So Thursday rolled around once more and that meant freight day. Our driver (KB) and I packed ourselves into the utility vehicle and headed down the bouncy road in a north westerly direction to our airstrip, known in Setswana as Lebala.

The journey takes about 40 minutes and the track is mostly sandy, weaving through grassy flats and wooded groves, filled with green leafy fever berry trees. (We were yet to experience the side effects of these trees, but apparently they have a reputation to send people into fits of sneezing and fever when the worms start to eat the leaves). When we approached the gravel airstrip we could see a mass of brown across the runway. Drawing closer revealed them to be wildebeest that soon dispersed with the sound of our rattling vehicle. Then KB noticed a sandy brown bob to the far left in front of us, lion he laughed, but then dismissed himself. We drove closer and could soon see the tell-tale flick of a tale, there was not one but two male lions sleeping at the side of the runway. We took the airstrip radio from its box and called the pilot who had just looped above us.

“Golf Uniform November, come in for Lebala”

“Good morning go ahead”

Mona tau, mona tau on the airstrip, you copy?”

The pilot had circled the airstrip and now descended in line with the runway beneath him. Nearly 10 meters off the ground and at what seemed to be the last minute the plane pulled up again into the sky. The lions who had been watching the landing plane intently jumped up, looking peeved that their nap had been disrupted. They flopped down again barely a meter from where they had been originally. After another loop of the sky above the pilot made another attempt to clear them having a little more luck with the second go. Would it be third time lucky?

This time the pilot decided to land from the other end of the airstrip which gave him enough time to land before he would reach the lions. Upon landing the fast moving wheels of the plane on the gravel was enough to budge the persistent lions who ducked for cover behind a grassy mound.

The plane made its way to the end of the runway and at last we were able to start unpacking our fresh delivery. Now you don’t get that at Tesco’s!

20.02.17