Our Last Night Together

We got back to the Lodge around eight and although I think the staff was pushing for us to have dinner right away, we announced we would like a drink and to get cleaned up first, which they graciously acknowledged. After a wine and a shower—by now the tent had cooled and truly was rather charming in its rusticity—we returned to the main lodge where tables had been set up on the lawn overlooking their own private watering hole where animals come and go all night. There were only a few other occupied tables so it was like having the place to ourselves.

We were in very good moods by then, in stark contrast to our earlier dark ones, and sitting down to a formally decked out table under the stars on the grass while an elephant sipped at the watering hole next door was really quite a magical moment. Never mind the bugs as big as birds which persisted in slapping us upside the head periodically, not to mention landing in our soup, where, with a flick of a spoon, they were easily ejected. We were now true bushmen and women. Worry about bugs? Nah! They don’t eat much. We got a case of the sillies and giggled our way through a delicious four course meal and plenty of wine.

We had figured out early on that extinguishing the candles, while making it difficult to see, did at least reduce the insect population somewhat, and so we were able to enjoy most of our meal relatively unscathed. We had a lovely time, many laughs, a few post mortems, and when it came time to retire we said good night knowing tomorrow was the end of our time together.

And sleeping in the tent really was a nice experience. It was so cool we didn’t even need the fan, and the jungle noises had a tranquillizing effect that put us right to sleep. In the morning, we awoke to some unusual but not unfriendly sounds, dressed, packed up, and had a wonderful cooked breakfast before leaving for Livingstone.