Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

We had awakened before dawn during a Botswana winter month, and quickly huddled into a land cruiser with hot water bottles on our legs and a flannel-lined tarp wrapped around us. We were amazed to see lions and zebras. By late afternoon we were warmer, and had also seen giraffes and elephants, birds and more birds. It was all very magical. But when we came upon a pod of hippopotami, they just yawned at us. They had finished a day of mud baths, and were totally relaxed. Back at our campsite that evening, we crawled into a bed that was enveloped with a mosquito net. The veil of the net calmed us, and like the hippos, we yawned. We slept deeply. Back home some nights, we toss and turn. But we remember the hippos. We yawn. And then we go to sleep.