Rain is probably worth more than diamonds in Botswana. There are plenty of the diamonds here. But not so much of rain.

It is held in such an esteemed position that the national currency, pula, literally means rain.

So it was with some disbelief that we absorbed all this information while on a game walk in almost torrential downpour. And even more so as I fell asleep to the sound of rain falling on my tent that night.

The pitter-patter was interrupted by distant roars. I could only assume it was a lion.

Other times, it was interrupted by some trumpeting much closer by. It wasn't until morning that we all found the unmistakable footprints carefully stamped around our tents.

"They very rarely would stomp on tents. They just think they're boulders." Mark, our guide, explained.


Somehow, one of these coming within one metre of the "boulder" that I'm in is still a scary thought.

Lodgings for the night was at Elephant Sands, a camp site close to Nata.  On our way here in the afternoon, we got caught speeding at 80km/h in a 60km/h zone. I am not entirely sure how accurate this was as we were not exactly caught by a speed gun. The local Botswana cop shop utilises a simple  a video recorder, one you would record your baby's first steps back in 1988. Perhaps they are very superior in physics equations and can work out the terminal speed, v, very quickly. Nevertheless, Mark talked his way out of a fine.

TIA. This is Africa.