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1992 3 of 5

FRIDAY, JULY 24: 12:45 AM: Wake and scratch two bites I'd gotten yesterday: first of trip, as yesterday was first bad day for FLIES, and THAT only between 4:30-6:30 PM. throat sore and dry: two gins and wine? Lights WORK, what a luxury. Warm enough to be sleeping under a SHEET only! Andy said, "Winter here may be ONLY June and July, and now it's OVER!" Glad to be getting into LAST WEEK! AND maybe Capetown's CLEAR! Daddy-long-legs lurching across sheet when I return from peeing! Only ONE gulp of water left in carafe---IS tape water OK? 5:10 AM Dream: Helen is planning a huge party for Grandma's 85th birthday, SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 31 11/22/92

and she's worried about all the plans, caterers (a la "September") and accommodations, so she puts her head down on the steering wheel of the car that's taking us somewhere and I kiss her silver hair and feel very close to her for confiding her worries to me. Then we're checking lists of guest, foods, and events in my bedroom, and my reading table will be used for something I'm doing in the main party room and Denny comes in to say HE needs it for the preacher who's doing the wedding ceremony (I've forgotten that part of it, and doesn't even know WHO'S getting married), because they need something that looks "real," even though the Missal is only a large unabridged dictionary whose letter-keys are easily visible. Then I realize it'll BE in the right room, so it's OK. I'm also concerned how my bedroom looks because some of the kids will use it as a playroom. Then AT the start of the party, Mary Vilaboa grins across to me and pretends to fall to the floor and I joke, "There's Mary, drunk even before the party starts," and everyone laughs good-naturedly. Wake and write this to 5:20 AM, generator noise loud outside. Still counting: 20 days left, two handsful; halfway between 24 days left (1/2 trip) and 16 days left (1/3 trip), and the four-day gap is as large as the next-largest gap: between 1/3 and 1/4. Then 1/5 = 10, 1/6 = 8, 1/7 = 7, 1/8 = 6, and it's one-handed from there, Sit and shit and write at 5:25. Guy knocks on door: WINDOW of porch with hot chocolate and says they will TELL them about the "mistake" of no laundry list. Drink hot liquid to 5:45, Mike and Delores closing doors in Goose next door. Leave at 5:50, get to clearing at 6:20, headlights off at 6 AM. Cruise past impalas and a reedbuck, THEN see lioness and FOUR CUBS at GREAT distance. Watch, and essentially return by 8:25, hearing about Rupert Fothergill and Operation Noah that helped Kariba as it filled in 3 1/2 years in the 1950s, not 5-6 years, then emptied enough to make Spurwing a peninsula in 1980-1989, then with GOOD rains an island, then a peninsula AGAIN in 1991. To buffet at 8:35. Youngberry and gooseberry jam, but he DIDN'T bring my order of onion rings. Back to hut at 9:05, pick up bag, and to reception for boat. Buy $8.50 Zimbabwe money as "bait" for souvenirs, and take off at 9:20 for Sunyati Gorge. Hazy horizon and fast boat, over by 10:10 and Gorge isn't THAT great a fjord, but we manage to attract three fish eagles to three tiger fish, and film crocodiles, and I filmed every one as best I could. Try a snappy ginger beer and feel VERY hot and tired as we exit, via Sunyati Lodge, to Palm Cove and birds and distant hippos and crocodiles and buffalo. To dock at 1 and I'm exhausted. To lunch on patio of tough T-bone stead and good mushroom salad and beer, and to cabin at 2 to COLLAPSE into bed in shorts, idly watching blacks idle under trees. Up at 3:40 and Tony insists there were drums but we three say No. Onto boat at 3:45 and race around to watering elephant as my video runs out and I find I DON'T have a spare tape: my #6 is USED already! So take a whole roll of still film on the rest of the elephant, the drowned trees, birds, buffalo in the lowering sun, tree and water patterns and hippos and dramatic shots of sunset itself, and have a double gin and tonic that mizzles me out by sunset at 5:45, dark at 6, and dock at 6:30 to avoid buffalo and get to cabin to change films, change battery that was BLINKING at me---it can't shut off ITSELF when it's out of film? Start to prepare for tomorrow's flight by setting out old films, undressing, and decide to shower WITHOUT washing hair at 7:05. Out at 7:20, COMFORTABLE in room with fan and shorts on. To dinner at 7:35 after Delores knocks at my door. RED Nyala wine Mike thinks good for $30, and lamb and squash and potatoes and onions and chocolate mousse ending with Rengu Coffee Liquor and talk of Wheeler, Behan(?), and Olber's paradox of star-bright sky. Back to room at 9:05 to jerk off. Do so WONDERFULLY to 9:35, and get to bed at 9:40.

SATURDAY, JULY 25: Wake at 4:35 to pee. Jerk off again from 5:10 to 5:25, then up to dress but chocolate comes at 5:30 on MY watch, EARLY. Land-Rover drives up at 5:43! But when I knock up Delores at 5:49 she says, "We're supposed to meet at 6; I'm not even dressed yet," I go back to room and record my dream SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 32 11/22/92

fragment of Delores looking through a metal eyepiece and a plastic eyepiece that somehow gives two different aspects of the same object to make the photographic images manage to give some predetermined excellent effect. I'm warm in room in jacket, but it'll be cool on the water as we cruise out for sunrise photos of the drowned trees. I feel vaguely fatalistic this morning, constantly hearing "Zolnerzak Zealously Zapped Zur Zimbabwe" for a multilingual Z-exhausting phrase. Put stuff into closets "like a good boy" so I won't leave a mess for the room steward. Even filled out Zimbabwe money-exit form last night. have done REMARKABLY FEW Lightwork sessions this trip. I'll START, then rush off to something ELSE. Only EIGHT Angel Seeds left this morning, and I take one to put on LAND, since MOST in Zimbabwe so far seem to be in the waters. Wind forces us into Land Rover for hippo/buffalo dawn and incredible shots of a bull and cow elephant. Long hot drive back at 9, and breakfast last and to pack by 10 AM and put bags into tent 11. Out at 10:15 to Sunyati direction for a Tawny Eagle and not much else but vistas and distant impalas and buffalos. Pick up mopane pod and terminclise seed. Back at 1 PM; I'm exhausted, but manage to eat pizza (mushrooms, bacon, and sausage) and chili con carne and fruit and ice cream and beer. To tent and try to relax, but pay $250 Zimbabwe bill for all three, and they pay for my tip and I keep thinking of five flights in next 24 hours! Long drive Spurwing to Fothergill because boats still too choppy, and get in at 3 and wait and Andy radios and Mary Ann says plane plans to be in at 3:10. It arrives at 3:20, we load, take off at 3:24 for a "seven-minute flight," and land in huge, paved Kariba airport at 3:40. Bags out and I put my camera bag in my shoulder bag with film AND spray can. Through security check, and the metal detector beeps on the metal SCREWS in my plastic sunglasses! Through by 3:50, next leg due to leave at 4:50. Feel depressed. But get out eight postcards and write them and then we're on line for the plane at 4:20 and Delores talks a blue streak with someone on line. On at 4:30 and get front window seat, which I hope will be perfect, at 4:35, maybe even EARLY for 4:50 takeoff and 5:35 landing? Off at 4:40 and Harare at 5:20, through customs quickly and stare at CIRCUS waiting to depart for LISBON. Then at 6:30 we load, take off by 7:03 and land at 8:23! Dinner is pretty bad, Mike VERY nervous, as was I, and Jean picks us up and gets us to hotel at 9 PM, but I have to CALL to get luggage (which comes a MOMENT after I call), then I put on TV and IT'S THE LIVE OPENING OF THE OLYMPICS, 9:30-11:30, which I watch and tape! MARVELS! AND I get the WINE that I wanted with dinner! Get to bed at 11:35 QUITE stoned on wine and CHOCOLATE!

SUNDAY, JUNE 26: Wake at 1:30 and again at 4:10 after a dream in which parents with kids could watch displays of wild animals in wild settings, like a zoo with the backdrops of the Museum of Natural History, but ONLY until the plane in which they were flying was COMMITTED to the flight, indicated by the WHEELS being brought up and locked,and in this case it was twenty minutes, which surprised me greatly. NO indication of danger or apprehension in the slightest in this odd dream. Up and pee and stuff Vicks up my dry nose and write this to 4:15. At 5:40, after only 6 hours and 5 minutes sleep, I feel so curious if I can find shampoo and my coin carrier in my Frontier Spirit bag left in the Sandton Sun, I get up. NO trace of sunrise out north-facing windows. Small-lock key is NOT in jeans, where could it have fallen out? I know I took it OUT of jeans before leaving them---could I have left key on BED? Have a few AWFUL moments when I can't find my PASSPORT, forgetting I put it in the top drawer, whose OTHER contents I would have forgotten! Like noting the silly "night light" under the phone table in hotel room I had to BLOCK with a PILLOW so it wouldn't light the room; the CONSTANT dish-rattle from downstairs from 5:40-6:10 AM; the chagrin at not finding "Videotape #2" but realizing I must have put it with stuff left with Wolf, AS must be my shampoo and coin purse! Sort out pills. Fill out Abercrombie and Kent brochure and shower at 6:50 AM. Weight 86 kilograms = 189.2 pounds, not SO bad. Get laundry and zip down to SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 33 11/22/92

get agreement that my 338R (about $140!) room charge HAD been paid for and leave the Abercrombie and Kent questionnaires with the concierge to figure what to do with. Pick up two Johannesburg brochures by 7:35. Naomi calls at 7:50 AM: Namibia vouchers at Mokuti. I try phoning and searching for Mike and Delores and go to eat at 8:30. They join me: their DOOR didn't work and they CHANGED ROOMS. Eat to 9:20 and down to CNA that opens at 9:35 for two notebooks at 1.10R each, and up to pack and get bags down and they try to charge for breakfast and shuttle! Finally find Delores didn't give hotel MY voucher, and gives me July 4 bill to try to get Abercrombie and Kent to REFUND me. To car at 10:10 and airport at 10:30 and check in by 11:04, but no boarding til 11:35, some sexy guys around. My 9A turns out to be NEXT to a SEATLESS window and I ask to be moved. People still coming on at 11:55. Off at 12:15, pilot aching me when he says "Using full runway because we're so heavy," and making LEFT turn when he said two RIGHTS. Real CLUTCH for a bit, but have orange and Nederburg Brut for lunch for my HUGE pot, and 1:40 flight has a GOOD view, now 1:30 and I take airlines book with sexy ad, and should start DOWN pretty soon. Then Captain announces that headwinds have delayed us, we WILL be arriving at 2:10 after all. Bumpy descent and NO sight of Windhoek at ALL. LONG wait for passport processing by 2:35 and Peter the pilot is waiting for us with Hendrick the pilot-trainee. Off at 2:50, said to be an hour and ten minutes, and it's bumpy going up and it stays pretty bumpy at 10,500 feet. VERY dusty-smoky-hazy, only large lozenges and squares and triangles of cattle-farm fences, lots of roads going nowhere and finally Mike and Delores just read magazines. See wide ribbon surrounding Etosha and land at 4:10, Ian picks us up in truck and says there's no TIME for a PM tour: gates open at sunrise at 7:20 AM and close at dot of sun touching horizon, about 6:30. Lavish room and I unpack and we go to Dolly's bookshop and buy books, then to lounge to read them til 6:30,when Ian tells us our routes for the next two days. To room for jacket and back to Braai, having kudu, kebabs, pork and few veggies, and four desserts. Back to watch TV movie to 10:15 having jerked off in mirror, then crawl into QUEEN-size bed.

MONDAY, JULY 27: 4:25 AM: "SEEM TO HEAR" Dennis's voice, like over a staticky Land-Rover radio, and with a great rasping sadness in his voice, say "Bob, I'm dying." I think to myself, it's 4:45 AM and turn light on to find it's 4:25 AM. Write this. On a WHIM look at watch and it's 6:45! Up quick! Forgot Andy Webb's terms for mistaken sightings: bushalopes and buffalogs. Dress in a flash and Delores and Mike are still getting ready at 6:50. Delores comes to breakfast with me and Mike joins us after I get scrambled eggs and bacon and sausages and two juices. To room at 7:20 for camera gear and Ian arrives with pop-top at 7:30. Delores sits in second row and Mike and I try third, but he goes back to fourth row and I join him because WINDOW opens in back. To Gate and Namutani, signing in both places, and pee at 7:45 for last time til noon. Birds and Daruma and dik-dik and giraffe and black-faced impala, to Two Palms waterhole for not much, then to Aroe for GREAT kudu, oryx, springbok fucking, wildebeest herd, five zebras, one with hardon, two warthogs, all mixed and drinking. Long way back via crimson-breasted bulbul, breeze making van comfortable. LOTS of photos! Back at 12:10 and I debate, then shower and change clothes. Delores knocks while I'm in shower, and they've LEFT by 12:55 when I call THEM. Finish roll of film. Finish sixteen hours of videotape by 1 PM July 27th, AND roll 37 of film. Braai OUTSIDE for convention, and I find them in dining room where I have Guinness and ORYX sirloin, rather good but toughish. Then I leave to shower and Mike draws me Olber's Paradox (on page 207 of notebook) and I confess I try to poke holes in it though I don't understand it. He remains non-committal. Back at 2 to find I have to turn on wall plugs to recharge battery, write this after skimming July's Air Namibia Flamingo magazine on London, and at 2:40 Delores knocks to say Ian will be here in fifteen minutes and the yard is full of crimson-breasted bulbuls. SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 34 11/22/92

Finish this and pee and pack and get out into PERFECT (72F?) day, as blue-suited workmen toting Damora cans come past to touch up the scraped white paint below my windowsill! Vicks nose and salve lips and find TV not working and battery not yet fully charged. Car arrives at 2:50 and we leave at 2:55 and go to Kalkheuwel, which STARTS brilliantly with elephants, giraffes, zebras, impalas, and so many cars that I THINK eventually scares everything away but giraffes and birds, particularly scavenging francolins, and even THESE fly as Delores talks louder and louder about her camera gear to Ian and others in other cars begin talking back and forth---probably wondering what's keeping the animals away. Finally double back to Chudob, via zebra and springbok crossing the road, but there's only one frustrated giraffe who keeps trying to drink but cars driving to the lip of the crater in which the waterhole is sunk keep him checking his enemies. Then as sun lowers we race around to Klein Namutani for 3-4 cars, two widely spaced giraffes, and one too-distant-to-photograph FLAMINGO between them. Leave at 6:05 and get to gate JUST as required closing of 6:20, about 15 minutes before ACTUAL sunset. Back to hotel and talk to check-out and pack before 7:20 AM. In to watch TV, go to dinner at 7 for a great clear consomme with gemsbok dumplings and the Huntsman's Delight, an ENORMOUS platter of deliciously cold and delicate springbok filet, rather grainy and undersmoked ostrich, more beeflike smoked kudu, and very chewy eland salami that I can't finish, surrounding good Waldorf salad and surrounded by crisp fresh cucumber slices. Too full for anything but non-whiskey-tasting but oddly nutted Don Pedro, and Mike had the BEST: tender juicy eland steak. Back at 9 to glance at Ian Holm in some TV series in Mexico, London, and Madrid, then jerk off with GREAT pre-climax tension til 10, and put things away and get to sleep at 10:30.

TUESDAY, JULY 28: Wake at 1:30 to check time, 4:50 to shit and pee and stuff Vicks up nose, then look at watch at 6 and up at 6:10 to catch this up by 6:25 and get to packing. Nose AGAIN unpleasantly bloody---ROOSTERS crowing when I remove earplugs. Asshole again itching and shitting and still flecks of skin eczema-like above nose-ridge, and I note that strange BREATHING sound that I thought was Ed Druck SNORING. Is it in my head or is it only the refrigerator cooling---which it IS. Pack, and my duffel is really getting BIG, to 6:50 and out to breakfast. Delores comes with me; I order scrambled eggs and get ONE, good bacon, and one sausage I didn't ask for. Blissful silence until the room fills with Germans and canned music at 7. Check out at 7:20, they present me a BILL for 805R, accept my 28R for the books, and then insist the BILL is a receipt---Mike does too! I shrug and take the papers for proof. Back to room at 7:20, Ian not arrived yet. Write this and he comes at 7:25. We load up. I get in back, my duffel taking one seat, the other two taking the other five seats. Off at 7:35 to leave off keys and look at gift shop that has nothing. Off at 7:40 to Mokuti gate and arrive at Namutoni at 8 AM to sign in for the trek. Almost perfect temperature, feels about 65in AM. Chudob and Kalkhuewel and LOTS of animals along ROAD: Giraffe, elephant, zebra, impala, kudu, ostrich, jackal, tawny eagle. Pit stop in barbed-wire john area 10:50. Rest of day is documented on map and in photos---ALL waterholes, HE makes sure we get room at 5:20 (office closes at 6 PM!), and drives down to ostriches for a suspected but not found rhino. Back for gas at 6:25, station not open til 7:30 AM. Dinner at 7:15, GREAT Wienerschnitzel, and to waterhole for UPSTAGING, HAMMY elephants, a lioness with her impala kill, and three jackals playing like pups. A stray springbok and gemsbock were about all. Lots of people and CHILLY, so I leave at 10:10 PM; they come with me. I hop into bed and my TOE hurts so I'm up to CUT it and bathe it in hydrogen peroxide and get back to bed at 11, KNOWING I have only 7 1/2 hours sleep at most. Up for bad night.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29: 7:05 AM: GREAT day yesterday but this morning I was in the dumps. Woke at 2 AM, then at 4:30, and feared being asleep at 7, so I couldn't SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 35 11/22/92

sleep, thinking, counting, looking at watch at 5, 5:10, 5:25, 5:35, 5:55, 6:10, and up at 6:15 to brush teeth and decide to shower in PM. Finally get stuff together rand out at 6:55 and Delores is in a panic: Ian is not here, Mike is not there, she won't eat breakfast if need be, just pack and go. I go to restaurant and see van AND Mike drive up, I tell story and Mike seems dazed, then goes back to van. I have "Fawlty Towers" waiter for the following: Two juice, no coffee. One coffee? No, two juice, no coffee. No coffee, no tea? Right, but two juice. Two juice. Get two juice and CEREAL. Asked for scrambled eggs and bacon, CRISP. Hope! Good eggs and CRISP bacon and two juice and Ian tells lion and rhino and farmer stories. Leave around 7:30 anyway. Thank goodness the only ROAD kills are drops of ELEPHANT dung! AM: "Artistic" shots. Yellow mongooses and ground squirrels; jackals and ostriches. Distant giraffe. LBJ = little brown jobs, preceded by DDE = damned difficult eagles! I'm depressed we DIDN'T go to last waterholes, dry though they MAY have been. We saw a RHINO at a dry waterhole YESTERDAY! All places AGAIN plotted on map: into camp at 12 and go RIGHT to lunch, the Pinky burger pretty awful, and AGAIN two drafts of beer---trying to reduce? Out at 1:05 but Mike and Delores must go back to cabin and Ian must go to HIS place, so I buy a 3.20R Cadbury's chocolate and wolf it all down by the time we leave at 1:40. AGAIN all marked: BATTLES of oryxes, LONG springbok contest, an elephant herd crosses the road right AT us, racing ostriches, and finally a mother and baby rhino at a distance! Forgot Pan panoramas. Back at 6:25 and meet in 15 minutes for more Wienerschnitzel and Shiraz they don't have so we get Elderod and it's OK. Good (Knorr?) vegetable soup and LOUSY brussels sprouts and carrots. Out to waterhole at 7:55 and sit and sit and two elephants (NOT same grandstanders, these move OFF quickly) and a few jackals and that's it! Leave at 8:40, saying "The rhinos missed their 8:30 appointments"---Though it was TRUE, when I said "Yes," when Delores asks me, "Did you INVITE the rhinos?" And I DID great lightwork BEFORE elephants---though nothing at oryxes, and then the RHINOS I PLEADED for!! Give it credit! Back to undress and shower quite comfortably, toe seemingly improved, shower good, and write this to 9:20 in BED, will read Pilcher before dropping off to sleep and finishing this SECOND book of the THREE I'll do this trip! Finish reading Rosamund Pilcher's "Flowers in the Rain" at 10:05. Feel tired enough to sleep.

THURSDAY, JULY 30: Wake at 4:40, almost six-hour sleep, and look at watch again at 5:10. Up to shit at 5:15. At 5:30 decide to go to the waterhole; after changing from this to the next notebook. [Page 220, divided by 6.5, gives 34 pages, so that ratio still holds pretty well. But the next notebooks are SMALLER in size!] [BOOK THREE!] Start new book at 5:30. Out to waterhole at 5:45 and cocks begin to crow, but only life are three jackals and the SOUNDS of something LIKE a lion breathing heavily and every so often cracking bones. Lots of shapes that LOOK like a crouching lion, or an alert springbok, or elephants. Back to room at 6:30 and pack and out to car at 7. Mike reports a HUGE herd of thirty elephants, a rhino at 9:30 PM, and a lion which caused the elephants to trumpet wildly! And I MISSED it! Off at 7:05. To breakfast to the INCESSANT recorded German music, even to "Roll out the Barrel" and very beerhall-type shouting choruses---for BREAKFAST! Mike is very touchy, snapping at Delores if she DOES something or if she DOESN'T do something, seemingly quite at random, only to snap. Maybe he's like me and gets testy just before large flights, like theirs back to the US the day after tomorrow? Finish breakfast VERY leisurely by 7:40, everyone having more coffee and more toast and going to the john. Add "Rhino rock" to "Buffalog." Tower open and Delores complains when I climb it to take photos. Tough! Can't SEE waterhole from top. We drive out toward Pan, Ian tracing rhino tracks, and he stops twice and I look out back and gasp, "It's back HERE!" And it is, behind a felled tree, larger than it was, Mike says, at waterhole last night. Feel GREAT about it, giving LOTS of love and gratitude BACK to Being of Light. Bumble down a few SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 36 11/22/92

more roads (see map) and by stamps at 9:10 and pee and get down MORE roads toward Leedom, but at 9:35 he turns and the plane is landing! Quick board and we're off at 9:50, 10 minutes early, and PIVOT on one wing and BUZZ Ian and the pop-top, VERY low and sharp turn. Buzz Okakeuja, too, and HOPE I got at least the waterhole! Gain altitude to 9500 feet, VERY smooth flight, and pass over the park boundary, then Outja at 10:10, and fly more EAST than I think, landing at Windhoek for more fuel at 11:07. So it WILL be 23 flights! Delores and I sit while wing-tanks are topped up from indicated half-full, and Mike walks around (he's in front and had to leave the pilot out; pilot gnaws fingernails but BIG hands and thumbs---"Marc" on cooler. Little truck comes out for refueling, and Delores studies my Namibia map, and I catch up as they climb back in at 11:17. Belt up and off at 11:23. Land at 12:10 after SPECTACULAR "strafing flight" that almost chased two ostriches into FLIGHT! No guide, Almut, from Windhoek yet. PILOT, Marc, CUTE, is staying! Andre and gruff partner, driver. Two blacks to set up tents, FIVE of them: 1) Almut, 2) Mike and Delores, 3) me, 4) pilot, 5) two drivers, and the two lackeys sleep next to the kitchen, I guess. So for the THREE of us there's a staff of SIX! I video, guide arrives, lunch announced for 1 PM: chicken breasts, cold; rice/pea/apple salad, tomatoes, which we avoid, and beer and bread and butter. And cheese. Two beers then, about 1:50 I start on my walk AWAY from camp: dung-size beetles, spider-beetles, LOVELY sand-runners I try to photograph but NONE are as pretty and complicated as those I don't photo. Lots and lots of FLIES, even after I douse shirt and pants and hat with Deet. Sadly, KIDS have moved into camp RIGHT across the way! Damn! Walk and photo and back at 3:30, figuring Delores will want to leave EARLY. No: she's dozing, Mike's reading, three whites are chattering in German and Gruff gets me a beer, and Marc is sleeping on his belly in high tight tee shirt and colorful shorts. What fun he could be. Write this to 3:45, ready for trip. Leave at 4:10 for Sesriem (Six Thongs) Canyon, 30-50 meters deep. Walk "left" for water, then to right for BLOCKED canyon, and on and on past CARING over the rolling rocks and sunlit walls and flies. Then up a gentle grade for the top, rocks fascinating in their sunset-staked markings and striations. Out at 6 and to car for a beer, a juice, and a soda water, feeling BEAT. They take ordinary sunset photos and we're back to camp at 7. I try a shower, but water's cold so I just do face and arms and underarms and crotch and feet and back to awful 1974 white wine and a pretty good red with the pork and mutton braai. I LOVE Andre's legs and Marc's legs and talk animatedly trying to seduce them. Recharge battery, try to catch Cape Fox on film but don't, and bed at 10.

FRIDAY, JULY 31: Wake at 2:30, put on shoes and pants and shirt and go to john to shit and piss; feeling thirsty, I go to camp for a DELICIOUS Soda Water. Back to hear Marc moving around and I keep thinking of Gilles de Mirbeck and my magical window-stand that gets him out of bed and into my arms. Debate and toss and turn and ONCE get up but get CHILLED, but STILL hear him moving and I figure I've GOT to get up, so I dress and go outside and entreat him to come out and meet me under the stars. Four or five shooting stars, a BRILLIANT one rising that Mike later identifies as Sirius, and others are Rigel and Betelgeuse, and the "clouds" are, as I suspected, the Greater and Lesser Magellenic clouds. Put on long johns and NEED them: still feel cold as 4:50 alarm rings in Almut's tent and she wakes up the two guys and I try NOT to look at them getting up but see nothing anyway. Have juice and into car at 610 and off for a FRANTIC drive through the dark to 7 AM four-wheel drive parking and LABORIOUSLY climb dune for 7:50 AM sunrise, photos, and pissed Mike and Delores because we ENTERED their PHOTOS. Start back after rough breakfast of juice, cold cuts and cheese, and a hard-boiled egg. Mike almost catatonic in his displeasure and Delores trying to be cheerful about it, saying EITHER fly out TODAY OR come back again TOMORROW. I take photos and finally THEY fall into it, but not until after I want to get my stuff off back seat so Andre can SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 37 11/23/92

get a shovel to help unstick the two-wheel drive rented by five from Rennes, two of whom (physical education majors!) I photoed on dune-top for their stamina. Told the Tschaumah River that flowed to the sea, formed Sesriem Canyon, then got blocked by dunes and last flowed about 1982. Back after fast drive to office at 11:50, where I get off to look at photo albums of dunes and Dead Vlei, Colin Monteath's book on dunes and NUDES in dunes, and record of SNOWS in 1988 and a RAINSTORM in 1990. Back to camp to pee and try to take photos of dust devils. Lunch of Kassler ripchen (smoked pork) and potato salad at 1, then I brush teeth and get into bed at 2, lying and thinking and feeling vaguely depressed, and up at 4:45 to write a bit of this and then get some WATER, good, and pack at 5:10 for Elim Dune. They insist on all good angles and I content myself with observing lovely sand rivers that sometimes unearth beetles. Back to car to chat with Almut while they go WAY back to find a two-inch lizard, and we stand around and talk and admire the crescent moon at BOTTOM of orb, craters visible at right. Back about 7:15 and get to dinner drinks at 7:30, only beers this time, Marc opening up after 17 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours. Good chicken fricassee on rice and peas, and more beer and I sit under stars til 9 PM when the generator goes off & three Cape Foxes come to get leftovers. Relatively content to bed at 9:50, soda water at side.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 1: Wake at 2:20 and then not til 4:40, up at 5:20 to dress and get to john while Almut leaves it at 5:40, waking everyone up and getting ready to leave in van at 6:15, where she and Donny say GOODBYE---we're left with only Andre to drive us out. Marc decided to sleep in and not join us, and they're leaving to get ANOTHER group in Windhoek and Andre will erect eight more tents for a large group coming in on Monday. Long quiet drive, passing one car on track, another parked in 2x4 lot with two people walking toward sunrise. Park at 7:10 and follow them---they're in agonies of indecision as to WHERE to get THE shot, and finally they separate and I find my own hill and try to cope with camera batteries that seem to be going, only QUICK shots where they should take longer. Hope they warm up! Video Mike and Delores at sunrise at 7:45, laughing when a CROW and a HAWK land on the ridge they wanted EMPTY, and two enter about 7:40, chat with Andre, and surprisingly quickly are on top at 8, safely past sunrise, I hope. Take more shots but at 8:30 figure to ask Andre to drive me to Dead Vlei, as Mike and Delores continue their odyssey on the dunes, but Andre is ASLEEP in the front seat, so I take a picnic-table stump and write this up to date by 8:50, birds overhead trying to figure why I'm not eating and feeding them, and a flower from the Narra bush and a pod from six-inch-melon tree that is only liquid oryxes ingest. That's the Camelthorn acacia, eaten by oryx also, pod as my day's souvenir. Number these pages (36 sheets, 72 pages) and video birds RIGHT at my foot. hear Delores's voice, I think, now at 9 AM, but don't see her. What next? Finally see them coming from behind a dune at 9:05. I just sat and waited and thought: LAST day with them, FIRST day of LAST QUARTER of trip, 12 days of 48 left, six legs to get home: walk to truck, truck to camp, Cessna to Windhoek, 737 to Johannesburg, and two flights home. Um. Ask about Dead Vlei and it's a long WALK so that's out. Delores says, "We'll go also and take pictures, but we bomb along until dune 47, where Andre sees his boss, Mr. Kinnic, and asks if he can chat with him. MISTAKE! Kinnic starts berating Delores for taking the car out on an additional tour, and words lead to words, the final insult from Delores: "Go to hell." He explodes and orders her out of the car: "Andre: finito!" Delores apologizes but Kinnic rants on and on,and I suggest she get OUT and finally he allows us to go and Delores orders us onto the plane ASAP. I mention I wanted a shower and Delores says, "No way." So it was a bad scene 9:35-10:05 and we're riding back rapidly, soundlessly, until Andre spots two oryx against a dune and Delores can't resist saying "Oh, we can stop," AFTER she told me I had my last stop at 10:30 when I got off another shot and she says "I want to be in the AIR at 11 AM." Back to camp at 10:45 and she says SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 38 11/23/92

she'll take 1/2 hour to pack, so I say I want some breakfast after the ten minutes it'll take ME to pack. Takes me fifteen minutes to jam everything away and then go for hard-boiled egg, cold cut sandwich, and noodle salad with fruit jam. Then to john and everyone chatters away and suddenly we've got another passenger, Toby from Britain. All pile into truck (I'd given Andre 50R as a tip before), and Delores makes out a $100 traveller's check for 100R/person trip, saying "Bob can add rand if we need them," and I say (and give) not a word (or rand). To plane and Toby has to half unpack to get his bag into the engine pod, but then Mike puts HIS bags there and Toby's fits into back seat. I get middle left seat and we take off at 11:50, first waffling right before he trims, then flies LOW and CLOSE in tight circles over camp and Andre and car (when Delores tells me she did NOT tip, giving 50R to the PILOT, with whom she flirts through the flight, "Oh, he flies HELICOPTERS too---and Lear Jets!" VERY hazy in air, some bumps toward end, and flight takes 55 minutes, first five and last five QUITE harrowing. Have the FIZZIEST Lemonade from a can in the WORLD. Out at 12:45 and unload baggage and Delores has Toby take three pictures of us and luggage to empty her camera for x-rays. Into DEPARTURE Lounge and sit quietly until an officer says we must go through to OTHER side. Mike drops BOTH my bags TWICE---once coming off the wrong entrance ramp and once going backward through customs booth. sit and write til 1:25, first listing showing up for 4 PM Johannesburg flight. Fill out Departure Form and have nothing left but Mike's old Economist. Read til 3:15, check-in starts, and I get seat 8A, hope THIS works! Then they REFUSED to hand-check luggage, so two MORE bags full of film are sent to luggage, and I reserve only my book and the bug bomb. Sit dejectedly waiting for flight at 3:25. Time passes slowly. Board at 4:02, getting SAME DAMN windowless window seat! Flight time of 1:45 and only start moving at 4:25! I AGONIZE much of trip, eating funny "hors d'oeuvres" lunch snacks after a SOMEWHAT calming gin and tonic. Land at 6 JUST as it's getting dark, and at 6:05 FIRST through passports: Mike: "Delores, how did he get in front of you?" Delores: "It's my one good deed to make up for all my other horrible behavior." Mike: "But you gave free passage on the plane to Toby." Delores: "Yeah, but actually MARC did all the work of FLYING." Luggage doesn't arrive til 6:30, and I'm out to find no one waiting. Leona picks up Mike and Delores and bags at 6:40, so they probably get on the 7:30 Johannesburg-London flight. I wait til 7:05 and phone Wolf, no answer. Then Laird, who says he'll pick me up but phones Wolf's beeper. Wolf's downtown and says HE'LL pick me up, which he does at 7:35. Talk wildly about Delores and Mike and trip on the way home by 8; phone Laird who says he'll come over at 9-9:30 tomorrow morning to hear about trip, and Wolf offers his soup for dinner, DELICIOUS vegetable that I have two bowls of with a beer, then shower at 9 after getting almost lightheaded from talking. Jean-Jacques SENT my jacket and tie so I'm dressed for the Blue Train, for which I have vouchers, along with a hotel for which I pay in rands, and 1400R in bus and train tickets that should be about $500, which I HAVE. I FIND my shampoo in the shower and have a good wash (all clothes except those on my back into the wash). [Page 241: notes on rewinding videos: End reel 11, flying out of Sesriem, 10: sunrise on high dune; 9 and 8 OK, reel 7 WON'T rewind!] To let hair dry, I unpack and sort things out til 10:30, NOT finding my coin purse. Hair STILL damp but I go to sleep.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 2: Wake at 3:15 and review LIFE til 4:30: this trip, Laird, Wolf, Dennis, John, Bill Hyde, Joe Easter's people; places: Europe, China, India, Antarctica, South Africa; things: computers, games, video, movies, opera. GREAT! Back to sleep and up at 7 to sort through MORE packing, hanging up clothes and adding those I'd WORN, and Wolf's up at 8, thought "Basic Instinct" too long and violent last night, and he makes me oatmeal as he washes my second load. Goes out for juice as I read and clip Saturday's paper. I start by vacuuming cameras and video and bags, then playing tapes back for SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 39 11/23/92

some GOOD shots, and Laird arrives at 9:50. We talk furiously, looking at videos (find tape #7 stuck), and they drinking coffee. Set up Friday or Monday for my trip to Rustenburg and the plant, dinner, and "Aliens 3." Thursday for Jim O'Brien possibly, Saturday and Sunday Laird will take me [and I calculate that THIS is the 38th day of the trip, started on page 38!, and the last FEW pages start with the nth day on the nth page!] to the Pretoria (better than Johannesburg's) Zoo and the Union Building and Voortrekkers Monument and Snake Farm, AND to the Lipizzaners on Sunday? AND other places, leaving room for Louise's sister. He leaves at 12, I get back to packing, pay Wolf $505 for vouchers, leaving me with $40 US, and 1140R, about $400, enough for rest of trip WITH Visa additions. Play Ravi Shankar's "Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra" on an EMI CD, and Wolf tells me my BUS ticket is for seat 16A, in the Panorama top deck; they SERVE meals and DRINKS on bus, which is EQUIPPED with stereo and video! Incredible! A real ADDITION to trip. Getting hungry (odd sensation!) for lunch by now, 12:40 PM. Listen to Mozart's Flute Concerto and Wolf is ready for lunch at 1:10. Drive to Mike's Kitchen to tough, relatively meatless, but tasty, though coolish, ribs, and beer, and one scoop of ice cream with double hot chocolate fudge. Cute Cory as waiter. Wolf goes to bars about once a month, had an Indian lover at one point. Out at 2:45 and I take laundry in and continue meticulously packing: LOTS of STUFF! Two guys drinking beer on adjoining roof look good until a DAUGHTER joins them! Wolf naps, burns stew, and I catch up at 4:25. Finish by 4:30 and watch more tapes, finding that ONLY #7 doesn't work. Wash face and hands, shit, put on jacket, and wait for Wolf as MY watch says 5:30 and then 5:40, and then the PHONE rings. I'm sure my watch is FAST, but I hope we can still get the Gay Guide of South Africa he talked about at the restaurant. Start to worry at 5:45. By 6:15 I set my watch BACK to 6:03 from Hypermarket clock. Wolf buys two Gay Guides and leaves his keys on the STAND, blessedly STILL there when he dashes back [JAWS FAITHFULLY I had to record from Andre's tee shirt]. To Greyhound at 6:15 and it's full of BLACKS! Load baggage by a mover who says "No" to boxes, bags, and light suitcases. Board 16A behind stairs on TOP deck. LOUD, chicken-eating blacks fill three seats across from me. Leave with AWFUL music to drown them out. One-channel TV starts about 9:55, after we stop in Kronstadt Golden Egg Restaurant for ham and cheese, chocolate milkshake (for 7.75 + 1R tip to waitress who essentially waited on ME and delayed and locked out everyone ELSE), and pills, including malaria. Take sleeping pills with white wine and try to sleep, but look at watch at 12:30, 2:30, 3:15, 4:30, 5 AM.

MONDAY, AUGUST 3: First light on horizon at 7, and at 7:30 Timothy Dalton's 007 "The Living Daylights" starts, with everything SO familiar I MUST have seen it, OR it's SUCH a copy it SEEMS I've seen it. Kids crying in front, to whom I moved CLOSER when woman BEHIND me told me I couldn't lean MY seat back because guy behind her wouldn't let HER recline HER seat. I ask to move to non-smoking and get double seat at RIGHT window forward, only 45 seats of 66 capacity occupied. Catch up with this at 8 AM. CLOUDY outside, sadly. KNOW I saw the movie and RECORDED Necros' body on tape! at 8:15 we stop at Laingsburg, leaving at 8:50. To Wimpy Base for Daymaker: two eggs, two bacon, two tomato-cheese slices and toast and large orange juice for 10.70, and SOMEHOW my 2R piece CHANGED into a 20 piece! CAN'T understand it: change last night INCLUDED 2R, as I recall, but don't HAVE it so I must change a 50R note or leave a 1R tip. Cute all on tall black-haired guy with flowered trousers on, and cigarette-smoking black-haired guy BEHIND me is SHORTER standing than sitting, and OTHER guy has thick thighs in blue-gray jeans. Bus john not flushing. Readjust watch: GOT to get it cleaned and timed ONCE more. Sit and listen to earphone music to help (not totally) drive out same four blacks chatting across three seats and the aisle. NO comprehending others might not LIKE it! Leave EARLY, according to schedule, at 8:55 AM. Two more stops before SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 40 11/23/92

Capetown. Woman who took MY seat thanks me EFFUSIVELY. 10 AM, movie over; I photo snow on mountain. GREAT shots of Hex River Mountains from bus from 10-11 AM! 75-105 kilometers outside Capetown, about five kilometers in a tunnel at 11:10. And SMOG and HAZE on the other side of the tunnel. Earphones taken and earplugs in against INCESSANT chatter by political blacks. I coin "Noisy gourds are almost empty" and modify it to "Noisiest gourds are emptiest," four words to sum my feelings. Taalmonument on hill. 11:45 POSITIVELY cloudy, DRAT! Starts RAINING at 11:50 at jabberers get off in Bellinville. We're at least ten minutes late. I'm feeling tired, almost as if I'm coming down with something, but I guess it's just bus weariness---after SEVENTEEN hours! Attractive town, so far, as we park under railstation eaves and I get my bag and enter at 12:15. Stop at information desk and get a map and vague directions to tour office. Stop in Blue Train office and find I board at 10 AM on Wednesday, Platform 24, into a PRIVATE room! I though I was CHEAPEST and had to SHARE! Go into COMMERCIAL tour office and guy directs me to Information Kiosk in Golden Acre, which is ENORMOUS! She gives me three folders and marks Greenmarket Square on my map. Escalate to Adderly out of Acre and walk along Shortmarket to hear the sounds of massed shouting behind me on Darling Street and turn to see a phalanx of jogging black, causing some shopkeepers to bring in their hoardings and lock their doors, but they DON'T follow me, but turn down Adderly, toy-toying (as I later heard their jogging termed), where I'd just shaken hands with a POLISH woman who asked if I was German and I said Polish: Zolnerzak. She gave her name and her hand (not in marriage). Cross the sparsely populated Greenmarket to the block-long Inn on the Square, and frazzled check-in lady tells me my 147R rate was raised to 170R on August 1, and I comment I should have paid in advance and she murmurs about checking the rate with the manager to see if they might accept the old rate for me. Up to room 607, ON square, ABOVE most buildings around, the clouded slope across the way probably NOT Table Mountain, since I'm looking toward the SOUTH. Write this and get oriented to 1 PM, ready to PHONE Peter and Dai. BOTH unhelpful; and I DO look toward Table Mountain! Totally beclouded! Museums and galleries today! Look through GAY Guide and plan days to 2:15, getting hungry for LUNCH. Get to Cobblers Lunch, downstairs, and have Bobotie, a hamburg mush under a mush mush, with Mrs. Bells Chutney that I have MORE of, and hot chocolate, which I put on my hotel bill, hoping to persuade them to give me a lower room rate. Out after rain stops at 2:50 and cab to South African Museum for 4.80R at 3, but they're closing, as is the National Gallery, to let people get home to the townships SAFELY during today's "observances." But I can come to photograph EARLY at 9 AM tomorrow, if I like. He phones Castle and they're open to 4. NO taxis. Walk hurriedly there by 3:15 and get told, "You're late for tour." OK. go across bombed-out entry and into center court, where he wheels wildly in all directions until he sees a lone tourist. "There." I join a group being TOLD about an underground dungeon we're finally not allowed to SEE because it's DARK. I look at exhibition of history of fort and china shards found there, then GROUP tour leader says, "Go up those stairs---" "Where it says Unauthorized Entry Forbidden?" "Pretend you can't read. There are cells at the top there, and more at the top of the stairs in the center." OK. I go upstairs and poor office woman directs me to cells. Picturesque and properly dungeonesque. Down to ramparts and photo almost-clear Table Mountain and other parts of fort. Then go up the NEXT stairs and find only OFFICES. Wander around, passed by various military types, and finally woman says, "Only under THAT corner," pointing to where I'd BEEN. Out and ask SAME guy, "I knew it would work, just GO there," he points to the center building. Old paintings and musty artworks and trophies and etchings and bibelots, and I buy book for 9R and leave without paying the 2R entry fee at 3:45. Walk across to LIBRARY but it seems a tiny BRANCH, and NO one offers to guide me. Out to find Long Street, 94 just above hotel, so over to Brie to find 17 is WAY "south," and in at 4:15. Larry is friendly and I leave him 1.2 of 4R for 2.8R Castle beer. SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 41 11/23/92

Then he says the "Exit readers'" bar is UPSTAIRS and opens at 5:30. I ask about Waterfront and he says it's best in AM and lunch, but I decide at 4:35 it's still light and go to the bus stop he described in front of the Shell building---and the Waterfront bus PASSES the line of people standing at the Waterfront Bus sign. Asked girl how much it was (80), and she says SHE'S waiting for ANOTHER bus, and I had to WAVE to it, and the bus comes every 15 minutes. Oh! Wait, and it comes in TEN minutes, at 4:50, and takes us QUICKLY to Victoria and Albert Hotel. Out and wander and Maritime Museum closed at 5 PM, and rest are shops and bars and eateries. See a Lion Boat crew about to launch and get out my video camera and the FILM is at the end! Quickly replace film and find the BATTERY is dead! Astounding! Pull out the 1/2-hour battery and IT works, putting 3:50 on Reel 12. Photo Table Mountain and quaint buildings and docks and leave about 5:30, almost getting on bus going "the other way" and DASH for "City" bus that's actually not LEAVING yet. Take some notes and we're off at 5:45, to Adderly, and she lets me ride one more stop to where I got ON. Walk "north" toward 94 Long but decide to leave camera in room. Get out to 94 Long and it's just catty-corner to hotel---and closed at 6:30. Back to see Old City Hall Museum opens at 10 AM, no messages for me at desk, and I get up to decide to SHOWER after calling Mary at 7 PM and finding Peter's still in hospital and "no news." Then space BACK on reel #11, put IT back in camera and have a hard time when I find it BLINKING at me! The SMALL battery is now dead. Had the BIG one on and IT seems to work OK, so put the LITTLE one on to recharge and read the "Cape Peninsula" book and now it's 7:50 and I have to unpack and dress---dinner at Anatolia? Unpack and dress---and my Actualism pen seems to be worn out---and this yellow replacement isn't doing much better---and the Karos pen, which had ONCE gone dry, seems OK again---and phone Anatolia to find they're not open til WEDNESDAY. So down to desk to ask about tour tomorrow, and an early tour will go to Table Mountain ONLY if it's clear, and then to Cape Point, so it seems to do BOTH what I want DEPENDING on the weather---maybe even register for Table Mountain ONLY, Wednesday, if it doesn't go TOMORROW. Into dining room and sit across from the only other diner, and our eyes slide past each other uncomfortably---but it's hard to pin down WHY it should be uncomfortable---can't two men dining alone together be FRIENDLY? HUGE black-mushroom caps in a strong red wine, with a strong Shiraz, and veal and rosti potatoes for 82R. Back to desk and ask about wrestling tomorrow night, and she says we must call Computicket tomorrow morning, or I just go to the auditorium. It's 9:50 and I say I'll be up for fifteen minutes, otherwise call me at 6:30 AM for tour news. Upstairs and jerk off VERY voluptuously, verbally and penilely, and get to bed at 10:50, not quite eight hours to 6:30 AM.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 4: Wake at 5:25 and lay til 6:10, then up to shit, really starting to worry about toe. WAS there a LITTLE pus in the left cleft last night and again this morning when pressed? And it's becoming more traditionally "ingrown" sore in feeling. Dress and write this to 6:35, reading that in August in Capetown sunrise goes from 7:34 to 7:07 AM and sunset from 6:08 to 6:30. So I'm really dealing with SHORT winter days still. Catch up to date and count FOUR Angel Seeds left and take two for tour today: Table Mountain and Cape Point. Find that breakfast starts at 6:30, so decide to go down at 6:40. Breakfast is fairly well populated, including a CUTE businessman in a tight pair of silk trousers and a tailored cotton shirt. Settle for Continental breakfast. Get told there's clouds over Table, so they'll pick me up for Cape tour about 8:15 to 8:30. Upstairs and listen to news and brush teeth thoroughly while watching life come back into the square, no sign of rain now. Annoyed that an ENGLISH program will be interspersed with Afrikaans. UGH! Waste time to 7:50 and decide to go down to pursue the Computicket or arena wrestling for tonight. Read Capetown Entertainment News and listen to news and down at 8:10 AM. Keep getting a very blank, uncooperative look when SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 42 11/23/92

I ask about wrestling. Computicket opens at 8:30, when I'll be gone on tour. She finally says "I'll call to find if it's on" and let me know when I get back at 5:30 from my tour. Sit in the lobby and wait for the tour pickup, hoping my jacket and umbrella will be enough for the day, which my cash and binoculars and cameras hopefully ready. Guide apologizes for being late at 8:25 and introduces me to Ezzelama(?) family from Rome Central, father diplomat at UN, 20-year old Chiara and 17-year old Paolo who totally charms me with his thin legs and olive eyes. Try road to Table Mountain to find nothing's on, after picking up the horse-breathed Louvain couple from the Protea Rex Hotel at Three Anchors. Drive Atlantic coast past spectacular beaches and stop in gem shop where I buy a 12R bag and fill it with mostly cats' eyes. Take photos, love the guide for letting me stop on Chapman Hill Road, and down into Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, seeing two female ostriches close and one mail far and LOTS of Bontibuck. Down to Cape Point as rain comes in a line from the south. Dash up the hill for photos at 12:05-12:35, and down for Circular Drive and over to Simonstown for Black Marlin Restaurant for GREAT black parrotfish. Cape St. Francis and Jeffrey's Bay have "perfect waves" for surfing. Lichen ONLY grows in pollution-FREE areas. Lunch from 1:15-2:45, two bottles of wine and Mr. Italy gets my card for when he comes to the UN in October [which he clearly didn't do!]. Penguins (jackass) a treat, and I give 10R to Nico de Plasty for photos and correspondence. Cute! [And clearly I've not heard anything from HIM!] Fast north to Table Mountain, up at 4:25 and GREAT photos and view and GROUSE and heed hooter at 5:25, down at 5:45 in FRONT, and dropped off at 6:45, totally sated. No clue about wrestling tickets so I watch TV, NOT seeing penguin guy, as he'd said, on the wildlife channels at 8:30. I'm down for Kingklip fillet and two 250-milliliter Light wine dinner, and up to jerk off 10:05 (diving on Olympics) to 10:55, then to sleep at 11.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5: Up at 5:25, some TV 6:30-7:30, dress and pack and check out at 9:30 after shower and depression. Walk to Blue Train, lots of people checking in at 9:45, and board 9:52 to unpack, video, drink 250-milliliter Nederberg Premier Cru Brut and turn through various radio channels for classical music in German and Afrikaans, and at 10:25 AM plant Capetown's Angel Seed beside Blue Train track 24! At 10:45 they announce, "Leaving at 10:50." Write this to 10:50 EXACTLY and get out video for film through venetian-blind-up windows, traveling ALONE in cabin! Pull out at 10:51 by my clocks, and at 11 I get TOLD I have SECOND lunch seating at 1:45 and dinner at 8:45! No way! At 11:10 I go back through to bar car, 6-8 people sitting in couples and drinking, to DINING car, where I tell of my hunger, and 11G, and hot chocolate, and he says he'll SEND something! Good! Back at 11:15 to SEE. Two cream puffs, three cookies, two rolls,and two chocolate-nut sticks with good hot chocolate arrives at 11:25 and fills me up. At 11:56 (not 12 noon) I photo ninety flamingoes corridor-side. We seem NOT to pass good side of Hex River Mountains, but then we stop at Worcester at 1:30, so I take my cameras to lunch. Asked if I'd share with "three gentlemen" I say yes, but three LADIES get seated and Mrs. Sutherland from Florida (South Africa) and Mrs. Compton from Vereeniging (meaning UNITY, where the Union of south Africa was formed from Natal, Orange Free State, Cape Province, and Transvaal). Delightful lunch over at 3, with two 250-milliliter wines and ice cream in tea, which CHARMED the ladies. Headwaiter asked if I'd switch with two horse-faces from New Zealand and I said NO. Leave Tomsriver at 3:25, really SLOW train. 4:30 to Matijesfontain. Three short and one LONG tunnel REPLACE the wonderful sights of Hex River Mountains! BUS BETTER then! Lunch was "Seafood Salad Savarin": shrimp, calimari, and one oyster, pork (or lamb) medallions with potatoes, carrots and green beans, fruit salad, and tea. NOT all that special. Was I in a bad mood, or was Matijesfontein not worth it? Loud Germans board the double-decker bus behind me, not even hushing when shushed for the
SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 43 11/23/92

inane commentary from the driver of the bus that went thirty meters in one direction, turned around, and came back! The museum had a photo of a CUTE J.H. Logan, and the bar (loud and smoky)(Laird's Arms) had a menu from 3/30/00, just 36 years before my birthday, but that WAS about it. Only chance to photo the Blue Train from OUTSIDE? Back in at 5 to grump and write this to 5:10, moving at 5:11. WONDERFUL disco-classical music starts on Channel 4 and CONTINUES through sunset, a LONG straight jet-trail in the sky, and changing for dinner at 8:45, not seated til 9:05. Lobster tail, camembert soup GREAT, ostrich steak and passable cauliflower, and chocolate mousse for dessert. Out at 10:30 and NO one in lounge is sexy, so I brush teeth and bed at 11:15.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6: Wake at 4:45 to dark, and at 6:45 to ALMOST sunrise at 7. Dress and breakfast 7:30-8, bed not made til AFTER. Listen to REGULAR classical music (full-length, no disco-tick-beat) and write this til 9:30 AM, only SEVEN days to go, ALL in Johannesburg. LAST phase of trip and EAGER to relax in NYC HOME. Long and depressing (poor are so HOPELESSLY poor; rich are so SET on their retaining ALL their goods) ride into Johannesburg, SAID to be at 10:40, worrying now, but it IS 11 when we get in. NO printed program for Channel 4; SHOULD be: WRITE to them for it? [Then FINALLY found it was Hooked On Classics, and I GOT the tapes just a few days ago!] Off train and feel a tap on my elbow and thank GOD I recognize Thomas, who found my exit via a computerized name-cabin printout. We talk of political situation---HE says (as in Namibia) the whites should TRAIN the blacks as ASSISTANT Managers before the blacks take over as Managers and make AWFUL mistakes through lack of experience. Home by 11:20 and try calling laird and unpack and wash face and hands and change shirts and give laundry to Belinda, who gave me tea at 11:45 and then lunch of two franks and toast and grapefruit juice at 12. Wolf says Thomas can take me to Zoo at 12:30. I partly unpack and write this to 12:20, then brush my teeth, letting battery charge up more. Leave for zoo at 12:40, getting in at 1, buying entrance AND book for 4.30R. Not feed cheetahs at 1 OR at 2. Lots of space and quite an interesting Rock Engraving Museum. Rhinos and monkeys and baboons and American bison and birds and antelopes. Toe sore and meet Thomas at 3:55 and back to take off sock and find the toe bloodied. Out with the peroxide! Shower and have an AWFUL time with the toenail: even with TWEEZERS it keeps snapping back and HURTING as I try to trim it down farther. Finally I wrench a bit off; IF I did it on the 17th (before Victoria Falls at Chobe) AND the 27th (at Etosha before Namib Desert), and the 37th, or 6th, today, I HOPE it lasts OK til I'm home the morning of the 13th! AND the 27th through 12th is Mercury retrograde, so HOLD HOPE for 13th! Find COIN purse in WHITE PANTS, worn first time since the Train restaurant! Great! Except I have a POCKETFUL of change and 330R LEFT! Now 6:10, Laird will come at 7, and I PACK again; had thrown away broken Moremi ashtray and washed coins while waiting to call Laird at 4:30, then 4:40, then 4:50. Still writing six pages per day, so I WILL need Book #4. And on reel 47 of film, I HOPE the seven rolls last seven days! AND working on the 23rd hour of tape, will probably NOT get into the 14th tape, but probably WILL get into the 13th. Now 6:50, Wolf STILL working and phoning friends; I'm LUDICROUSLY organized---may start looking at TAPES again! Look at a magazine in Wolf's living room and Laird arrives, we leave for the Carlton and Jim O'Brien, huge, and drive to The Pantry (?) at the Sandton Sun (where I had buffet BREAKFAST and that's the MENU I pick up at the TABLE!) for buffet dinner that goes nicely, helped by CUTE guy at next table with wedding band on his RIGHT hand, and too much food and good wine and two plates of itty-bitty dessert pieces. Drop off O'Brien and FALL into bed at 11:15, Laird here at 5 PM tomorrow to pick me up. I worry about TOE!

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7: Wake at 4:50 and worry and up at 5:15 to shit and put more peroxide on SORE toe, but it's better when I wake at 7:10. But ask Wolf about SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 44 11/23/92

it after I'm dressed at 7:35 and he suggests I see the General Practitioner, a woman, just down the block; he'll call at 8 for an appointment. He's also dealing with Martin, who faxed him he's flying BACK to Wolf on SUNDAY. Wolf faxes back "No way!" I catch up by 7:15 AM. Wolf phones Dr. Germain and her machine says she's open at 9. I have muesli and grapefruit juice and then sort my PAPERS into six different sizes and shapes. Over at 9 (Laird phones at 8 to say he'll call about 7 PM from AIRPORT---wolf says I SHOULD see doctor---I spill juice on the floor TWICE) and she's operating in town, is 3:30 OK for me? No choice. Back and tell Wolf I'd like to see Gold Reef City. Thomas drives me at 9:15 but refuses to believe to follow the M1 and gets LOST. Asks directions and I'm there at 10, 11R to get in and 8.50R for Mine Tour at 11, and try to enter "Just Juice Jungle Rock Show" at 10:10 but told NOT to sit on steps! Sit on bench in sun (this will be a WARM day) and wait for the grouch to OPEN the place! Black boys in blue and black uniforms and older white GIRLS join the few tourists. Lots of shops, of course. Ah, it was 11:15 for show. Wander a couple of museum-houses, the Winding House, and the Mine Exhibit from 10:50. Down at 11:10 and video some, not the most EXCITING tour, and up at 11:45 to wait for the noon Gold Pour---should I be in FRONT? AWFUL Brit in mine lives in NYC, so I have to keep mum. West Dreifontein Mine yielded 1.5 million kilograms of gold, 2% of known produced gold. Ride the Flume, the Runaway Train, tour the Lower and Upper Levels, and get to 1:15 Juice Show. Look at Fire, Police, Shell, and other museums and get to Barney's Alehouse hungry, so I have a tough double-burger and fries and a draught beer. Out at 2:25 JUST as Thomas drives up, going home a new, picturesque way to 3, when I shower and head over to doctors at 3:25, filling out a form and told "insurance information doesn't apply here." People ahead of me; I HAVE keys and a spare shoe, and start to sweat at 3:37. Read Helprin. In at 3:45 and she POKES to get pus out, rubs with antibiotics, mops, prescribes erythromycin and Savlon soaks and doctor in NYC, and charges 76.6R for ALL, with statement for HIP use. Back at 4:15 and Wolf goes out to pay taxes TODAY or get a penalty of 10% PER DAY! I read "History of the Third Reich Illustrated" and Helprin, and Laird phones at 7:10 and arrives at 7:45 with Peter Mansfield, sweet from sending wife and daughter to IK. Wolf recommends Longhorn and we go at 8:15 and get seated at 9 and have good garlic mushrooms, brie fritts, oysters, and filet garlic steak, and calimari and three free drinks for waiting as dessert: my Cape Velvet just LOVELY. Peter, terminally sweet and home at 11:45 totally exhausted to bed, poor Peter needing to drive one hour to Rustenburg to get to work at 7AM.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8: Wake at 5:10 and again at 7:10, and up at 7:35 to shit and dress and have breakfast at 8, finding Martin IS coming to Johannesburg tomorrow, but I'm not to let him in if he comes HERE. Banana yogurt and muesli and apricot juice and all pills, including erythromycin that MAY have given me SLIGHT heartburn before dinner last night, and Laird calls at 8:35, saying he'll be here in about twenty minutes, and at 9:15 I write this, foot propped up as directed so toe swelling will go down, wearing Wolf's black shoes and my sweater over short-sleeved shirt, WARM sitting in the direct sun, listening to laundry and dishwasher cleaning up yesterday's food and clothing (not in that order) automatically. Packed up and ready for Pretoria at 9. Laird arrives at 9:20, go to bank and post office, to his place to plan out day, and at 11 take off north to Voortrekker Monument. Single jet, then four billowing smoke, then five together over interstate highway. Monument is a dull cenotaph, but climb to top produces interesting angles, friezes have some nice black bodies, and out at 1:20 to eat. I have a cryptic note "Seven-part Mountain Cobbler Reef." Lunch on potjiekos, which Laird pronounces POY-key and Wolf says Poy-KEY-kos, lamb stew on rice with okra and potatoes and carrots. Eat til 2, with beer, get lost driving out, and finally find way to Zoo by 2:45. Cable car to top, walk down past "steppes," and terraces; Johannesburg zoo is good for PEOPLE SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP - 45 11/23/92

while the Pretoria zoo is good for ANIMALS: they're HIDDEN, and people have LIMITED access to them. Foot sore, notice screaming kids and good-looking daddy, WHITE tigers and lions fed INSIDE at 4 to our disgust, and find an AWAKE Caracal and Serval is a TREAT. Maned wolves lope and we walk out near car at 5:30. Photo the enormous correspondence school that is South Africa University, back at dusk to Laird's for wine, look at tour books, dine on avocado, garlic mushrooms, green beans, quiche and strawberries and ice cream and carrot cake dessert after red wine. Exhausted at 9:15 back to Wolf's and soak foot and get to bed at 10.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 9: Wake at 12:21, then 5:20, then 7:20 and up at 8 to shit, breakfast on meusli and toast and take THIRTEEN pills, one Buspar at 8 and one at 9, then phone Laird, shower, pack for his place, and though he said he'd be herre at 9:35 for Lipizzaners at 10:30, I finish this at 9:55 and still no sign of him as I sit at open door waiting for him OR Wolf to return from "hardware store where he may see customers." His girl neighbor is over at 10 to work, as companion, to him. Water sprinkler going in sun, toe cramped in Wolf's black shoes, sweater still comfortable, my hair about dry, and Laird arrives at last at 10:15, but it's LITERALLY fifteen minutes away, so we buy tickets, look prematurely into paddock, get third row center seats after saying we're on waiting list for Courier Restaurant. Lipizzaner show is educational and tasteful, and Gus is nice to video, but they don't do ANY of the tricks with RIDERS on, so it's very stolidly low-key, and unsensational. Tea at break and photo paddock and Laird gets Gus's signature, and we're over to find we're served at the BAR. Good calimari and tomato soup, fabulous duck, good veal and mushrooms, COLD creme brulee and good ice-cream-cherry crepe. Good strong kirschwasser. Out at 2:30 and get lost following directions---we didn't know where to make LAST turn. Way out, then back and N1 and follow some OTHER route too far and back to 101 and I remember Wolf SAW it on the way to The Train, and THERE it is at 4 PM. In for python demonstration, lizards and monkeys and snakes, Burmese pythons really MOVING, and long-necked turtle is NOT Leonardo. Out at 5:15 and decide to just go home, after finding that his favorite Boerevos place is CLOSED at 5:45 when he said he was open til 7. Supermarket can't help. Home to throw HIS frozen Russian Boerevos and look at paper to see Olympics closing is at 8:15. Watch some TV, read through photography book, have dinner of peas and potatoes and bananas and rice and strawberries for dessert, and Olympics is good enough with talking heads, and I MISS sexy Philips ad on video. Getting to end of 24 hours of video! Laird to bed at 10 and I'm up to 12 watching fireworks at end, and ATLANTA is 100th anniversary! Bed at 12:10.