The silence of the bush or …

... maybe not!
Being raised in the city, I have grown fond of urban noises. They make me feel at home and surprisingly comfortable. However, while sitting on my porch or lying in my bed during the nights in South Africa I come to notice that these urban influences have always clouded or replaced a far more beautiful and pure noise; that of the wilderness. Most of the time it approximates a deafening silence, which is pleasantly coated by the sound of crickets. Almost every night, though, the typical laugh or howl of a hyena, the thunder like noise of a tree run over by an elephant or the roar of a lion breaks the silence of the night. Together with a night sky filled with a Milky way worth of stars it is hard to understand why we would ever live in the city.

This peaceful setting can however be ruthlessly changed by the arrival of 28 other guests (of which 16 Italians!) or other groups that stayed in the WOTC. No, I make it sound far worse than it really is. Truthfully, I like the company and especially the collective diners at night. Next to that we meet a lot of new people from whole over the world. I already collected 4 locations to crash if I am ever thinking of doing a journey around the world. In addition, the food is really great!

Occasionally though, there are no other guests at the camp then us. On those days we always plan a braai (a.k.a. bbq). It is really nice to sit next to a warm campfire during one of South Africa's cold winter nights enjoying ‘boerewors’ on a bun with mayonnaise listening to the silence of the bush...