trigger and Kill and Be Killed," which I suspect somehow would not QUITE work as the TITLE of the song. But how INSPIRING all these songs COULD be---a Black Lady to rival Miss Saigon! To 2:11 AM, can I sleep now? 2:45, a curving MELODY hits me: FIRST, when you START and you THINK of the REST of it, THEN when you GO and you KNOW it's the BEST in you, THEN you can GET on the BOAT with the REST of them, AND you can SING this fine SONG. Chorus: TYPE and you SHOW all of THEM how you KNOW you can, THEN we will GO get the JOB that we REAL-ly need, SO we can EARN what we NEED for our LIFE on earth, AND we can SING this grand SONG! By 3:45 AM I've cum---on tape---AGAIN! 3:55 take two aspirins and two vitamin C tablets for incipient hangover. Dinner last night of good cold salad with mushrooms, ANGELFISH soup, roast beef with potato, marrow (okra) and "yellow petit pans" little squash and two wines and steamed pudding and sauce and tiny bits of four cheeses. Breakfast I just had cold ham and sausage, cheese, an apple turnover, awful chocolated Rice Krispies, and pineapple, melon, cantaloupe, and a small VERY red grapefruit. Changed rate from 195 for Bed and breakfast to 225 for DINNER and bed and breakfast, since dinner is MARKED at 36R, though she SAID last night was 32R, and lunch is a steep 28R, ALWAYS chosen. Trail by open truck, winding, at 9:30. Quick walk past "Real Yellowwood" and Pepper tree and Kilimanjaro-like Protea. Deep-digging "rat moles" leave PILES from deep under, while Creeping Moles leave the tunnels from their SHALLOW diggings. Nana-berry trees. Tugela River VERY dry. Policeman's Hat and Dooley stand out. ROEBUCK on hill VERY hard to spot, gray FADING edges, but then it was gone when I tried telephoto lens. Couple from Capetown have a spare 3R week's entry and will buy my Natal map and booklet FOR me. Back to RNP Hotel at 1, but NO truck! Oh, herd of seven baboons down a slope I managed to get two shots of. Video won't SPACE ahead, so I PLAY ahead from last cum at 12:25 to 25 minutes to leave room for MORE, and take various panoramas to 29:07, TRYING to hold it steady. At 1:20 PM guide Alphonse says "It's coming," from distance. But it's a DIFFERENT truck. My foot STARTED OK, but trench for new water pipe (the pump for which polluted the sounds for kilometers around) made walking a pain. Two different trucks take us back to the gate, where the pair pays 5.20R for the good map and the guide (which the Hotel cribbed from), as I take a good shot of the Park Headquarters which he finds closed, so he can't use telephone, but at 1:35 (not that late, actually), laden with tea and other purchases, the truck arrives and drives us back. The clouds have SOMEWHAT cleared, and it looks like there might be snow on Intaba Endanyazana, the peak beyond the unnamed central mesa. By sunset at 5 PM there's only the slightest wisp of cloud obscuring the very top of the ten highest peaks. Imagine that most of Losotho (pronounced LeSUthu by the guy who had something to do with its independence in 1968). A royal party ruled until it wanted to hold an election, heard they would lose, and canceled the election, but a recent election "was democratic." Americans operate three diamond mines, the women weave materials found in many South American cities, but otherwise it's farming and herding and not much else. Now at 6 PM a VERY polite 9-year-old asks "Please, which is the clean water for tea?" and the black seems intimidated. Fire's going strong and the rum and tea of last night is repeated at 6 PM, boiling hot and stronger than the bottom of the pot last night. When I asked for a sandwich at 1:45 for lunch, the waiter imperiously pointed me to the lounge, not to sully his Gigaba Restaurant with a non-buffet person. LOTS of choice, including heavy desserts. I order a Boerewor Roll and the waiter says "It's meat" and comes out a long burnt sausage, actually good, and french fries for 9R, and a quite good banana milkshake. Take some milo to my room when the lounge fills up with businesspeople having a conference with notebooks for some kind of exercises. The lounge suddenly fills with conference men getting their keys, so they're staying. I move to the table near the fire, hoping the two from Capetown would like to share it with me. AGAIN the Roman Carnival Overture, or whatever, is cut off in mid-classicism to be replaced by a Richard Clayderman-type piano rhapsody. the dining tables are set into long rows, obviously for the conference, and I'm filling antsy with the kid who WON'T stop sniffing---who's going on the HIKE tomorrow, too! Delores will seem a RELIEF. Clearly, for on the trail, here in the lounge, or the bar, of waiting for Wolf to pick me up at the Carlton---a pocket notebook has it ALL OVER even the smallest laptop. Number the 108 pages left in this book, and I'm HALFWAY THERE already, not even a WEEK gone! To much time to myself! TWICE the "suggested" four pages per day typing into one full page." Bar jammed with chatterers and people have gone in to eat by 6:25, people not here yet. Carnaby starts to set up, the sad guitarist-singer of last night. Babes in arms on the TRAIL this morning, and now going into the buffet. YUGH! In retrospect, LOTS of booze yesterday: two beers, three rums and teas, and 500 ml of wine! Overheard from the bar: "No, it's a spittoon---don't forget to chew the lumps."

FRIDAY, JULY 3: 5:40 AM: ODD DREAM: 1) I'm at Mom's and she has lots of canned goods (tiny tins of fruit cocktail and larger cans of green beans and corn) and lots of jams and bottles of herbs and spices, but no FOOD. She'd just opened a can of tuna for HER dinner and I wanted SOMETHING, so I said I'd go out and BUY it---she had huge jar of mayonnaise so I just needed three tins of tuna, a half-pound of gooseliver for my sandwich, bread, and some kind of juice. I go out into an old residential area like Red Hook, that I haven't been in for years "since I moved away from home," and across the street to find an odd restaurant in the vestibule of a church, but they sell no canned goods, but I continue INTO the ruined church which they're changed into an "opera restaurant" with Carmen and some Italian high sopranos singing on a GLORIOUS old record and LOTS of people sitting on either side of the old aisle in HUGE family-sized booths. There's a boy playing with an old cupola top with words commemorating how "each complex fell apart until the dome collapsed in 1480," and it was rebuilt into the "ruined restaurant" I'm passing through. Get to Emery Street and it's along an old industrial waterfront, but I COULD have gone swimming there when I was a kid, but I never KNEW about it! To an elevated intersection and there's WATER cascading down it toward the low-tide beaches I'd seen before, exposing old piers and the gnarled root-systems of trees, and I reason "Since the tide's going out, this water is all rushing DOWNHILL to the sea." It's dark, but I manage to make it to a little bakery that sells canned goods, and I wait behind 3-4 customers at a take-out counter, and look around to see an ornate chocolate construction filled with walnuts that gleam white in the middle of the chocolate layers which have been cross-sectioned when someone bought HALF of it. "If half of what's left is under $5, I'll buy it," I think. AND there are LOVELY cherry pies, obviously a specialty of the bakery. Turn back to the clerks behind the counter and one is a teenager with love handles until he straightens up and sucks in his gut and he has a nice chest and torso, shirtless above blue jeans a full two inches below his navel. Then the neighborhood kids decoy him from behind the counter and parade him on their shoulders where he flexes and poses like a boxing champion, his nipples erect in excitement against the sky, his left one with some decorative earring piercing it. Finally a clerk asks what I want and I ask for three tins of tuna and a half-pound of gooseliver and has he a cherry pie? "Do I have a cherry pie---do WE have cherry PIES?" And suddenly I'm in a cab going home and realize I haven't brought the groceries! I'd looked in my wallet to see lots of ones, but then there's a $20 bill in the middle, so I can afford groceries AND a cab. Ask the driver "Do you know Ernie's?" and he says yes and I say "You have to go back so I can pick up the groceries I ordered." I look at my watch in despair, fearing it might be as late as 8 PM, but, on the watch that I've brought on this trip, given by Mom, that stops after four hours, it's only 6 PM and I ask the driver what time it is." He panics, takes out a book, and loses control of the cab. "What's WRONG with you; I just asked for the TIME, is there a PROBLEM with that?" And I wake. 2) 7:15: I'm shopping with Elizabeth Barber and she vanishes, leaving her beaded jacket, handbag, and KEYS behind. I take them to her, but stop someplace else and she's there, but then I'm in the street with only a bundle of MY clothes held in front of my crotch and behind to cover my ass, and I rationalize by thinking, "I'm not showing very much more than I'd show in a BATHING suit," and I know Elizabeth will react with only a howl of laughter. For arthritis: celery, parsley, and FEVERFEW leaf each day, bonite, lemon-balm or melissa sprig in TEA, and borage, and dandelion leaves, kelp, and POPCORN! 2:45 PM: nothing like being stoned on two 375 cl of beer! Left Karos Mont aux Sources at 12:30, I THOUGHT in enough time, but even though the wife of the Assistant Manager risked a FLAT by going by the old unpaved road, saving 10 minutes, we STILL go into Ladysmith AT 1:20, and couldn't find the Greyhound stop, and by the time I got out the ticket to see that it was MURCHISON Street, and we GET there, it was 1:30 and the bus had GONE. She raced across the street to the COMT building and HE told her to pursue the bus on the Newcastle Road to Fort Mistake! She got back in and off we went, finally spotting the white backside, passing it with my TICKET flying outside the window and we CAUGHT it at 1:45, Greyhound driver signalling her to pull to left. "I'm for Ladysmith boarding," I said and the driver calmly acknowledged, "I know." Stop at Fort Mistake at 2 (saving her SOME driving) and board at 2:45, after I have LOVELY toasted ham and cheese and TWO beers, for a total of 8.80R for which I give 10, then took the rest of the second beer outside to bask in the sun, watch the three schoolgirls react to their lunches, cruise the doll behind me with the uniform, and another guy asks if he can sit under the grass-umbrellaed kiosk and I say sure, finishing beer and floating into peace. Blind girl jumped when bus door hissed open. We have a black female to white male attendant. And pull out at 2:55 PM. Bus landed at 7:10 PM and I got into Laird's car at 7:18, when he apologizes for being late. Laird makes FABULOUS dinner of steak, Boer sausage, roast mushrooms and garlic, and carrot cake. Oh, and a GREAT Chardonnay and a nice red, two bottles for the two of us. His place is airy and cool, but I sleep fine at 11:15, up about 3 AM.

SATURDAY, JULY 4: Up at 6:50 and shower in his bath, no TV connections for my videotape-viewing apparent. Wash laundry and hang it just before we leave, after breakfast of cereal and juice. My mini-brush broke yesterday so I have one less step today. Out at 9:15 after clearing with Natalie directions to her place for dinner at 8. Read DeKlerk's speech Friday, accusing the ANC of ACTIVELY sabotaging negotiations. At last! To bank for Laird to withdraw 1500R for me, they charge 13.10R for phone to his branch in Rustenberg, and I'll send a dollar check to his Philadelphia account. It helps him get rid of Rands! We're back to take down the clothes and he endlessly explains how we'll get where we're going. North at 11 to Lion Park, and at 22R it's rather a bargain. I buy a brochure for 7R and try to distinguish between Gemsbok, Springbok and Otherbuck! Ostriches, wildebeests, birds, and then LOTS of lions in three of four camps we had time to see, getting out at 12:15 to get to DeWildt at 1:15. He goes long way around via the Hartebeestpoort Dam at Schoemensville and Hartebeestpoort, BUT it turns out that the Cheetah Breeding ground is 8-9 km THIS side of the TOWN of DeWildt AND our appointment was for 1:30! Laird buys us two chocolate bars for 3R and I devour mine for lunch. Ta'n Malie (Aunt Mally) opened in 1921, gave AWFUL chicken pie at 5 PM AFTER we finish LONG tour and I jab my finger with the porcupine quill while searching for a film that's not there. STILL I've done SIX rolls of film Sunday to Saturday in six days, so 42 rolls won't last 48 days! (Peter, Lynn, and Alison were the trio I met at Laird's.) Cheetahs produced a few spontaneous King recessives but this place BREEDS them from an accidental pair in 1975. Meerkats, vultures, kudus, springboks, spotted, black and brown hyenas, wild dogs. THEN, FABULOUS evening at Natalie Gordon's---smoked trout, marinated herring and onions, boiled potatoes with butter, cream, and cream cheese, and fruit salad with chocolate ice cream. She gives me ten years of Johannesburg Arts and turns us on to the New Budapest String Quartet in the Pretoria State Theatre at 3:30 tomorrow! Home at 10:45, head aswim, to bed.

SUNDAY, JULY 5: Wake at 3:45, again at 5 and pretty much stay awake, shitting at 6, up at 7:05 to sort paper things out, and am IN shower at 8:02 when Laird enters and says "A woman says she MUST talk to you!" "MUST be Delores---from Champaign or Chicago or NYC or London?" NO, from Sandton Sun, we're leaving THIS morning! Aghast, I throw clothes on, command Laird to dress and take me to Wolf's, all thoughts of bacon and egg breakfast LOST. To car LITERALLY at 8:10 and Laird REMEMBERS way to Wolf's, getting there at 8:17. Wolf reminds me of medicine tablets, leaves out my cough medicine, and I put shoulderbag overflow into duffel bag and pile stuff into Wolf's car for Sandton Sun. He and Laird check Friday dinner, and then Wolf can't find CAR keys! Then we're out by 8:22, quickly to Sandton Sun, and dash into lobby at 8:30, Delores rushes to hug me, THEN sends up for THEIR luggage: she didn't think I'd be SO quick. Phoned "my room" last night and this morning, woke their house sitter to get Wolf's number, and Wolf gave her Laird's number. Out to car with Helen at 8:50 and to Lanciate Airport by 9:15, now "only 15 minutes late," and the plane hasn't even LANDED by 8:45. Introduced to pilot and co-rider, and I get (untoasted) ham and cheese and a creme soda for "breakfast" for 5.35R. Onto plane on left and we're 7th in line and off at 9:37, at 7500 feet, for "70 minute" flight to Kruger. Photo VERY distant city, airport, Leydenburg, hills, tree-farms, and landing strip below at 10:53, 75 minutes. Blond Bruce picks us up in truck, Michael in front with Scott (a dog)(of Antarctica?) and we see only impala. To Honeyguide, get a beer, get "Giraffe" while they're next door in "Stork," and unpack ONE bag and Delores is over to say they're going to the Hide. Nothing at waterhole. I say I need lunch BEFORE 2, and they say they'll put out sandwiches for me. There's cheese and tomato and onion, last TWO of which Delores can't have, so I have three sandwiches and another beer and chat up girl and guy guides, and back to get binoculars for impalas around waterhole. I'm down close with binoculars and camera to two HUGE kudus, enormous V-horned waterbuck, a herd of 14 female impalas that KEEP coming back (or ALL herds are 14) and three warthogs, two smaller kudus, a bushbuck, one LARGE antelope with GREAT white eyemark and lots of red-beaked tick-eaters on antelopes. Michael come in, his huge lens-view ABOUT like my video WITH enlarger, and then a LOUD couple (HE breathes loud and attracts bees with his soda, SHE starts coughing (all heads go up) and at least LEAVES---then he does too). Six zebras, lots of birds, some impalas leap, a small white marked antelope and lots with the vertical XXX stripes. GREAT views, too far for good photos but OK for video. At 1:35 I think of lunch. A grey Loury goes "Myaah." Have Amarida (creamed fermented fruit of tree also used for jams) and start a bottle of Reisling with the impala pot pie, beetroot, a salad with dressing, a cucumber melange, and cheese with bread and butter for dessert. Unpacked rest of stuff and rearranged everything before finding my hat. We eat lunch 2:25-2:50, announced by sounds of drums) and Blond Ben gets to be our driver "between 3 and 4, when truck gets back from hauling wood and other supplies." I zip tent shut, take along two sweaters for much-warned-about night cold, and pack all cameras and extra film of both kinds and scarf and gloves and hat into shoulder bag. Plane could have squeezed five in, but I'm sure our luggage for three was at LEAST the weight of one more person. Sadly, Michael left his BAG in the NOSE of the plane, back to pick us up in two days. They can RADIO them, but I must give my recharger to Bruce to take "home" with him at night to recharge, since our camp is SOLAR and they didn't want an electrical cable in or the noise of a generator, but the gas-fired freezer seems to make a rumble! Gunther from Austria and a young couple flying KLM to Frankfurt on Saturday join our table, with a studious older fellow and Ben. I catch up with this at 3:45. Drive in DARK from 6:10-7:45! Dinner 8:30-9, fire watch till 10.

MONDAY, JULY 6: Wake at 5 and pee and drums go at 6:35. Tea and rolls and cheese to 7:05 and truck takes off at 7:12. To 9:30, HUNTING but not FINDING rhinos. LOTS of giraffes, hornbills, wildebeest, impala, kudu, but no "major" animals. Breakfast (lamb chops, yogurt, cereal, toast and three jams, two eggs, chicken, liver and onions, butternut squash fritters) to 10:30, brush teeth, take OFF long john pants and change to shoes, and at 11:05 off to the hide, but hear about two rhinos (about 15 and 4 years old) and leave truck at 11:40 and walk till 12:10 to take QUICK shots of them. Then to hide at 12:20-1:40, lots of warthogs, a bushbuck (FORGOT the shot of the STEENBOCK last night), two huge kudu males and 4-5 females, and "look out for branches." Back at 2:10 and lunch drums go at 2:25, but for drinks FIRST, and then lunch of creamed potatoes, rice and avocado and green salad (no dressing because there's no vinegar) and people talk of camp's usage and water drought. To room at 3:10 to kit up for NIGHT ride. Leave 3:45 and back 7:35, less than before, but one OLD male giraffe was VERY close. Veal cutlet dinner at 8:30,over by 9:15, easy talk: Michael takes timed photos around fire; Delores wonders what time it is and I say "Ten," and she looks at her watch and says "You're GOOD!" Laugh about my getting the HOUR but missing the DAY. I'd lowered blinds BEFORE and get to tent at 10:15 to catch up with this. BRUCE watched me to bed LAST night and BEN tonight, as I was last BOTH times, but TONIGHT there are all KINDS of odd sounds: barks, flutters, growls, and woofs, from the river bed---and LOTS of scratching about. Flashlight shows nothing. Tomorrow to Londolozi.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7: 6 AM: LOTS of ANGRY noise, SOME very like human SHOUTS. Dream 1: I'm back at IBM looking over archives; my first letter is about the need for a certain project in 1974, the first work is 1978, and other progress reports. I sort through, arranging four different stacks of projects into date order. Dream 2: I've gotten a group of navy kids on a tour of Bloomingdales, and we enter at the 6th floor and I'm explaining how the atrium is surrounded by the shopping levels, and there's a central escalator that I think starts at 3, someone else thinks starts at 4, most think starts at 5, and ONE (like our hostess from Honeyguide) is triumphant in saying, "I said it ACTUALLY starts at 6 and it DOES!" As for noise, FIRST it sounded like JAWS pulling up GRASS and the fluttering WINGS or ALMOST the jawbreaker crunch of giraffe chewing. Then swishing hooves through grass, and slight knocks on the tent, like nuts from trees falling onto my roof. Then a very HUMAN-sounding "GA!" sharp and sudden, and I NOW paranoidly feel it might be NATIVES trying to scare all the TOURISTS away. In the middle of the night there's the loud voice of Delores saying, "Don't go out without (something?), Michael," the first and last words, only, distinct. Lots of low movement in river as I ENTERED my tent, but scene with flashlight showed nothing. At 6:11 check that drums went at 6:35 yesterday morning, and the "GA!" now has an ANIMAL guttural ending. Shit a copious shit to 6:25 (unlike the worrisome little bit yesterday) while listening to distinctively BABOON-like barks, and the widely-shifting close/distant "GA" that at least makes it impossible to be ONE throat. She said the white settling out in the water is CALCIUM, not the milk-drops I thought may have been left at the bottom of the thermos yesterday. AND I'll remember to DIP rusks in tea to SEE if they hold together and remain crunchy. Up to date at 6:28 (couplet!) average pages/day down to 7 1/2. Dream at 6:29. Even with a headstart it takes till 6:39 to put ALL clothes on! Off at 7:07. Elephants! Back at 9:40 AM and Delores makes noises of MISSING breakfast if the flight might be EARLY, so I dash back to pack everything into TWO bags, one for the plane, and dash for GREAT breakfast to 10:10, when PILOT arrives for breakfast. Use my AARP Visa for the 68R bar bill at 10:45. Leave at 11 and onto plane at 11:15, having FOUND Michael's black bag INVISIBLE in the back of the nose compartment (with their RETURN flight tickets!). Overjoyed! Flight 11:19-11:27, over HUGE Londolozi. Graham taller and leaner fellow, Kim is the hostess; Dorothy and Michael are in 3, to RIGHT of office, I'm in 2, to left of office, and the place is LUSH, LUSH, LUSH! Into reception at 11:50 and to room at 12. Shower, shove stuff into closet, and lunch at 1 with gin and tonic. Laze around pool with a seven-inch lizard, a vervet monkey around the next house, and I change to long johns for the cold evening and go to tea at 3:20. Cake and iced tea and talk with Jan and Dahlia(?) from Australia and meet Sandross, our black driver. Recall that DEBBIE was the blond hostess at Honeyguide. Delores and Michael late to tea, leave at 3:55 for car, and to the hippo pool for a HUGE old elephant, then cheetah for one HOUR, CRASHING through brush, and a pangolin, and LIONS (one blind) and HIPPOS BATTLING! Extraordinary! Back at 8:10 PM, BOTH video batteries DRAINED! To dinner at 8:30, told that ONE of my outlets was no good, to switch to the other. Pork and prunes and port fabulous, beef and Bearnaise good, fried Camembert to start, good hazelnut chocolate mousse for dessert, and Michael tastes for wine. Finish at 9:55 and STAGGER to room to bed: to be up at 5:30 AM.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 8: 1:20 AM: Upchuck a bit and Dream: "Mr. Valentino" (was GROWN word from "Valentine" changed his reservation-end from 2/19 to 2/14. Valentine's Day! 3:40 AM, wake to pee, take two aspirin, Vicks nose and Chapstick lips. SOMETHING buzzes at 4:35 AM? Knock at 5:35. Dress and pee TWICE and to DARK dining room at 6. George and Ann SMOKING CONSTANTLY. Girls come in and I'm down to tell Delores and Michael they have BLANKETS out for our use in the truck. Others leave, Sandross says he LIVES 25 km from his home but STAYS two months in camp. Out at 6:35 and sun rises at 6:45. They find leopard marks ("from last night," can tell time in HOURS but not "5 minutes versus 2 hours ago"). Then go round a block and trackers find NO marks leading OUT so it must be still IN. They LEAVE (two trackers and two drivers with guns) at 7:30 to search for leopards. I look through bird book and take notes to 7:45. Gotta pee. At 7:55 the trackers return to drive trucks back to Sandross---leopard went across Sand River to Mala Mala, out of bounds. We get ostriches, steenbock, elephant VERY close and then back at 10 AM for breakfast, a DELICIOUS ham and cheese omelette with bacon on side. Then we're told about 11 AM "regular camp" walk to hippos, great. Back at 12:45, tired, and to lunch at 1, only pea soup and fruit. Then ELEPHANTS invade the lower trees below the balconies, and I'm photographing there till 2:30. Back to lay, exhausted, trim left big toenail that's looking INGROWN, and put cotton between toes. To tea at 3:35, taking only iced tea, NO cookies, and to car at 3:50 for elephants again, a warthog EXPLOSION from dust at my left elbow, four rhinos up VERY close at sunset, ANOTHER eating elephant, suckling wildebeest, and back at 8:05 to laundry in wicker box and notes to 8:16, DRUMS again announcing dinner. Nice talk with Jeff and Susan from Philadelphia (about Borobudur, Bali, Yap, and Ponape) and impala filet. Drink MY half-bottle of red and half MY treat of Michael's bottle, finishing early by 9:50, but we watch a Varty videotape of "Super Predators" that's GREAT, though everyone but me flakes out and leaves by 10:50 when it ends with ads for Dragonfly Helicopters, Cybele, and Londolozi. Back and fall into bed at 11 PM.

THURSDAY, JULY 9: Wake briefly at 2:45, then at 5:10 and door raps at 5:30. Sort out papers, get new Dolabid ready, sort pills I forgot to take last night, find Angel Seeds, dress, and get to breakfast at 6:05, dark ROOM but everyone but Delores and Michael there. Tea and risk and an orange to set a food-base for pills. Onto truck and out at 6:30, looking at leopard tracks from "late last night or early this morning" at 6:50. Sandross and the tracker leave, with guns, to look for tracks. At 7:05 I suggest, "They probably went over to have breakfast at the village," since we hear bulldozers and female laughter and talk from our right. Try to identify snorty breathing to our far left as sun comes up fully. Last full day here, tomorrow Sandton Sun! RADIO not working! He's back at 7:07, drives down to the Sand River, and at 7:27 leaves AGAIN to follow LION tracks. Activate and throw out Londolozi Angel Seed, first since Johannesburg's one for Laird. At least two helicopters make a steady drone in the sky, and at 7:45 Sandross isn't back YET. We chat about future camps on this trip. He's back at 7:57 (1/2 hour): LIONS have crossed to Mala Mala. WE cross to find and pursue two young elephants, then get warthogs close and running impalas. Back at 10 for ham and cheese omelette (no mushrooms!), and find we may have to DOUBLE UP and send a truck to Main Camp for a party of 27 being trucked an hour from Skukuza. See video of "Leopard: The Prince of Predators" and tell Kim I want to buy "Super Predators." Look through "The Gaia Atlas of Planet Management" before lunch at 1 PM, glorious COLD impala cutlets (got from CULLING), and potatoes stuffed with ham and cheese, and fruit. Back to do teeth and video room and my NOSE is bleeding! To Changan village at 2 PM to 2:45, then back to take pictures and have Delores take my pictures, and back to photograph my room and finish Gaia and get to tea at 3:35. Delores and Michael want to go QUICKLY so we're out by 3:45, trying to find but losing leopard, find giraffe against sunset, (the elephant area is closed off for culling), FIVE rhinos at pond, and finally a PRIDE of three lionesses and ten cubs that Sandross was brilliant at finding after the first truck sighted and then LOST them. I can HEAR "The Pines of Rome" as background music for the buildup of lion and truck MOVEMENT on videotape! Back at 8 PM, VERY pleased!  Prepare to video boma dinner. Do it, WITH everyone else, previously only Michael and Delores. Bed at 10, sleep immediately, my nose seemingly better and not bleeding again.

FRIDAY, JULY 10: Wake at 4:35 AM, knocked at 5:30. Dress quickly and out at 5:45. have juice and shortbreads and listen to morning sounds and watch start of sunrise VERY like end of sunset. Delores and Michael come out at 6:10 and we climb into truck and go off. Down to Sand River JUST as it's getting light and the tracker points and THERE'S a leopard walking across the bottom of a huge rock, and a SECOND one appears briefly at the far side of the rock. Look ahead and a CUB crosses the road, then hides in the grass at the right and then PARADES right across the rock, RIGHTLY FRAMED, and I get it PERFECTLY by 6:45. Then Sandross finds two lion males that we follow lying, walking, drinking, tumbling on back, and finally lying down  at 8:10, finishing reel #2 for four hours of videotape. OVER an hour a day for the last two days. Elephants spotted, and there was a distant jackal, very shy. Elephants last, five mongooses found by 8:40. GREAT rhino shots by 9:45. To breakfast at 10:10 and pack to 11, Delores taking to 11:35! To pay bill of 165R for laundry and such and videotape. 50R to Sandross and 10R to Lison for omelettes. Nothing to Kim, just doing her job, or Gordon, saying "AIDS will kill off a lot of surplus population." To plane for photos and off at 11:57 with Green Rhino guy squeezed in across from me. I'm sleepy and anxious, wondering what the red "GEAR" light on the dashboard means. Fly east at 7500 feet, but west at 10,000, being told to hold nose and blow to equalize pressure when we descend. Hazy outside, but old "bridges" and some bluffs are arresting. Start to descend at 1:20, already overlong flight, and we PULL UP suddenly from landing pattern. What's wrong? Go around second time and pilot says "Nose wheel isn't down." Around SECOND time for control tower to verify it IS down, and third time we land, me oddly calm, figuring THIS isn't it. He later said we COULD land without nose wheel, but it would "damage the plane," though "we wouldn't be hurt." Off feeling EXHAUSTED and numb, not talking at ALL to Helen on truck back to city at 2:30, she saying "There WAS no news," during the past week. Into plush Sandton Sun, phone Laird and Wolf, happy to find out dinner is for 6:30, since we have to be up at 5:30 to be in lobby at 6 AM tomorrow. Down to Atrium for lunch of toasted ham and cheese sandwich and a Guinness that Delores pays for at 3:30. I repack, planning to leave heavy papers, old film, and some Johannesburg stuff at the hotel. At 5:30 Michael meets with Leora and Delores finds that we can only have 50 kilograms of luggage---ALL luggage including camera gear and carryon---AMONG us! THEY have 55 kilograms THEMSELVES and I have 18.5 when I weight on scale (myself at 86.5 kilograms = 190 pounds!). PANIC! I sort through and pack bag HEAVIER, leaving out tripod and snake for NEXT trip, and get down to around 15 kilograms. Laird phones from downstairs at 6:20 and Delores is on the phone with Leora, whom she paged to call her back. I go down to meet Laird and we go to Wolf's car and I say "They're in a panic and might not come with us." Wolf has people to visit in the Hifi show on the Mezzanine, so we agree at 6:30 to meet at 7 PM. Laird comes up and disgusts them by saying "They serve crocodile ragout" when Delores never eats reptiles, and "It only takes a half-hour to get there." Delores says, "We can eat downstairs in an hour, which is just the TRAVEL time." It SEEMS to work out that it'll be OK as Abercrombie and Kent in Botswana is willing to say "Carry us and our luggage or we'll just get ANOTHER charter flight for $2000 and take the money away from YOU." But they're anxious and disorganized and Michael says he "doesn't have the energy" to go out, and Delores says they'll be repacking all night as it IS, and we leave at 7, Laird saying, "Delores sounded VERY organized to the person on the phone," and that "Michael seemed VERY unsure of himself." I described what I knew about their odd relationship as we passed the restaurant in only 18 minutes, getting in at 7:30 for CUTE train cars, smiling Leonard from Malawi and Samantha from Zimbabwe (which has a 300% black market for RAND, says Wolf, who DOES want dollars as a FUTURE US travel fund, and rands are liked in Botswana too, so I should SAVE dollars for HIM, though Greta confused messages from me, but I GUESS I have bus and train and hotel set up, and WOLF will pick me up at the airport on August 1 at 6 PM with note I gave him, and will take me and pick me up from Blue Train. 145 dishes are overwhelming at The Train, and two bottles of good Auslese wine go down three gullets, NONE of which should be drinking so much, and Laird and Wolf seem to be getting on FAMOUSLY, and I'm serving Laird by borrowing RANDS for my trip and putting DOLLARS into his US account, and doing Wolf a favor by giving him MY dollars for his rands for my travel plans, and THEY put up with me and drive me around and introduce me to people! Laird DID go to the concert in Pretoria and meet Natalie again, and will try to get a plant tour for me between August 6-11, which includes ANOTHER weekend during which we can play. Wolf agrees to store my bag and tripod with my black pants, and Natalie called LOUISE to say how nice the evening was! At 9:30 I plead to leave, full of zebra roast and elephant stew and kudu heart and liver and smoked ostrich and warthog salad and blueberry mousse (an unappetizing GRAY color) and two wines. Home through smoky night to Sandton Sun to throw things into closet that I really had to THINK how to lock: the LEFT door latches into TOP sill lock and the RIGHT door lock is propped BEHIND the left door; they HADN'T neglected to put in the "lock receptacle" on the left, as I'd thought---and I think NOW that wouldn't have worked ANYWAY! Bed at 10:10, thinking that 5:40 will be 7 1/2 hours, but keep adjusting "Warm/Cool" on room fan as it gets too cold or too hot during the day, and wake at 1:10 feeling DRY and overhot and put fan OFF and get Vicks for nose. Fullish moon shining through chinks in window drapes.

SATURDAY, JULY 11: Toss, and turn, maybe shaken by today's "nose wheel" failure---that NOSE really caused TROUBLE: hiding Michael's BAG inside and rubbing wheel on casing OUTSIDE); OR because of two flights today with possible luggage hangups. I'd taken lock OFF the bag I left with Wolf to put on the BACKPACK to leave HERE till we return on July 25. Leave myself a note to remind me to leave white pants behind, taking only two jeans for trousers, and think to sort through PILLS and leave most to pick up later. Think SO much that I can't sleep, so I tell myself "If it's at LEAST 3:30 (having been in bed only 5 1/4 hours) I'll get up and repack." It's 3:35, so I turn on lights and piss and feel reasonably ALERT and start repacking, happy that little lock will WORK on backpack to lock things up. Decide to leave dirty laundry HERE to cut down on clothing I REALLY don't need through next two "less-weight" weeks, though after dinner I'm up to 88 kilograms or 193.6 pounds! Start taking notes and decide I can even leave THIS notebook behind, FILLED in 16 days, only 1/3 the trip, and I might need ANOTHER book in two weeks from the mall here. Write about yesterday and today until EXACTLY 4:30, when I put on socks for cold feet with NEW worry: cotton balls between two big toes on left foot to keep toe away from left side of large-toenail that looks ingrown SIDEWAYS, rather than against the upper clipped-too-short overhang, and I have ANOTHER worry to add to the scabs that are STARTING to come off my left shin from the woodpile scratches way back in the Drakensburg. My porcupine prick from last Sunday EITHER has a hard scab or I DID leave a tip-end inside the hole, and the SMALLER "break twig OUCH it won't break" hold in my left thumb-base is almost gone, but the layer causes twinges even NOW. Finish up to date by 4:35 AM, counting that I have only 3 1/2 more sides to fill in this book before 6 AM and I can TRULY leave it behind, filled. Sorting PILLS takes til 4:50 AM, of SUCH is my trip-time filled! BUT I'm starting to feel HUNGER already, not having planned to eat until Johannesburg airport! Keeping some stuff---HEAVY stuff like BATTERIES, to put in pockets! Repacking is ENDLESS: sort out MORE clothes, MORE papers, MORE stuff; COMBINE underwear and socks, have ALL shirts/pants in one sack, down to TWO sacks of "stuff and medications," wash face, comb hair, eat chocolate, fill out laundry list, partially dress, and it's 5:15 AM ALREADY. Fill out WOLF'S cards for ALL my bags in case they get misplaced, get .38R bill under door for PHONE I must check out with before I leave. Pack spare BOOK (clearly I'm NOT reading) and wear BOOTS to save bag weight. have a rather SOFT shit (from chocolate and anxiety?) that reminds me to stuff toilet paper into my back jeans pocket. Earplugs into shirt pocket and it's 5:25 AM and I can hear breakfast dishes being rattled next door. Films into SHOULDER bag (with passport and plane tickets) for international-border x-raying. Decide to safe-deposit ONLY $500 US dollars and take ALL rands along! Get WAKEUP call at 5:32! Thanks! Finally, at 5:35, I weight 86 kilograms = 189 pounds and BAG puts it up to 100 1/2, so I'm down to 14.5 kilograms of stuff INCLUDING camera bag. Went to "Snack up" Delores and Michael and there's a "Do Not Disturb" sign! Having sex? Lost my COIN purse somewhere! NOW Delores knocks and says she absolutely CAN'T do a safe-deposit deposit NOW at CHECKOUT because she's not supposed to HAVE stuff and it was SUCH a hassle yesterday---so I take ALL cash ALONG! Lock two bags and she says porter will be up for both. So I finish this in HASTE at 5:45, got to put THIS into Frontier Spirit sack which stays here till July 25th, and take IT and LAUNDRY downstairs to check OUT. [BEGIN BOOK #2] Guy picks up bags at 5:45, and I'm down to borrow 404 from Michael to get 24 return for 384 phone bill. Onto van at 6 AM, to airport at 6:30, check in with "Mr. Box" for four of us, and fill out Departure Form at 6:45. Departure guy finds "Mr. Box" a RIOT. Through at 6:50 and told to go own escalator PAST No Entry sign. Try to get duty-free (no southern Comfort, so I settle on Harvey's Cream Sherry) only to be told customs prevent liquor into Botswana! Pity. Down and get a ham and peach and cream cheese sandwich and a pineapple drink for 8.70R, much better than Sandton Sun's 25R basic breakfast. Just as I finish "breakfast" they announce flight and we board bus and I do this to 7:15---we'll be off at 7:30? Michael give me window, Marung magazine has DETAILED map of Okavango Delta. We get towed backward at 7:35 AM and off at 7:45. Fluid shapes, like river deltas mouth-to-mouth, might have betrayed native villages as we pass into Botswana around 7:35. At 9:30 on landing declare $565 and 1500R. Hope it's OK! Toilet door BROKEN! 9:35 still not starting down, and at 9:28 "Twenty minutes to Maun, temperature 18ºC = 64ºF. Nice! Land at 10, last in all the line (front of plane) and through Immigration and Customs by 10:30, and Delores shouts, "We've got our OWN plane." Into OUR plane, ONLY three passengers plus pilot, at 10:40, about 30 minutes to Camp Okavango. Take off at 10:45 over dryer southern delta, but it gets greener and fills up as we go north, landing at 11:15. Trundle stuff to restaurant, then WAY around to #4. To get juice at 11:30 and find lunch is at 12:30, unpack, and talk with delightful Marcus, Joop, Joop and Eloise. Then walk HOT airstrip, chasing lechwes, Michael and Delores return, I wander around hippo tracks, elephant droppings, and HOT beach to back end of camp at 2:45. Sit apart from cigar and cigarette smokers, get jacket, and run to push-boat docks, I leaving third with 17-year-old blond Joop, who Delores photos with me, with GLEE. Pleasant chat and ride, walk a long (uneventful) way, and back and beers and boats to 6:10 PM sunset darkling. To bar to ask for Apricot Sour and Sloe Screw, and end with Cin and Cin, talking of trip and cameras and dine at 7:30 on chicken, FREE red or white wine, pumpkin, potatoes, peas, and good chocolate cake and GREAT cream for dessert. I excuse myself, pee, take pills, lower a DOZEN blinds, zip myself in, write these notes to 9:06 PM (wakeup at 6:30 with tea), and get ready for earplugs against the snoring, ratchety frogs, and the clanging JANK of the nightjar.

SUNDAY, JULY 12: To sleep immediately and not wake until 3:45, the first SOLID sleep of 6 1/2 hours of whole trip? Have to pee, so I almost fill two drinking glasses, then back to bed and sleep almost at once. Dream fragment of me and three attractive men, one of whom hugs me from the back and I can feel his small erection, hoping he won't want to have sex that way and will be content with my skilled fingers rather than my amateur anus. Then wake at 6 AM, a total of 8 1/2 hours sleep, averaging with the 5+ of the night before to almost 7 hours/night. Dress with parka and sweater and out to pee and dump two glasses down toilet and wash with HOT water and get ready by 6:35 when COFFEE comes. Drink all three cups of water and milk and four teaspoons of, I guess, Nescafe. Hope it doesn't addle my stomach. Open tent to morning light and sounds and get to campfire ashes at 7, obviously NOT the time we leave. Help moves around setting out al fresco breakfast table for others (I THINK we have brunch at 11) and debate WHO to ask for the battery I left charging last night and forgot to pick up in my haste to sleep. Doves and parrots call, and a small rodent scampered along the margin of a swamp, hopefully more exotic than a rat. Delores and Michael come out at 7:15 and we're onto the motorboat at 7:20 and roar off through great morning slantlight on papyrus and marsh grass and swamp grass shining in the straking light. Through thick and thin channels, a few distant flying birds, a splashing hippo too soon gone, and a chance near frozen sitatunga. Dock---run aground, actually, at 8:45 and start off through grasses that rapidly get hot. A very distant single and then pair of sessebos, and later herds (maybe a dozen or 18 in all) lechwes. At Delores's limit of crotchety endurance she sees a Nile Monitor hide in the deep-hollowed trunk of a tree. Luckily she has a small flashlight in her jacket pocket in her Frontier Spirit backpack, so we peer about two feet down to see a circled tail, a startlingly large left front claw, apparently four inches across, and a top view of an unblinking left eye. She guessed it at about three feet long and a year old, reaching 5-6 feet by 3-4 years (they say it's the third largest after the Komodo Dragon, found on a FEW adjacent islands like Flores and Sumbara; and the Malaysian Water Monitor that they've seen a few of that can reach three meters in length). Two-day old elephant tracks, lion tracks from last night, lechwe skull gnawed by lions, and trees that remain green year-round. Long trek back to boat by 10:40, a welcome Schweppes Lemon Soda, and then a fast boatride back, sweeping through wide and narrow channels, stopping once for a foot-long baby crocodile that only the guide and Delores sees, then another that I see and the guide LIFTS IT OUT for fabulous shots. I hold its firm muscular snake-like body. Dock at 11:55 and HOPE for brunch but they say "Wait." Write til 12:10 and THEN sit to eat. PINK wine for brunch, but NOT refilled. Eat good meat pies with "Mrs. Ball's Hot Chutney" and salad with avocado and cold mousse (that aches one of my right rear teeth), and then the huge black feeds the birds and I sit with my video camera until they finish lunch and set out tea stuff by 1:45, so I leave to shower and brush my teeth---and I seem to have left my tube of shampoo somewhere! Have to start collecting hotel supplies! Finish all my ablutions by 2:45, shoes VERY dusty and sandy, socks FILTHY, and it's warm enough to put on ONLY a Galapagos tee shirt up top and same dirty jeans below. Let's HOPE there's laundry at Camp Moremi for THREE days next. I request ANOTHER power boat ride for PM tour and Michael and Delores can't make up their minds until tea at 3. I put on LIGHT sunblock to get used to "desert" sun and time: sunset about 6:10 PM now, and sunrise not til AFTER 6:30 AM. I wonder if we've crossed to TROPICS? Cute German (?) guy lounges in hammock, reading. Smoke smells from "donkey fires," as they call them, for powering kitchen appliances. Smoke lies hazy in the air at 2:58, no birds (no bread, only tiny seeds or merely sandy dust) in feeder, but all squawking back and forth in trees. Remind myself I haven't PHOTOED the place yet. Do so, have black tea to protect my "brushed teeth," and go off at 3:25 with Italian couple (newlyweds) from Milan with same guide. Through DIFFERENT (some even narrower) channels and a lechwe, young, bounds out of brush ahead of us, swims across, and scrambles up the opposite slope. They sweetly insist I "join" their group. See some LARGER crocs underwater and sunning themselves, photo within two FEET. Birds, too. Then we fish, I make funny gaffes casting; guide catches a large TIGERFISH, with big teeth,then I catch one! Stefano takes my photo. Back in RAIN of small insects on eyeglasses and windscreen by 6:20, cool, and drink a sloe comfortable screw to everyone's delight (Joop Senior even orders one), and delightful talk with French couple about fancy dining. They recommend "Les Trois Marches" as an upcoming place. Dine at 7:30 on lamb chop, french fries, good carrot/celery/cauliflower mixed vegetables, and delicious guava mousse. Sit around the fire a bit, Mark shows slides, some GREAT ones marred by poor narration, weak repeats, and a Rollie that KEEPS reversing! Back to hear hippo splashing in two-nights-from-full moonlight, and try to video moon, but probably fail. Pee and in to write this to 9:55 PM, getting tea at 7 before breakfast at 8 and leave at 8:45 to Camp Moremi, 3 1/2 hours away by BOAT through channels! Almost nod off around fire; will I sleep 8 1/2 hours again?

MONDAY, JULY 13: [One MONTH from today will be first TOTALLY HOME day!] Wake at 4:30 and then at 6:10, lie thinking, then jerk off under quilt with flashlight and rubber band, slurping up cum and drying by 7 AM when waiter unzips and BRINGS IN tea. Wash hands and face, empty solitary pee-glass, brush teeth to remove cum-smell, and back to drink tea outside and write this to 7:31. Pack and shit a solid shit and get to breakfast, one egg for me and one for Delores, and bacon and corn porridge that's REALLY blah! Jungle oats more substantial and tasty. Find I'll need my wallet to pay the bill, so I rip the bag apart BEFORE breakfast and lose my citronella bracelet in repacking, at the bottom of course, so I have to rip bag apart AGAIN as the huge black comes to pick it up for the boat. Pay a 70 pula (about $2) bill on AARP, buying a 15P map---TERRIBLY expensive! And leave a 40P tip. Jill and Mark are TERRIBLY new at this---having owned it for three months after spendthrift woman had to sell it after eight years. Put on sunblock for face and hands, write notes to 9:15---so much for leaving at 8:45! Boat leaves at 9:20 an goes through MANY channel-scapes: trees, reeds, papyrus, lilies, ELEPHANTS and wine-stop, other boats and at 12:30 PM we meet Terry at Camp Moremi, unpack, lunch for we three at 1, beef (smelling HIGH) stew, three-bean vegetables, cheese and white wine. I look at books to 2:45, seeing Pilcher stories and read to page 66 of Larson's "Far-Side Gallery 3." Back for camera bag and have tea with Dai and Joan Williams from Capetown, and Frank and sick wife (from his cigars?) and Terry DELIGHTS us by saying we can have HIM drive ONLY us. THEN (after baboons, hammerkop, plovers, and waterbucks, BLACK driver meets us to say a LEOPARD has killed an ADULT IMPALA. We follow through HUGE dust and start waiting at 4:30 for leopard that I can't SEE to MOVE. Finally he does and I SEE him, VERY light tan color, and he LEAVES hill. Terry says we must get out at 6 AM tomorrow to see it return. Then to giraffes and zebras and lechwes by waterhole and fish eagle and GREAT orange sunset with zebras and impalas, and LOTS of forest sounds as I watch last of sunset at 6:45 PM from raised balcony. Get LOST finding cabin, finding Delores and Michael's after THEY find MINE, number 3, which is actually the LAST used, and as I write these notes to 7:15 there are dropping sounds (from marula trees, the fruit, OK) and DRAGGING sounds against sides of tent---NOT OK! Glad I have EARPLUGS! Wash hands and face and bring lantern inside---makes HEAT, too. Then CLOSE blinds outside and get to 7:30 dinner and I have gin and tonic and great Cointreau on ONE rock. Dinner over at 9:10 and out to "Conversation Pit" for "elephant suicide: he put his trunk up his bum and blew out his brains." And electrified fences against elephants. Frank (sign) INSISTED I take a "torch" against the hyaena "whose pug he'd seen today." Feel GREAT as I get to bed.

TUESDAY, JULY 14: Wake at 1:15 and pee, then at 6:15, thinking the tea would have been sooner; out to pee, empty and wash one glass, and observe a FABULOUS moonset at 6:30. Back to tent to find tea there. Drink one cup, shit, wash other glass, gulp another cup of tea, and get to Delores and Michael's to find THEM just served tea and "ready in five minutes." I get to unpeopled lounge to retrieve my battery and leave off my torch at 6:55. Terry stumbles around to say "I thought you were leaving early too," and doesn't offer any idea of WHO would MAKE it so, and added, "Your guide will take you out in the car whenever you're ready." So I remount to the zebra-chair on the balcony and write all this til 7:03 AM, sun obviously up, and HERRE they come down the path. It's Delores, saying "Michael will be along in a minute." We get out to two cars and get pointed to second one. Oh, what I thought were two tiny TRACKER seats on the hood turned out to be two SUNSCREENS on the folded-forward WINDSHIELD. Terry and ET fuss with radios, but ours seems not to receive. Delores fusses about trouble of climbing in the back with a backpack, and hopes Michael isn't "hunting for my stupid HAT." "Here he comes," she says at 7:10, Terry tinkering away at apparatus in the rear of HIS car while two blacks dust and polish the exterior. I remind myself I've GOT to write CARDS. Off at 7:12. LEOPARDS! Two VERY close! Giraffes, hippos, four wild dogs filling screen, distant sessebos and tranquil impalas and wildebeest, but skittish baboons. Back at 10:30, brunch to 11:30, copious, then shower with GOOD hot water, chat with Frank and Annaliese, whose flight at 11 came and went at 10 and returned at 3. Read more Larson, and after tea go on boat tour at 3:25, seeing fish eagle, herons, ibis, a flock of red lechwes on the island, kingfisher, bee-eater, a hippo forehead at the end and an incredible full-moon rise, pink and huge, and nice wake-shots at sunset. To an island at 4:55 and off after not much at 5:20, and Soda Water drink to 5:35. Back at 6:25 and absorb sunset til truck gets back at 6:45, reporting leopards, wild dogs, and giraffes. Terry says he found spoor of THREE leopards. I write to 7:05, no one up for drinks yet. Squinty told to clear the seventh seat, since Eric's not in tonight either. I'm feeling VERY lazy, and worried about left big toe, SORE forming inside what MAY be proud flesh. HOW do I fight this infection on TRIP? Michael moves around in near-darkness with his camera. Philippe and Rosaline seem to stay somewhat apart. Going to be a quiet evening? It's warm enough that I think to jerk off later, getting nicely squiffed before. Get a dark Kir at 7:10, after Michael and Terry start chatting at the bar and July 14 is duly observed with the Versailles couple. Dinner is pork chops and potatoes and vegetables and a LOVELY chocolate cake COVERED in ALL VISIBLE SIDES with icing, PLUS whipped cream to put on top. Three glasses of wine; then a DOUBLE Cointreau makes the fire-pit pleasant, and get to my room at 10 PM to bed.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 15: Wake at 1:15 AM to fill one and a half glasses with pee, then again at 4 to FILL both and leave bladder partially emptied. Worry about my toe, try but DON'T do lightwork, and doze until 6 when I put flash on and hear guy outside with "Hot milk" that's thankfully tea. With first glass to john to crap, but ALL the lights are out and there's no SOAP to wash out glass. Back to tent to return with flash to shit a smelly shit and hassle toilet-paper holder and over to find DIRTY PAW MARKS on sink---hyena ate my soap? Three quick cups of tea and all the ROAD lights are out! Guess we're just too early for service? French couple walk down trail, taking picture of "sunset," as I write this at 6:45, Delores and Michael not out yet. Terry wanders in and comments, "You're still writing your LETTER!" HIS soap was also eaten, and when I say "I remember path light being ON" when he said "Path lights are turned OFF at night," he responds, "I left a few on for you because you were at the end of the line." When I said, "But I thought the JOHN lights were left on," he said, "I guess they just ran out of fuel; we'll have them all checked today." And then he has the optimism to ask me, "And when are Michael and Delores coming out?" I say, "Yes!" So TERRY drives off with French couple, saying they have to be BACK by 10 AM, so THEY want an early start, and I head Delores's distant throaty cough at 6:51 AM, followed by a loud bang, and the Mourning Doves have started, the orange light of false dawn has faded to TRUE blue of real dawn, and the full moon is paler in the western sky as I write that at 7:52 (hearing the distant lion-roar that Terry said woke him at 3 AM), and take the flash upstairs, now light enough to see to write. Also forgot to ask if BABOON could have knocked over my water jug and two glasses and few medicines from the outside rear of the tent, AND whether baboons could have pissed from the trees to make me momentarily think it was RAINING until I saw the cloudless starry sky. Michael finally arrives at 7:02 AM and Delores says, "Mr. Hyena must have been in the bathroom, and I was here and Michael was here, so who was in the bathroom?! 10 AM switch to videotape #4. No more leopards, but four lying lions, and lots of birds. Back at 10:30 and breakfast 11-11:30. Read Pilcher "Flowers in the Rain" to 3:10. Tea and (something I can't read) and water and off at 3:45. BEAUTIFUL Sable Antelopes and NOT REALLY much more---SEARCH for lions and see giraffes at dark after sunset. Back at 6:45, MAGICAL sky-color after beer. Read and Squinty makes a Surf Rider and two Spanish and one Australian sit by themselves and Eric and Terry and Michael and Delores and I talk and enjoy popcorn til 7:40 dinner of beef, mashed potatoes, and squash and coconut pie dessert. I photo dinner and drinks after. Marta, from Santander and Madrid, a delight. Weak flashlight to pee and STILL the bathroom BASIC light and "passage" lights are BOTH out. Write this to 9:30, getting a wakeup call at 5:30 for last time before 9 AM breakfast and leave at 10:30. One hour and ten-minute flight (WITH Terry) to HIS Chobe Lodge. We can WALK to Zambia for $15 passport stamp, only one kilometer from Ilala Lodge. AGAIN in my tent my bath things and pills have been KNOCKED OVER. Bed by 9:35 PM and up to pee 3/4 a glass at 11:55 PM, new "early" record time.

THURSDAY, JULY 16:Wake again at 4 AM and complete the filling of both glasses. Dream LAST night of having to get something (an itinerary?) DUPLICATED, and Mom gets very annoyed that we won't have enough time to do that before we have to leave (for lunch?). This morning there's something about an IBM deadline that sets me to thinking of Mozelle Duckett, Cathy O'Sullivan, Herman Washington, Madge Mao, Judd Boykin, Jan Wickburg, George Carson, Ann Jensen, Bob Matsil, Vicki Palko, Tony Taddeo, and the SBC days when I wake at 5 AM. Look at watch in failing flash-light at 5:20 and 5:25, and up to shit a copious boose shit at 5:30, washing one glass (pleased to see the soap's still there, even though the lantern on THAT side is out, as is the one on the path between, but there IS one still on at MY turning of the trail. Back to get the second glass, dump it in the grass, and wash my hands and face, seeing dim BIG baboon shapes racing under the trees and across the path just beyond my turnoff. Also chittering sounds like young hyenas, and a LOUD angry baboon roar startles me on the john, just as a VERY loud plop of a HUGE Marula fruit just at my back in the soft sand at the tent edge last night actually got a Dennis-like "UH!" out of me. Smell smoke at 5 and my water's PIPING hot as I wash, and now as I write I hear the hawking up of early-morning phlegm from a throat behind my tent, probably tending to my water-fire. Write all this by 6:06 AM, obviously SOME plans misunderstood or gone away---or did they say we met TODAY at the dining room for tea, as we do daily in Chobe? Walk to dining room and pass porter bringing tea at 6:20! I take mine on the balcony; THEY arrive at 7 AM! So much for early start! I take termite hills and Michael gets a hoepoe, but NOT much more. Back to breakfast and pee at 8:50, pack and pay 104 pula for 60P tip, 18P postcards (for 24 cards, a bargain from Terry), and 26P bar bill. Lose cap, and find it in pocket of jacket I packed and we're off at 10:15. THREE planes and LOTS of people at the dust-strip and fly off in FRONT seat at 10:35 for BUMPY flight over desert, though animals STAYED at Savuti though marsh hasn't been wet in nine YEARS. Gasp a few times and land at 11:30 at LARGE Kasane Airport, built eight months ago and HARDLY used. Into truck and get to POSH Chobe Game Lodge and they're in room 210, Liz and Dick's suite, and I'm next door at 209, nice enough. Unpack and out at 1 to buffet lunch, VERY filling, and down to "small boat" at 1:30 to find foulup: NO BOAT for us. Liz (black hostess) tries to placate Delores, who's "very upset; we should have priority since we're paying more money by renting the suite." Now comes the question, will Michael drive the boat? 1:52 and negotiations go on. And then we DON'T go, scheduling boat for 1:30 TOMORROW. Liz offers a bottle of wine but Delores refuses. Photo Lilac Breasted Roller. Up to room to shower and brush teeth and videotape to Clayderman (?) music to IDENTIFY it. Clean clothes (moleskin on foot still damp) on and to lobby to wait for 3:45 tour at 3:35. At first I find the HUGE herd of elephants, one DRAMATICALLY crossing road, AND the kudu that ALSO cross, but he finds MORE elephants and then leads us to five lions at sunset, great. In at 6:45 and I CLIP toenail on SORE toe and get Delores to push at it and AGAIN say it's not INFECTED, just SORE. To dinner, NOT very good onion soup and stuffed beef and even Shiraz wine, and back at 9:30 to just plain collapse into bed.

FRIDAY, JULY 17: Wake at 4 but DON'T have to pee til 5:30---PERVERSE. Dream of attentive guy like Bruce from Gay Circles and I going to a concert in a hall LIKE State Theatre only FLAT top floor with folding chairs and TABLES around which we, by mistake, sit as he socializes easily and I feel OUT of it. At intermission HE greets friends and I'm JEALOUS he knows more people than I do AND is more attractive and winning. Up at 5:25, knocked at 5:30, decide to change to roomier BOOTS, and write this to 5:50, listening to RECORD sensual things about Chobe: 1) yesterday, CLOUDS in sky, 2) this morning, WIND blowing in trees! Get John again and we leave at 6:15 (they have JUICE as alternative to tea or coffee!) in DARK to get GREAT hippo shots in sunrise and THREE Cape Buffalo detach in a small group and LIONS attack, getting down ONE huge one that keeps screaming and thrashing, and then there's ANOTHER scuffle and ANOTHER buffalo goes down. We watch the second feast and then OTHERS begin to chase a THIRD buffalo, smaller one, and they say the first attacked one ESCAPED! We watch 5-6 lions gorge til 8:30 and back SATED with filming. Breakfast 8:50-9:20, mushroom-cheese-scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and FOUR tiny glasses of juice, visited by bird and mongoose. To boat at 10 after cleaning teeth and GREAT views of hippos, Nile monitors, sacred ibis, great white egrets, and a an elephant, not to mention vultures and bloody lions. And set-up shots of placid Cape Buffalo! Back at 12:15 and write three cards to Alice, Joe, and Dennis, but stamps only in SHOP, closed during lunch. So I'm back to write this and put 40R in my pocket for non-hotel independent shop. And write two more cards by 1:30 boatride. I'm not first, caretaker shouting for Leonard. HOT in sun but SURPRISINGLY cool on water, in breeze. MORE hippos, crocodiles, birds, and add ELEPHANTS drinking at start. And fires in Namibia, as well as three military jets and 2-3 armed BOATS and later armed forces in JEEPS on roads. Don't even ASK if anything's brewing. Michael reminds us of 3:05 PM, and we dock at 3:20, Michael tipping, I think $20 US for the THREE of us. Drop off film and pee and down to cash 10R into 70 pula, buy ten 20t stamps and get ONE pula changed into two 254 pieces, three 104 pieces, and four 54 pieces, with three (rather pretty) pula prisms as 504 pieces. I'm TOLD to put AIR MAIL on, but they SUGGEST it takes three weeks for cards to deliver. Off at 3:50, since they're late, and back to crowded lion-kill site to see an almost EMPTY carcass, one guardian lion, and the vulture tree. Turn the other way and pass kudus, six towering giraffes with heads together, then quick drive to INCREDIBLE elephant herd (maybe 40?) crossing the road, and then MORE elephants and three MORE. Then long road back by 6:45, feeling TIRED from busy and FILMIC day: 31/2 rolls of film and 1:45 hours of video! Paste on eight stamps and have to write three more cards, to Actualism, Sherryl, and Pope, and finish just at 7:30 as Delores knocks. The "Mushroom and Bacon Normand" is GREAT, but chicken curry is ONLY better than beef, just as my BEEF last night was JUST better than Michael's mutton. Desserts good. To board to see A person from room 207 in OUR car, and Delores makes guy take the interloper off. To room and disrobe at 9:05 prior to a glorious jerkoff with rubber band, pillows, and cotton swabs to 9:50 PM.

SATURDAY, JULY 18: 3:40 pee. 5:45 up with a surprised jolt JUST before telephone wakeup. To juice at 6, Delores and Michael joining John and me in the truck at 6:15. Down to lion-kill site for HUNDREDS of vultures and some storks, and then through road after empty road for hills and trees and river and poor stuck Zambezi Princess, stuck for past three weeks on drying Chobe river. Tourists were removed and others brought in as to a STATIONARY hotel. A great lilac-breasted roller and back to breakfast at 8:15, the Abercrombie and Kent truck thankfully NOT for us. The chef cooked MY omelette and gave it to ANOTHER tall white with glasses, and only joked with the WAITERS about his mistake, not stooping to apologize to ME. Delores and Michael just fuss about coffee and toast and I take films of dining and public areas and front of lodge and route to rooms by 8:45, now ready to pack. FORGOT pills last night, so THREE times today! Finish at 9:15, leaving bag at Delores's after photoing her pool---but FILM didn't work! BACK to REPHOTO Chobe Game Lodge til 9:45, when I put back Delores's key and climb into van with two who go to Victoria Falls AIRPORT, who warn us to keep our cameras DRY at the falls. Terry says we should say hello to MARK at Spurwing Island. [2:45 to Crocodile Farm, and 7-8 dance at Victoria Falls Hotel. 8:30 AM flight of Angels at 9 AM. 1:30 transfer to airport. $10 US on leaving country. 90 kilometers from Chobe to Victoria Falls.] Everyone still chatting, after filling out Botswana EXIT and Zimbabwe ENTRY forms, at 10:02 AM. Off at 10:03 AM, and get to border at 11, through at 11:30, and to Victoria Falls town at 12, town of three banks, Wimpy's, Makasa Sun Hotel (with Victoria Falls Hotel beyond), and we drive around circle of Mobil gas station to Ilala Lodge. In and throw stuff into a closet and meet for lunch at 1, then down long path to Falls. Glorious, spray-y, and wet, with a hot walk back, MISSING the 2:45 departure to the Crocodile Farm, getting the 3:05 return, to farm at 3:15 and tour of increasingly large animals to 4, including three cats: Serval, Caracal, and African Wildcat---VERY kitty! Out at 4:10 to falls DIRECTLY via the baobab tree, and they return to the hotel and I get to Danger Point until 5:50 and LOVE cute tanned legs on guy, photoing him, and get shot of bridge at 6 and chased out of park to Victoria Falls Hotel via a British guy and German gal, who spent US $100 per person for helicopter and can't afford African dance. Walk through SUPER hotel and have 5.20 drink at 6:30 and feel GOOD til I go to dance at 6:45 and find that what they call malachite in gift shop is painted PLASTER. Photo LOTS of dance from 7:10-8, and back to Ilala for HUGE dinner, and STUFFED to bed at 9:30, hoping to get up to falls tomorrow at dawn. Wake at 11:30 PM to pee!

SUNDAY, JULY 19: Wake at 4:30 and decide I've GOT to go to see the moon over the falls. Shower, brush teeth, sort out new pills, get out flashlight and all film into shoulderbag, and at 5:40 leave for falls, no one at reception to tell "No hot chocolate to my room" to and NO one to change money with. To gate at 5:50, breaks in cloud letting four-day from full moon THROUGH to LIGHT the 6 AM - 6 PM sign, but people show up at 6, saying "Good morning," and I grit, "No, it ISN'T!" Finally, the car pulls up at 6:10, everyone gathers around, and I push through first, furious, until guy says, "Wait, my friend," and I shout back, "Yeah, I'm sure your friend." Only had 4:95 ANYWAY, not 5 for entrance fee. Push to left to Livingstone's statue and moon TRIES to come through, but sun is ALREADY lightening the east. Take photos when I can, the wind is at least AWAY from Zimbabwe side. Get to Danger Point at 6:30 and take good shots, and start back at 7, getting to hotel at 7:50; knock on Delores's door and they say they're about to go to breakfast. I put stuff away, hook up battery, which signalled it was going out on the recharger, get pills, swallow Dramamine at 8 for flight at 9, and up to find that they're eating. Order cheese omelette with bacon and sausage and toast, and WOLF stuff down with glasses of juice, til 8:25, then dash down to pack all junk into duffel and camera bag by 8:35, get into their suite, and find car waiting for us. To airport at 8:45 and I get knife from Marks of Abercrombie and Kent and go to john-darkness and PRIZE OUT end of "rewound unused" film! Two others, including CUTE triangular-headed Japanese with doe-eyes from crocodile tour yesterday, along; and Delores and I push into REAR, behind the wing, and Michael in the front SAYS he has the worst seat. Off at 9:06 and I film and film and snap and snap, twice around MY side and twice around Delores's side, lower each time, and great vistas and shoot out MY window AND across Delores out HER window. Hotels and vistas and gorges and bridges and river and islands and elephants (hope I GOT them), and I'm shooting BLIND and BLINDLY. Shoot off last of 36 exposures and go to video extensively, beginning to blink at 1:58. THAT runs on and on as we circle and land with smoke from falls at end of runway and film STILL going. Out at 9:21, 15 minutes precisely, and we'd decided IN the Abercrombie and Kent van to PASS UP the "tour of the walk to the falls" (which I'd done TWICE already, anyway) and go for ZAMBIA. Marks, the driver, says he can drive us TO the border. At 9:50 we're on line at Zambia immigration, going fast. To falls on OTHER side at 10, Marks leaves us, I photo 1914 War Memorial and shops, and views are GREAT, across bridge in real RAIN (I'm glad I kept the plastic bags AND the passport with me). Photo and film and GREAT views, and out to part ACROSS from Danger Point and see guy on VERY edge, and I sit on edge and get shot by them and have a GREAT time. I'm down to hydro-plant effluent, then we're to hillside over DRY gorges, higher and lower, and to OTHER side where people are having a RELIGIOUS ceremony. AND great RAINBOWS, DOUBLE once, appear, to make up for the lack of moonlight this morning. Delores gets anxious to leave, and I try to enter Field Museum but there's a CHARGE in Kwatcha, and I'm haggling, then have to leave when Delores says "We're LEAVING!" Relief---only a model in a pit ANYWAY! DEMAND a Fanta and give a 10-rand note and get 140 Kwatcha back. Delores has a gulp and I gulp the rest, and off at 11:40 for border. Walk and walk, two GAY guys pass mid-bridge, good shots back and forth, Delores and Michael impatient with me, and I plow on at my own start-stop rate. Hot and tired and footsore to various custom-booths, and finally GET the Zimbabwe money-entry form they were OUT of when we arrived from Botswana. I quip "How many times were you to Victoria Falls? TWICE, once from Botswana and once from Zambia!" I'm relieved they decide to go DIRECTLY to lunch, and when I check OUT of room 14, everything's on the SUITE bill and I own them $80 Zimbabwe! Down to put all papers and sweaters into duffel as they pack, and we're out by 1:25 to get ME into the Abercrombie and Kent car and THEY take ten minutes to check out, saying they have to fill out twenty forms. To airport by 1:50, and check in bags to 38 kilograms and Delores and Michael squabble and SQUABBLE and I catch up on a day's notes. Camera film and video film hand checked and they complain about Abercrombie and Kent's telling us they have powerful x-ray equipment. Go pee when Delores says "Boarding in five minutes," and they're starting in at 2:35, loaded by 2:45, and I'm up to date! My PEN runs out at 1:20 and Michael gives me a Sonesta one. Window shutters on our Air BOTSWANA plane for our Air ZIMBABWE flight---FULL, including fat Australian and couple from Madrid. Off at 3 PM, up to 11,000 feet and I realize I packed spray can in luggage. Five minutes up and start down, landing at 3:20. Say twenty minutes on ground and we're off at 3:47. Say 35 minutes to Kariba. Land at 4:25, having only AT LAST flown over Lake Kariba, of "wet baboon photo" fame. Get bags, get into plane IDENTICAL with this morning's with honey-legged pilot, and take off at 4:45, Delores in back, me and Michael in middle. Over Lake Kariba AGAIN and land at 5:05 to a STABBED WOMAN (face, jugular, chest, all over) loaded into plane. To hotel at 5:30, part a village and their Zebra quarters is WAY down the hill and HUGE, but my room #8 is small and fairly tacky: toilet seat bruised and used, window frames replastered and painted, louvered windows won't close completely, letting in sounds of neighbors talking and hacking. Delores is furious about having to move tomorrow, complaining that "Everything Zimbabwe Abercrombie and Kent had done is messed up: no private vehicles (which turns out to be $400 for a HALF DAY!), no suites with queen-size beds. After THREE beers and fruit salad for lunch, I just pile on two gin and tonics at $3.80, or 754, and the bar snacks are great: chicken and beef marinated bits, chicken and guinea fowl necks, and lush chicken wings. Manager comes over at dinner to say THEY can stay and I can have a luxury room at NO extra charge! Driver comes around to schedule 5:30-8:30 drive, two sunset drives, and the "Night Eyes" tour from 9-10:30. GIRL picks up wakeup times and my hot chocolate order. Menu is ALL of asparagus spears and sauces, cream of tomato (acidy taste) soup, and lapenta, local fish dried and salted. Then we ALL have the fillet, best yet, mine OVERDONE, as was Mike's. Assorted desserts put me over edge to sleep, along with Mukuyu Nouveau, 1992, for $35, not other for $17, or $3.50! To room at 8:50, totally wiped out by day, and get to swaybacked bed at 9:10, good feeling anyway.