Laptop, in memoriam

Following a dead elephant, dead hippo, two break-downs with a car and all other unfortunately events of the past week or so, my laptop (or rather the laptop Iris had kindly lent me) decided to die too. A dead laptop is always an annoying / inconvenient / frustrating event, but when you're in the middle of nowhere with no Apple stores nearby (the rumour has it that there is one in Gaborone, the capital, only it's about 1350km away) it is a particularly frustrating one. In practice that means that I can't type up my diary anymore at the same rate that I used to, and then post it when I get to access the internet.

At first I was angry. It seemed really unfair that it should happen to me now, here, when writing was pretty much my only hobby. Then I panicked. No!!! I can't write anymore! No what do I do? Then I felt sad. Really, really sad. If I couldn't write, how could I survive? Then, after going through this range of emotions, I remembered that there was always pen & paper. Hmm. The way I used to keep a diary, in the olden days. I'm experimenting with that now.

I've also been thinking of alternative hobbies I could take up. The two most viable options are 1. weaving baskets and 2. making paper with elephant dung. So be warned, you may get some interesting souvenirs.

So now I'm typing this on Anna's laptop in her car, using the car battery to power the computer and a head torch to see the keys. We're camping tonight in a little village called Xakao where there's cellphone signal so I'm able to get online briefly. Next week we're finally off to Maun (we got slightly mixed up with dates...) which to me now represents the height of civilisation: they have an internet cafe and a big supermarket where you can, you know, buy stuff!

Thank for all your emails and comments - I'm not sure why you can't post on this as I've just checked all the settings and anyone should be able to comment without registering. Try again?

And I've still not seen an elephant. I bet you anything, I'll be the first elephant researcher in the history of, well, elephant research, who will leave her post in Botswana, the country with the biggest elephant population in the world (or at least in Africa), without seeing a single elephant.