Houston, we have a problem

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

When flying small planes, visibility is necessary. There are rules regulating these things and when the rainy season is staying longer than expected, it becomes quite uncertain whether you will make it to you destination or not. The Okavango Delta is a quite huge area that is very beautiful also from above. But as we are following the rivers into the city where we will clear customs and immigration into Botswana, the clouds are dropping lower and lower. With half an hour left, hearing other pilots on radio not getting a visual reference of the runway, despite they are just a kilometre away, we decide to turn around to not get caught in the middle of the clouds. We find another field close by and realise that it is full of cows, horses and donkeys. There is a bush flying technique for that and the animals slowly move away from the strip. Well, except for the donkey. "I land behind the donkey", my husband says and lands. We park the plane and look around us. We are in the middle of nowhere and have no plan what-so-ever. It is tremendously stressful. We speak to the control tower in the city, who says it is slowly getting better, we speak to the lodge that is expecting us saying that we probably won't make it there today and we speak to our agent. We decide to go for one more try before the sun sets and the last thing the agent says is that if you won't reach the city, try for your destination in the delta.

The animals are back at the airstrip and this time it is a cow that has to be rounded before taking off. It is 40 minutes to sunset and 42 minutes to the airport. We get closer and closer, flying lower and lower. With 15 minutes left it is impossible to continue. We turn around again and realise that we have seven minutes to our final destination. It might be smarter to land there and then sort everything out with the authorities. We are looking around for the airfield and are almost missing it. It is a 800 m muddy airstrip in the middle of the Okavango swamp. Antelopes are eating grass on the side of it and there are puddles everywhere from the rain. We land and park the plane. It is getting dark in just a few minutes. We are happy to be at a known place, though, and take our phones to call the lodge only to realise that we have no reception at all.  It should be close by, but we didn't see it form above and it is a bad idea starting walking in the dark in the Okavango area. This is a place quite crowded of crocodiles, lions, hippos and elephants. My husband is using the plane radio to try to reach out, however we are slowly accepting the fact that we will stay in the plane for the night. We have water, we have food and we have warm clothes. It isn't too bad. Tomorrow we will sort everything out. It is 6.30, it will be a long night. However, it is okay. Then we see the headlights from the jeep. They heard us coming and we have probably never been so happy ever. It felt like being rescued, even though we were in no emergency.

"You see, one loves the sunset when one is so sad."

The day after is equally cloudy. The lodge get phone calls from its head office that they need to force us to fly into the city. We refuse to and the atmosphere is getting more and more charged. We try to explain to them and we talk to a commercial pilot who has a more accurate weather report. They slowly start to understand. The clouds are climbing and we give it a try. We explain to the authorities, apologise, get our stamps, reapair a bad brake on the plane, fuel up and are two hours later ready to go back to the delta. The start is so slow, though, and just above the airfield my husband says: "We have a serious problem." The wing flaps are stuck and we need to land immediately. The tower helps us down and we go directly back to the maintenance bay. They are closing. It is getting dark. They will help us. Tomorrow. And we are stuck in a small city, having left all our stuff at the lodge. Knowing that the most amazing place is 20 minutes away, however, we can't make it. Not today. And the only good thing is, apart from being safe when the plane broke down, that we at least are legally in the country... 

"Sometimes, there is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day."

Quotes from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
All the posts about Flying Souther Africa as the little prince.