Home » Botswana » Jul 24, 2004 Khwai River - Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana Part 2 - Conclusion

Pardon me for the interruption. I had to step outside for a moment to “gather my thoughts”. It feels as if there is a little more activity in the bush tonight. I’m hearing a sound that I can only guess is the troop of baboons near Stanley; or what could it be? There is a bird very close to us, I think in the tree overhanging our tent. I can’t hope to recreate the song in words, but it has a kind of “wind-up and pitch” aspect to it (“there’s the wind-up and therrrrrrrrre’s the pitch!”), to use what from me is a quite rare sports analogy. Then another sound I’ve never heard before; and now the recognizable grunt of a hippo... every so often the distant calls of hyena. There is a strange energy in the atmosphere. Perhaps it can be explained scientifically – waxing moon and increased illumination, barometric pressure, dew point, humidity – but the air feels different.

Jul 24, 2004 Khwai River - Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana Part 2 - Conclusion

Tom Schueneman
2006-03-27 15:40:37

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and what I was feeling. I stood there in the twilight and the whole world seemed contained here in the pools of the floodplain, the ring of trees along the horizon, and the unceasing wave of quelea. Making my way back to my compatriots, I saw that I was not the only one discovering their own private epiphany. We all stood awestruck facing the west. The camera shutters were mostly quiet now as everyone succumbed to the magnitude of nature’s benevolence in allowing us to witness the scene before us. The movements of each bird seemed directed by a life-force larger than any individual; the whole greater than the sum of its parts. It felt like a great big lesson was being told to us in the soft blue cast of twilight. Nature was smiling and asking only that we pay attention – just be still.

We stood there for fifteen or twenty minutes until the light became too faint for us to stay any longer. As we all climbed back into the trucks I noticed that Jayne had tears in her eyes. We were all quiet riding back into camp. But we were all joyous; there really is no other way to describe it – joyous.

Yes, there is definitely a feeling in the air tonight. It reminds me of the sound I hear inside my head sometimes; when I’m in deep contemplation, pondering whatever meaning I may find in this world, an internal dialog.

Nature is talking, calling out to its constituent parts; contemplating itself. I am blessed tonight because I feel as if I’m a part of it. You can’t go back to the Garden of Eden. But you can sit in a tent and listen to it softly calling.

When I started this entry I held out little hope for adequately expressing what we saw, heard, and felt this evening. I have truly lived up to those expectations. But if there is any sense left in the reader, even the tiniest measure, of the transcendence that was experienced out here along the Khwai River this evening; the feeling of unfathomable power found in everything that surrounds us, then I lay down my pen tonight satisfied.

We will leave here in the morning, and I will next report from the Savuti Marsh in Chobe National Park.

It is a good night here; and to all a good night!