I think we humans must always have considered flight as something magical. After all, we can travel easily over the ground but without some supporting device are unable to leave it. Consider how many mythical creatures have the power of flight, from fairies to winged horses to dragons.
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One of the (many) things I have missed during the pandemic has been that little frisson of excitement I feel when arriving at the airport to take off on a trip. Excitement tinged with a touch of anxiety too – not about flying (I love flying) but about the little details of a trip. Have I remembered everything? Did we lock the back door? Are we on time?
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Once you have been in a hot air balloon, and loved the experience as I did, you will seize any opportunity to fly again. Leonardo da Vinci had it right, even though he himself had never flown, when he said, 'Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.'
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Sometimes how you travel to a place can be as much fun as the place itself. The small planes that serve the various camps in Botswana’s Okavango Delta operate much like buses, dropping off and picking up passengers along the way. For some people, a flight in a small prop plane would be their worst nightmare; for me it was almost as much of an attraction as the destination itself!
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The indigenous name for Victoria Falls is Mosi-oa-Tunya or The Smoke that Thunders, and it is a fitting name. The constant spray is as thick as smoke, and the roar of the water is indeed like thunder.
