2 Suitcases: Dear Kgalagadi: A Farewell Love Letter

21 August 2012

Dear Kgalagadi: A Farewell Love Letter

Dear Kgalagadi,

It's been a little while since we were actually there, but I wanted to say goodbye properly.

First, let me say that I am a city girl. Born and bred. As are my parents. As such, I have to admit I approached you with great trepidation. You were entirely foreign to me and I didn't know if we'd get along. But, oh, Kgalagadi. You worked your hot/dusty/rainy/cold magic on me, didn't you?

I have never been in a place of such austere beauty. Where I felt so close to the wind and silence.

I've found my inner nature freak thanks to you.

Thank you for every single animal sighting we had. From the hundreds of springhare at night to that one lion up a tree.

I love your jaunty little jackals ...

and the crazy ostriches.

All the cuties (the ground squirrels and whistling rats and meerkats ...)

and the huge herds of bokkies.

Thank you also for the impossibly fragile-looking steenbok. Seeing them always made me think: Looks are deceiving. Beauty flourishes even in the hardest places.

Your birds are the same. (That such tiny, lovely things thrive ... there, with you.) Thank you for every single technicolored bee-eater.

and all your raptors

and every other bird who "got away."

Thanks for reminding me so forcibly that nature is not here to serve us. That we are lucky to be in her presence. That we should speak up for her and protect her. That we should be grateful for the glimpses she allows us.

Thank you for every gasp as we came around a bend.

Oh. And a big shout-out for the giraffes. You know how I love my giraffes.

And have I told you about your sunrises and sunsets? How they make my heart go all a flutter and that if I believed in divine things, that's how I imagine them?