The 'Rainy' Season Begins

After several days of stifling humidity, the rains have finally come, accompanied by peals of thunder. As I write, huge raindrops are thwacking the tent canvas with all the intensity of a Summer’s day back in Ireland. Outside, the air is cool and the sky seal grey. It’s the first time I’ve felt homesick.

It’s 9.30 am in the morning and I’m sitting in vault-like darkness (all the tent flaps are down), shoes caked in mud and feeling a damp chill. Can’t say it’s entirely unpleasant state of being, given that my body has been simmering on Gas mark 3 for the past couple of weeks.

Namibians love the rain, much in the same way the Irish wish for sunshine. The arrival of ‘rainy season’ which runs from October to April elicits a comparable feeling of relief and renewal. It’s the time of the year when everything turns from dust to green shoots almost overnight. It also marks the sudden appearance of extraordinary huge insects, who have spent the rest of the year, hiding in a gym and working out on steroids. (I almost trod on a ‘spitting’ beetle last night en route to the fridge. They spit acid in your eyes apparently!)

Elle and I spent the weekend away, lazing by the banks of the Kavango River in the western Caprivi, about 200km from here. She read or slept most of the time while I contemplated a pod of hippos, alternatively surfacing and submerging like a small submarine fleet. I find ‘hippo watching’ very soothing on the soul. Strange how a combination of wallowing, snorting and farty, tuba noises can have that effect. It’s also hard to believe these huge animals which look so gentle and relaxed in the water, kill more people in Africa than any other animal. (Elephants come a close second).

Gave a lift to a cyclist and thought there was something vaguely familiar about him. Turns out, we met each other years ago when we drank in the same bar in Cape Town. Nice chap if a little strange. Part Austrian which probably explains it. My joke about having a family in the basement didn’t go down well.

Camped beside a lovely couple from en route from London via Cairo to Cape Town. He is a former hedge funder, which provided some mirth and she a private jet air hostess working for an central African government minister which provided even more. They planning to get married in Cape Town in January.

PS: Have had no internet for past three days, hence no blogs!