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| "Salama" loaded and ready to roll |
Why do last minute arrangements take so long? it is because the dialogue goes something like this - Where should I put this? have you got Panado? that will not be safe there, leave space for this, don't forget that. Seriously though everyone has played their part. Richard had fun and games sorting out the DVD player we are taking along for Sinead, thanks to Karen, it will probably only give her 15 minutes of distraction every now and again, but better than nothing. It is starting to feel like the plan is coming together and if nothing else we are certainly going to look the part.
I am hoping for an 08h00 start tomorrow when we head out for Martins Drift border post with Botswana and just over the border we stay the night at Kwa Nogeng Lodge on the banks of the Limpopo the Setswana name means At the River. I liked the Rudyard Kipling quote from "The Elephant's Child" on their web site; "My father has spanked me, and my mother has spanked me; all my aunts and uncles have spanked me for my "satiable curiosity; and still I want to know what the Crocodile has for dinner!"
Then the Kolokolo Bird said with a mournful cry, "Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees and find out." Well I am not sure if we will find out what the crocodile has for dinner but at least we have been warned.
Africa Safari 2013 begins tomorrow 15th July 2013.
For the Traveler From Karen
ReplyDeleteEvery time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.
New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.
When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:
How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.
When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.
A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.
May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.
~ John O’Donohue ~