The dreaded travel writers

The dreaded travel writers showed up last night. I presume they are travel writers. They are the first young, good-

looking men I have seen here in three weeks. They turned up at the bar last night looking grumpy, carrying a big camera, taking pictures of everything and not engaging in conversation no matter how hard we tried. Perhaps they were annoyed they were sent to deepest darkest Africa and not the assignment they wanted in the South of France! I found their complete grumpiness so amusing that I could hardly stop myself from laughing. They listened intently to the conversation over dinner, but not once joined in. This morning I saw them taking a photo of the food on the breakfast table. I asked them if they had taken lots of photos during their trip and one grunted “yes, 600 photos on the first day. That is our job.” Oh the intrigue. Also last night at the dinner table I found the first people who didn’t have a good time in Namibia. Everyone up until now has been waxing lyrical about the country and laughing off the various misadventures (luggage lost after it fell out the back of a safari truck, flat tires, bogging their cars in sand, etc). However the German couple last night were whining “Namibia is so expensive – for the price we are paying to stay here tonight, we could have stayed at the Ritz in Paris”. Or “it’s so hot and dry, one minute after you get out of the swimming pool you are completely dry, hot and sweaty again”, “the dry air makes my skin go horrible and my hair like straw”. Yes, all these things are true, but THIS IS AFRICA!!!! What on earth did they expect? Today is my “day off”. It is Sunday so there is no school. I missed my opportunity to take a morning hike. You have to plan to be back inside by 11am at the very latest, otherwise it is just too hot and unpleasant. Maybe I’ll take a walk to the dam for sunset instead and see if I can spot the rhino. Rhino tracks for the big male were spotted on the game drive yesterday, so he’s somewhere nearby.