It was a crispy morning when I awoke, and like a child I amused myself for quite a while breathing "smoke" out of my mouth and nostrils, just as an indication of how cold it was out there. I opened up the side flaps of my tent so that I could gaze out into the bush from the relative warmth of my bed and watch the first sun beams hit the ground. It had been a quiet night, or else I just slept very well, but there had been no hyena or lion calls. Soon it was time to be brave and get out of bed and get dressed in cold crispy clothes and head for the camp fire and hot coffee. We sat around and chatted whilst breakfast cooked. It was around this time, whilst everyone compared notes of their night in the bush, that it dawned on me that I had missed out on something. Everyone else had snuggled up in the night with a couple of hot water bottles. Feeling somewhat smarted I declared that I hadn't been given ANY hot water bottles in my bed. But as the words were coming out of my mouth I started to realise the possibility of what had happened !! Which I confirmed DID happen when I went back to my tent to collect my bag and saw 2 hot water bottles sitting on the deck .... I had slept in the wrong bed !!! The "turned down" bed with one blanket was not turned-down at all, it had been robbed to place extra blankets on the bed that was warming up with two hot water bottles in in !!! So my nice warm bed had an empty night whilst I slept in the cold crispy bed. What a twit - and I hadn't even been drinking !!! Breakfast, which was presented in the form of a full-on hearty bacon and eggs fry up, was gratefully devoured. On a previous excursion in the Sports Car some years previously (where we ended up as a tiny speck in the sky some 9 kms up, flying over the rugged Drakensberg Mountains, before being threatened by the military .... but that's another story...), I had been informed by knowledgeable Pilot that it is better eat than not eat before flying to keep air-sickness at bay, so I was more than happy to clean my breakfast plate. Once packing was completed and good byes said, we strolled down the path to the airstrip to get ready for departure. The entire staff, guide and guest all came to say goodbye !!! Pre-flight checks done, I confidently strapped in knowing that I was feeling ready for this flight. We had a lovely take-off and (you'd have thought I would have learnt something the day before ...) said
"We must give them a fly past to say goodbye". Huh !!!!!! We circled around and came in really low to give them my royal wave. The next thing I knew we were screaming upwards at what seemed a straight vertical line - I had no control over my body position as G-forces took over !!!!! Maybe I should re-phrase that ...
I was screaming !!! At the top point Pilot swooped us into another turn, causing more screaming and hysterical laughter, as we gained a little more height and flew back over the camp. I was trying to take photos, but couldn't hold anything - myself or my camera - in what even resembled an upright position. Pilot then warned me that there was a sharp left turn coming up, which brought on a case of nervous giggles and eyes glancing around tiny cockpit to look for something to hold on to (there isn't anything, by the way). He counted down 5,4,3,2,1 into the sharp left turn. Flippin' heck, he wasn't joking .... I screamed, cried, laughed my way around the "corner". After he had finished his fun, he asked "where's the railway line?", presumably to follow it back to town, and it was vaguely a few kilometres behind us, which I kind of managed to indicate !! We got on the flight path back to Bulawayo, which was a straight line from there right to the runway !! We hit a few air pockets here and there - I can't tell if we were going up or down, but I do know that my stomach wasn't in the same place as the rest of me - but they weren't too serious, no worse than the "Octopus" of Luna Park fame !! (but just as scarey !). We landed easily and taxied in. Somewhere around this time, Pilot declared to Passenger that if she could handle such turns and bumps as that flight had, then she was "okay" !! Well, thank you ....
It was a crispy morning when I awoke, and like a child I amused myself for quite a while breathing "smoke" out of my mouth and nostrils, just as an indication of how cold it was out there. I opened up the side flaps of my tent so that I could gaze out into the bush from the relative warmth of my bed and watch the first sun beams hit the ground. It had been a quiet night, or else I just slept very well, but there had been no hyena or lion calls. Soon it was time to be brave and get out of bed and get dressed in cold crispy clothes and head for the camp fire and hot coffee. We sat around and chatted whilst breakfast cooked. It was around this time, whilst everyone compared notes of their night in the bush, that it dawned on me that I had missed out on something. Everyone else had snuggled up in the night with a couple of hot water bottles. Feeling somewhat smarted I declared that I hadn't been given ANY hot water bottles in my bed. But as the words were coming out of my mouth I started to realise the possibility of what had happened !! Which I confirmed DID happen when I went back to my tent to collect my bag and saw 2 hot water bottles sitting on the deck .... I had slept in the wrong bed !!! The "turned down" bed with one blanket was not turned-down at all, it had been robbed to place extra blankets on the bed that was warming up with two hot water bottles in in !!! So my nice warm bed had an empty night whilst I slept in the cold crispy bed. What a twit - and I hadn't even been drinking !!! Breakfast, which was presented in the form of a full-on hearty bacon and eggs fry up, was gratefully devoured. On a previous excursion in the Sports Car some years previously (where we ended up as a tiny speck in the sky some 9 kms up, flying over the rugged Drakensberg Mountains, before being threatened by the military .... but that's another story...), I had been informed by knowledgeable Pilot that it is better eat than not eat before flying to keep air-sickness at bay, so I was more than happy to clean my breakfast plate. Once packing was completed and good byes said, we strolled down the path to the airstrip to get ready for departure. The entire staff, guide and guest all came to say goodbye !!! Pre-flight checks done, I confidently strapped in knowing that I was feeling ready for this flight. We had a lovely take-off and (you'd have thought I would have learnt something the day before ...) said 
"We must give them a fly past to say goodbye". Huh !!!!!! We circled around and came in really low to give them my royal wave. The next thing I knew we were screaming upwards at what seemed a straight vertical line - I had no control over my body position as G-forces took over !!!!! Maybe I should re-phrase that ... I was screaming !!! At the top point Pilot swooped us into another turn, causing more screaming and hysterical laughter, as we gained a little more height and flew back over the camp. I was trying to take photos, but couldn't hold anything - myself or my camera - in what even resembled an upright position. Pilot then warned me that there was a sharp left turn coming up, which brought on a case of nervous giggles and eyes glancing around tiny cockpit to look for something to hold on to (there isn't anything, by the way). He counted down 5,4,3,2,1 into the sharp left turn. Flippin' heck, he wasn't joking .... I screamed, cried, laughed my way around the "corner". After he had finished his fun, he asked "where's the railway line?", presumably to follow it back to town, and it was vaguely a few kilometres behind us, which I kind of managed to indicate !! We got on the flight path back to Bulawayo, which was a straight line from there right to the runway !! We hit a few air pockets here and there - I can't tell if we were going up or down, but I do know that my stomach wasn't in the same place as the rest of me - but they weren't too serious, no worse than the "Octopus" of Luna Park fame !! (but just as scarey !). We landed easily and taxied in. Somewhere around this time, Pilot declared to Passenger that if she could handle such turns and bumps as that flight had, then she was "okay" !! Well, thank you ....
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