A trip to the Tsodilo Hills in Botswana was a poignant reminder of how much we have lost in our sundered connection to nature.
The orange glow of the kerosene lamp flickered out over the still waters of the Okavango delta. An owl roosted in the darkness on a nearby branch. We were staying on the extreme western edge of the swamp. The next morning we were to set off for the remote Tsodilo hills. Elaine and Barry, who ran the lodge where we were staying had been to the hills countless times.
‘The road there is very rough,’ Barry told us. ‘You’ve got to change into low range and drive very slowly through the sand.’
‘I’ll draw you a map,’ Elaine said. ‘So you can see where to camp. A lot of wind blows around the bottom of the hills, circling through them.’ She shrugged in the lamplight. ‘The spirits, if you like.’
The next morning the heat hung in the air. Cicadas shrieked in the bush. The road to the hills was every bit as difficult as Barry had said. The engine of the Land Rover grew hotter as we battled our way through the shifting sand. It was made worse by the fact that the road is under construction. We met a couple coming the other way. ‘Keep going,’ the man said. ‘You’ll make it.’
‘Watch out for bees,’ his wife added. ‘There are lots of them there. There’s no water at the hills so if you leave any open water out they’ll swarm around you.’
The bees reminded me of another traveller who had made the Tsodilo hills and their resident spirits famous: Laurens van der Post. In his book, ‘Lost World of the Kalahari’, he describes how the mechanism of his cameras jammed and he and his crew were attacked by swarms of bees. They had, he found out, broken the ancient rules of the hills, by shooting a buck on their approach to the hills before asking the spirits permission. He wrote out a formal note of apology to the spirits, closed it in a lime juice bottle and buried it somewhere under one of the most beautiful panels of rock art painted on the rocky faces of the hills.
How much of Van Der Post’s story was true is debatable, and yet the aura of spirituality that surrounds these hills is legendary…
hamilton wende
Hamilton Wende is an author, journalist and TV producer. He has worked all over the world, covering historical events and some 17 different wars and conflicts. He is based in Johannesburg and travels from there. He has worked for a number of international networks including BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera. He has also reported on events in South Africa for the last three decades. He has published many articles in newspapers, magazines and websites around the world. He is the author of 9 books. House of War, Only the Dead and The King’s Shilling are thrillers based on his travels around the world as a journalist. His latest book Red Air is based on his experiences filming with the US Marines in Afghanistan. He has a master’s degree in Creative Writing from Wits University.
He is also the author of the popular children’s books: Arabella, the Moon and the Magic Mongongo Nut and Arabella the Secret King and the Amulet from Timbuktu which are set in Johannesburg and Knysna. He is working on the third volume in the series.
