What a life?! In paradise!?

As a reaction on my first blog post, The Selinda Spoilway, I received a message from a friend saying we have a great life and I can't agree more. On this blog I will not only write about our travels and adventures but also about living and working in Botswana. In the past I only wrote about traveling. According to some people we are on a permanent holiday, which I understand if you look at our life from the outside but which unfortunately is not true. Yes, we live a good life, or better a great life but we also need to work for an income. We even work harder or better more than we ever did in Belgium. Our life now is a life of extreems and our work is blended into our everyday life. Long time ago when I was still in Belgium every body was talking about the work/life balance, I never believed in that. It's al about how it blends for me, sometimes our blend is bad, sometimes good and other times perfect, depending on what is happening and that is completely fine.

No matter where you live or what you do, every place and job comes with advantages and disadvantages. Everybody has their own preferences and what's important to them. We are all individually responsible for making our lives happen and living our dreams. 

The red dot is where our house is located

Life in this part of the world is a life of extremes in my opinion, it can be a life in paradise or the oposite. Some basic things what we were used to can be a struggle like water, fuel, electricity, wifi, food, ... Before I never had any gratitude for these things, I took everything for granted. Now we have learned the hard way that you can do without. I read in the newspapers that there is no electricity in a city in Europe for some hours and the whole country is complaining or when a train departs 2 minutes to early in Japan the whole government has to apologies. It's all about what you are used too. But the more you have the less you see what you have.

Let me talk about the basic needs. Electricity, the longest we have been without is 5 days in a row, I don't have to tell you what it does with your freezer. One could buy a generator but for now we refuse to, we always make a plan. That's how it goes here, for everything which is not working out we just make a plan. Water, we are sorted, we have a borehole. Maun can be days without water, especially with the drought we had these last 2 years. Now the river is flowing again through Maun so you would think that is sorted but no it isn't. Wifi, slow but working and wildly expensive. Botswana is in the top 5 worldwide of costly wifi connections. The heat, I love it and I can cope very well with it. I now struggle with the cold. Winter can be freezing cold for us, sometimes just 22 degrees during the day and 3 at night. I realize coming from Belgium this sound ridiculous but your body adapts quickly. I remember last year we had a friend over and he was sleeping straight underneath the aircon and we were sleeping under a feather duvet. Food, easy, you cook with what you find, the good thing is you never need a shopping list, you buy what is there. 

But, it is what it is, my reality is that we live in paradise. Hippos are living in front of our house and snorting throughout the night. We wake up with the sound of the fish eagles patrolling their territory. We have elephants walking over our driveway. The sun shines every day. Our community is one of respect and friendliness. Life in the fast lane doesn’t exist here, only the now lane. No traffic jams, we call 5 cars in front of us busy traffic. Our relationships with friends and family were never so intens or close. We learn every day about nature and humanity. 

Daily we walk the floodplain with our two beautiful dogs (Monster - named after the cookymonster, always fighting for food when he was a puppy - and Spotty - as she is spotted and a diva). Every time I walk over the same pathway I realize how fortunate I am to live here and I'm proud that we made it happen. Our garden is the Okavango Delta, probably the most pristine wildlife area in the world and it's 45 minutes drive from our house. 

The question we are asked the most is; "Will you stay there?" ... Who knows what the future brings and we live in the now ... who would have imagined 2020 being what it is so far.

More than ever we live our dreams.

The Selinda spoilway!

Since May the lockdown has eased up in Botswana and slowly lodges in the Okavango Delta are opening for local tourism. The government of Botswana is really pushing for local travel which is great. A lot of companies are putting out special prices into the market to attract local travellers. Normally most Botswana lodges will charge more than 1000 USD per person per night even up to 4000 USD a night. This is way above our budget so those luxury lodges are normally only accessible for us when we get a FOC (free of charge). As prices are a fraction of the normal cost it's time to start discovering some new places. We spent a lot of time in our own lodges off-course (www.africanbushcamps.com) but that is not the same, when we are there, we constantly work. It's very difficult, nearly impossible to spend a holiday in your own lodge. In later posts I will talk more about my job and the place I work.

First on our list is a lodge from Great Plains, a company running many very fancy lodges. We have booked a room (you can't call it a room ... rather a grand suite) in Selinda Camp. The camp is accessible by road but it is a 7 hour drive or you can fly in 40 minutes, easy decision. Perfectly on time we check in for our flight. In normal times the very small airport of Maun is full (still not sure what everybody means by normal and where I can find the definition of normal. Normal means something different for everybody in my opinion). Before we leave I have a quick meeting in front of the airport with a business contact. Not much time for it as we have to leave. We are flying together with an Indian couple from Gaborone (capital Botswana, 900 km south of Maun) in a Caravan (not a draghut - literal translation from sleurhut - like most people from the Netherlands have) but a Cessna type of aircraft, a 10 seater airplane. The flight goes over the Delta full of water. The Indian couple is extremely excited and very much in love. The views are spectacular but we live here and saw it many times (In normal times, my normal times, I fly nearly weekly over the Delta). So I catch up on some work and do some Portuguese lessons. The flight is uneventful and the touchdown smooth. We are welcomed by Reuben, our transfer guide, who will bring us to Selinda Camp. It takes around an hour to get there over sandy roads and through beautiful landscapes. On the way we find a pack of lions, 13 in total. 3 lionesses with 7 cubs of 6 months old and 1 lioness with 2 tiny cubs of maximum 3 months old. Seen they were born during lockdown they are not used to cars. So for them it's not normal to see cars, for the other cubs it's normal, so normal is what is normal to you!? 

The welcome is hearty and immediately we are both blown away by the view and the beauty of the lodge. The main area is spacious and full of grandeur. The room is stunning with a private pool. Its way too cold to swim, winter here, but it's nice to look at. On arrival we have to wash our hands and we are introduced to the covid rules which we know by now and is our new normal!?

The drives are great and always stunning, full of wildlife and the landscape is magical. We share the car and our guide Joe with a farming couple from Ghanzi (town 300 km South East from Maun). They like to go out in the mornings and we in the afternoon. Perfect mix so we always have a private drive. The Indian couple has their own guide and car as he is proposing to her. Katrijn saw this coming, I didn't at all. I don't know if that is normal or masculine, probably both. 

We spend 3 nights at Selinda and it's superb. Food which is very important for us is very tasteful, colorful, surprising and announced like in the best restaurants in the world. Every morning we do yoga and a meditation session  on our deck in the morning sun. Service impeccable. Life is good. Katrijn says... "I can't find anything which I can fault" ... first time this happens. The absolute highlight is seeing the water pushing into the Selinda Spilway (river) which was dry for some years. At the tip of the creeping water over the bone dry sand is a huge gathering of bird life trying to get the fish and froggs that are traveling with the water. It is pure magic to see this happen. It brings a whole area back to life. Water is life. The ecosystem of the Okavango Delta is a fascinating subject, I will do a blog post later about it.

Return to reality is quick and hard as this is a place you don't want to leave. Flying back to Maun is slightly bumpy and easy and I go back to my normal of sending messages and doing Portuguese. We say goodbye to the Ganzi couple and  the nearly weds. They all want to share contact details, I'm not interested in this. Nice to spend time together but that is enough, if life wants we will meet again. For sure we will go again.