In the Okavanga Delta in Botswana we left the truck for a few days and travelled for about two hours by mokorow to a tented camp. The villagers with their poles, like a punt, quietly steered us through reeds along channels carved by hippos. Mokorows used to be carved from whole tree trunks but now most are made of fibreglass.
In the camp (no electricity, no air-con, etc.) each tent had a screened extension in which a deep hole in the ground had a seat placed over it and also a tripod structure to support a bucket shower. It was whilst I pulled the leaver and allowed a few droplets of cold water to fall on to my upturned face while I was being challenged by the scorching sun (it was at least 42 degrees C) that I experienced a 'Thoreauesque' moment (you will recall the American transcendentalist who built a hut on the edge of Walden Pond in order to experience a divorce from western materialstic life). There was I, totally by myself, under the blazing sun, in a naked natural state, with the source of all life cooling my body, surrounded by wilderness, looking up into a huge space somewhere in this vast openess which is Africa. It was a magical feeling.
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