When I told my friends that I was going on safari, they were all super jelly... and I loved it! Everybody was too scared to travel with all the Covid-19 protocols and was afraid of being stuck far away from family. I guess these are legit concerns, but Ron and I were drawn towards the idea of being remote, in wide-open spaces and being waited on from dusk to dawn. Seriously, after being stuck indoors and me having to cook up a storm, a change of scenery was exactly what we needed. So Tessa, our travel agent, booked us on a two weeks safari getaway! Dog sitter booked and we were off...

We arrived in Maun, Botswana and were whisked away in a charter flight to our two weeks safari break. I remember being greeted by the warmest smiles and by staff who were so happy to see us. The cook gave us the biggest hug as she wasn't able to contain her excitement to meet us. Even though it was our first time on safari in Botswana, we felt instantly at home... but with great perks! By day two, we knew everybody by name and they knew all about our family from grandkids to the dogs, hahahahaha!! They knew what food we liked and catered to our heart's desire. We were treated to folklores, old wives' tales and superstitions in their culture.

I thought I would have killed Ron after the first week... but surprisingly not. In fact, we seemed to have reconnected. It must have been all the fresh air and just being emersed in nature. Our ranger taught us how to take amazing wildlife photos. We had listened to lions roar at night and watched stars falling from the sky. We read books, talked for hours, dined in different settings each night and drank the most amazing wines from the Cape in South Africa (our next visit by the way). My biggest achievement was going on a mokoro... it took so much out of me to get into one of those dug-out tree boats, but when I did, I absolutely loved it!! 

Our choice was not to do a traditional African experience, but just to soak Africa up into our souls and we are so glad we did. We made these two weeks just about ourselves, for the first time ever. We are now officially safari snobs... because nowhere else mattered. And now, a few of our friends are planning to have the exact same experience.