Hello from the UK! Firstly, can I please apologise in advance if any of this particular post gets rambly or just stops making sense? I’m currently on a train on my way back to university after travelling so far for 31 hours and have had a sum total of about 6 hours sleep in the past 55… My brain is very much in a fog right now… I probably should just have a nap instead of working on my laptop, but something happened on my journey which made me want to write this.
Enjoying the Boteti River views as the zebras returned to join the elephants
Travelling alone is always more nerve-wracking, at least for me, than with someone else, so I have a slight tendency to just start up conversations with friendly-looking people when waiting at airports. This is even more the case when you have had multiple correspondences from your booking agent/airline in the past week, all of which suggest that you will be taking a different flight – I arrived at the airport knowing only the date and my final destination, but with no idea of what time my flight would be leaving, which airline was running said flight, or the route I would take. This provided the ice breaker for my first two conversations with the two other couples to whom this had happened, and we navigated Gaborone airport together (and a good thing we did or I would definitely have missed the connection – the gate was still showing the screen for the previous flight going in completely the wrong direction so I didn’t try to board, and we only just realised in time and got there just as they were closing the gate!) and then also had the particularly fun experience of getting on a plane without an assigned seat and having to just guess random seats and hope we didn’t get chucked out by another passenger until we found the five spare seats on the plane. AAH!!
A yellow mongoose in the park that we saw this week. Totally unrelated to the story, I was just proud of the photo!
Anyway, while these were all lovely people with whom I had some great conversations about safaris and my research (and if by the weirdest miracle any of you ever read this, please do drop a reply – would love to chat again sometime!), they are not actually the ones who inspired this post. No, where I really found something important enough to be worth me not sleeping right now came from the conversations I had with people once I reached Johannesburg airport. Very different conversations, but with the same two overarching messages: 1) sometimes actually just having a chat with a stranger is a really great thing to do, and 2) Africa is just the most magical place that everyone should experience at some point if they can, and I want to try and explain what I think it is that makes it so wonderful.
My first conversation in Jo'burg was with a couple of vets who work at a UK university also on their way home from a research trip, and who, as it happens, have previously worked in the exact area where I have been since August (even staying at the same camp at one point!). As a student, it can sometimes be quite daunting talking to professors about their work, and even more so about your own, but when the conversation starts naturally and you only later realise that these are not just another couple of friendly tourists, you’ve sort of already got past the fear and it makes it so much easier to get into a proper discussion. The outcome of this was the discovery that they have many times had to transport samples similar to mine from various African countries back to the UK, and know the permits process inside out. I can say with confidence that if you haven’t tried to move dung from a protected species across borders before, finding out exactly the permissions you need and from who and how to apply for them is really not easy to do! Who’d have thought I would need FIVE separate permits just to get them out of Africa, and who knows how many for British import?! These two were both incredibly helpful and gave me their contact details with many offers to help in any way they could to help ease the process for me. I saw them again at the gate, and later at baggage collection, and each time they checked up to make sure I was OK and again offered further advice. Networking is so much a part of being a scientific researcher, and this was a networking opportunity I never expected but which has the potential to really ease my sample transport. Chatting with strangers? Great thing to do!
The vets had been working on zebra research in the Makgadikgadi Pans
My fourth and final conversation with a random stranger was a lady who was struggling to contact her children whom she knew would be worried about her, to tell them that she was at the gate. I ended up lending her my portable power bank and texting her daughter for her from my own phone, and got to chatting while we waited for her phone to charge. I’m not going to give any details of the conversation, as it’s not my story to tell, but essentially due to tragic circumstances she had been forced to move away from Africa. She approached me because she needed to charge her phone, but I think actually by just keeping her company while waiting for the flight I helped far more than I did by lending her some power. We can’t see how anyone is feeling on the inside, but sometimes just good old plain being nice to people is the most valuable thing you can do. I know that sounds really preachy and bigging myself up but, if anything, it’s more that it made me realise how much time I often spend talking about myself and not asking how other people are. While our conversation was not always a cheerful one, I felt really good afterwards knowing that I had been able to support this total stranger at a time when she really needed it. Chatting with strangers? Still a great thing to do.
Again, not a relevant photo, just one I wanted to share.
The happier part of that second conversation was the prompt for the need to try and explain why Africa is so amazing, and pinpoint just what it is that triggers “The Africa Bug”. I am yet to find someone who has visited this incredible continent and afterwards said “never again” – we all experience it once, only to realise that once can never be enough. You catch the bug, you have to come back. Talking about this both proved to me just how much I didn’t want to leave, and really cheered her up to hear my enthusiasm for the country and continent she has called home for her whole life. As a behavioural ecologist totally obsessed with elephants, of course the wildlife is a huge part for me. In comparison to the UK, the animals are just so much more exciting than we have at home: We have a few semi-wild ponies? They have zebra and giraffes and wildebeest. We have red foxes? They have lions, leopards, cheetah, wild dogs, jackals, bat-eared foxes, and a dozen other predators. We have deer? They have more antelope species than I care to try and count. Admittedly, some of their wildlife I find a little more than exciting – I can’t say I’ll miss having to watch out for snakes every time I walk anywhere, or bashing out my bedding, clothes and shoes every day in case a scorpion has crawled into them – but the incredible diversity of Africa is just absolutely stunning to me, and the excitement of going into the park every day with no idea of what today will bring is like a drug that I just can’t enough of (though of course I’m far too much of a goody-two-shoes to actually have a clue what that analogy feels like….). Every time I spend the day in camp is a missed opportunity to go looking for wildlife. It’s not just the animals either, the plant life is also amazing, especially as wet season raises its head and everything bursts into every shade of brightest green. But that’s not the be all and end all of it. My love for Africa goes so much further than just the views I’ve had in the National Parks. No, the true joy of Africa comes from the people. Kindness, joy and a general friendliness are an honest mark of all the people I’ve met – never once have I had a local colleague in Zambia, Zimbabwe or Botswana who I’ve not felt that, if I needed to, I could 100% turn to them in a time of crisis and they would help me in any way they possible could. Thankfully I've never had to test that theory, but it's a true joy to know these people and share their love for their land, culture and one another. I don't know how else to describe it. Africa is a wonderful place, but it is the people who live there that make it truly magical, and unlike anywhere else I've ever experienced. I recently saw a quote from Richard Mullin which went "The only man I envy is the man who has not yet been to Africa... for he has so much to look forward to.". At the time I didn't agree - I didn't think I could envy a lack of time spent on this incredible continent, but then my partner came to visit me in Botswana a couple of months ago, travelling to Africa for the first time, and watching his delight at the experience made me understand the quote perfectly. It's the weirdest sensation to both wish I could remember every tiny detail of every moment I've spent in Africa and treasure it forever, while also wishing I could erase the whole thing so that I could have that first experience all over again.
The most wonderful group of people that I could ever have asked to work with ❤️ Thank you so much Elephants for Africa, it's been an absolute privilege to work with and get to know you all, and I miss you already!
And now I’m having a nap. Goodnight!
Did you know lions can sleep for up to 20 hours per day? I think that might be me for the next few days!
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