July 13

RENAE:
Last night we camped for probably the last time in the bush along a sand road with no city noises or people near us. For miles and miles and miles. And actually, now that I think about it, there weren’t any animal noises either. It was slightly eerie, seeing as every other night there were the roaring of lions, barking of baboons, coughing of monkeys (they sound exactly like Gollum), bulling of frogs (?), and whistling of doves to put us to sleep. I really extremely love the bush. I will miss it a bunch. I think I’m gonna cry when I leave. I love this land.

Anyway, as Travis said we went to Tsodilo Hills to see a bunch of old Bushmen paintings on the rocks. There are over 4,500 discovered so far, but we obviously didn’t see them all. They’re pretty amazing, seeing as they were here for thousands of years and just painted on with berries and bone marrow and whatever else they had. So yes it was a very eventful day—we hiked into the hills to view these masterpieces, visited a small Bushmen village nearby, and then headed on our way to Shakawe to meet some of my parent’s old friends. Then we went to a pretty high-class campground along the river here (in Shakawe). Monkeys infest this place as well, but are a good source of entertainment, especially the babies that sometimes don’t make the jumps from tree to tree. I’m pretty sure they throw things at us too, but no one else believes me. We also learned that there is a hippo that likes to come out of the water at night and walk around the campground. I hope he doesn’t sit on our tent and smush us.
Renae