D60…..Invasion

We finally bade farewell to Super and the team at Jacks. We dabbed at little water on this giant Zulus cheeks to make him seem more emotional….we did get a good chuckle from him for that, but I couldn”t say he got particularly emotional…..we had grown fond of him though over these few days.

And off we sped to Maun to meet the crowd. Disappointingly we arrived at the airport to little fanfare or crowd hysteria, just a stray dog and a little lady with her suitcase. Flight delays had spoiled the occasion. So we put the bikes to bed for a week and awaited the hordes who duly arrived 3 hours late at 3pm.  Half of Ineos, wives, girlfriends, daughters and families arrived in numbers. The airport was swamped and it would not have surprised me if the overloaded computers had packed up for the day! But it was fun to see old familiar faces and reacquaint with friends and family.

Our group arrived late at Mombo, in the heart of the Okavango Delta, and were promptly despatched for a sundowner in the little time remaining before sunset. Mombo did not disappoint. Jackals, a giant eagle owl, a hyena, an Egyptian mongoose, impala, kudu, lechwe were spotted en-route, and at the sundowner bar there stood 300 buffalo and 30 elephant having a stand off. It was a lovely sight and a splendid gin and tonic.

For me, as an aside, a somewhat pivotal day as I did manage to ride again, and without incident. I had not wanted to omit any legs of the journey but had had concerns whether I would be able to ride again any time soon. It was a tricky exit of fine sand from Jacks, but thankfully we all came through unscathed. Now 8 days of recuperation lie ahead.

Oh, and a group of owls??? A parliament of owls!! J