Africa Journal

Friday, Oct 13, 1995


Farewells

There is time for one more early morning drive. We are driving before the sun is up. It is cold. Edward suggested we wear jackets. I ignore his advice, and become reacquainted with the sensation of goose pimples and chattering teeth. A hot breakfast, shower and pack, and everything and everyone goes into the Beast. At the Kalahari International Airport we watch the Hemingway Air Force come in for a landing. There are campers in an island of trees next to the strip. They are astounded to discover that they almost camped on a runway. The planes are filled with provisions for the next Hemingway tour, which will be arriving two days hence. We say our good-byes to Edward. As I get on the plane I ask him again if we were the best group. He laughs and says we were the best group so far. I think we overtipped.

We fly in formation to Maun. In Maun we lunch at Rileys, then next door to Harry’s Bar, where we drink under the gaze of stuffed Buffalo and Kudu heads. It is a fitting finish for the Hemingway Tour. I pick up a paper and read that OJ had been acquitted the week before after a four hour deliberation. Welcome back to civilization.

The International waiting room at the Maun airport is a Quonset hut with overstuffed chairs and electric fans. The fans are not much help as the temperature approaches 50 degrees C. (122 F.). The Air Botswana flight to Johannesburg is a fifty seat ATR 42 turboprop. This is the same plane that crashed in Indiana because of icing problems. Nobody is worried.


Maun

In Johannesburg we say our good-byes to Manfred and Emy, who connect to Durban for a week on the Indian Ocean, and then to Wayne and Kathy who are connecting through New York to home.

Tonight we stay at the Airport Holiday Inn. In the morning we fly to Capetown. I decide to try and get back into the net. I don’t have the correct connector for the phone in the room. No adapters are available. Bruce at the front desk is very helpful and suggests that the phone line behind the Concierge desk might work. It does have the right physical connection, and I am able to dial into the local CompuServe line, but it has a different log-in script, and I cannot get the PPP connection to work. I am unwilling to take the economic risk of another long call back into the US, as I now have quite a backlog of entries to send in. Another failed attempt. Maybe Cape Town.

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